Overgrazing - Policy Pressures and Policy Options

The policy pressures that contribute to overgrazing in mixed farming communal grazing systems are of various types:

- Inappropriate land tenure policies that limit the grazing land available to mixed farming communities or inhibit its most sustainable use.

- Inappropriate financial policies:

- subsidies on feed as drought relief
- subsidies for dryland cropping
- exchange rate and import/export policies

- Lack of encouragement of banking institutions

Policy options that can lessen the risk of overgrazing in these systems are:

- policies on land tenure and related issues

- strengthening local natural resource management
- promoting conflict resolution mechanisms
- curtailing direct control of stocking rates
- introducing well-designed grazing fee regimes
- drought management policies

- financial policies to:

- remove subsidies on feed
- remove subsidies for dryland cropping
- create price incentives for offtake and for stratification.

The general discussion of:

- Crop-Livestock Integration - Policy Pressures nad Policy Options

may also be relevant.

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