Chapter 5: Food And Agriculture
improved irr
igation efficiency becomes essential to con
serve water supplies and prevent cropland damage from
excessive irr
igation. Micro-irr
igation techniques, suchas
dr
ip or tr
ickle systems that deliver water through per
forated tubes directly to crop roots, can greatly increase
irr
igation efficiency. The use of such methods grew
nearlyeightfoldbetween 1974and 1982,butstillaccount
for less than 1 percent of all irr
igated cropland. Less
expensive improvements, such as leveling cropland and
recycling excess water using pumps and ponds, can also
reduce water use. Water and energy use can be reduced
as much as 40 percent by releasing irr
igation water at
intervals instead ofcontinuously, allowing per
iodic wet
tings to seal the soil.109
tReduce Soil Erosion and Desertification
@ Promote Intensif
ied Food Product
ion on Fertile Land,
and Relieve Pressures on Marginal Lands. Nations
should increase the agr icultural capacity of fertile, less
fragile lands to help relieve pressure on marginal lands
and other more fragile and previously unused, usually
lower-potentialareas. Researchisneededin morefragile
agr
icultural areas to find less-destructive farming
methods. Infrastructure should be strengthened in the
more fragile areas to relieve environmental stresses
resulting from hunger in years of poor production, and
from lack of nonfarm jobs.110
110
@ Improve Yields of Indigenous Crops. Farmers should
make greater use of appropr
iate and environmentally-
sound technologies to increase the yield of local food
crops, especially in the Third World, in order to lessen
dependence on grain impor ts.111 It is also important t
o servation goals.
use indigenous crop varieties and animal breeds that are
well-suited to local conditions.
@ Improve the Efficiency of Farming Systems. Farming
systems should be made more efficient and sustainable
by avoiding overcropping (repeated plantings of the
same crop without a fallow per
iod between plantings),
andbythe useoftechniques suchasintercropping(grow
ing more than one crop on the same plot), sequential
cropping, crop rotation, and intensive yet careful use of
small plots that maximizes crop diversity. Intercropping
can help control weeds, improve soil-fertility, and make
crops less vulnerabletopests.112In developing countr
ies,
some low-input farming systems rely on a combination
of methods, many of them traditional, such as crop
rotation, shifting cultivation, the use of fallow per
iods,
and slash-and-bum clear
ing. Exper
iments show that
these methods generally preserve the diversity of
agroecosystems and contribute to sustainable food
production.113
@ Promote Agroforestry. Agroforestry techniques that
combine the planting of productive, multipurpose trees
with food crops should be implemented. Trees can pro
vide timber, fuelwood, food for people and animals, and
other products in addition to water retention, erosion
protection, soil enrichment and conditioning, and shade
to enhance other food crops. Tree planting can also
relieve pressures to cut virgin forests.
* Integrate Livestock and Food Crops. Mixed cropping
and animal husbandry systems should be employed in
regions with marginal landareas. Theadditionofanimals
to a farm provides moreprotein as well as wastes thatcan
be used to improve soil fertility.1,15 , . _, .
un/tow
The FAO has estimated that one-fifth of all potential
cropland could become useless or marginal unless long-
term conservation measures are taken. A high priority
should be given to the useoffarming methods that minimize
the loss of topsoil from cropland, including contour plow
ing, strip cropping, cover cropping, terracing, tree planting,
and the use of minimum tillage methods that limit soil
disturbance. Agr
icultural programs should be designed to:
* Maintain vegetative cover on cropland.
* Increase the organic content of soils to improve water
retention.
* Review commodity and water pr icing and other agr
icul
tural policies to ensure their consistency with soil con
* Limit livestock grazing on ar
id and semiarid lands.
* Intensify underused grazing systems in less ar
id areas,
especially in Latin America, to reduce conversion of
forests and cropland to rangeland.
* Use methods in tropical areas that protect the soil from
sun and rain, such as mulching and interplanting trees
and food crops.116
The World Bank recently reported on four years of field
tr
ials with vetiver grass as a means of reducing soil erosion
and increasing soil moisture. The grass will grow on prac
tically any soil, is resistant to pests, and forms a barr
ier to
erosion without encroaching into cropland. The grass is
being introduced in a number of World Bank programs in
Asia, Afr
ica, and Latin Amer
ica.117
In ar
id and semi-ar
id areas prone to desertification, ef
forts should be made to limit its major causes, including
overgrazing by livestock, deforestation, overcultivan'on of
marginalland, andsalinization from poorly-managed irr
iga
tion. When overgrazing causes ser
ious land degradation,
83