Increased Land Cultivation Leading to Erosion

The policy pressures that contribute to the erosion from increased land cultivation include

- Inappropriate land tenure policies facilitating an expansion of cultivation in environmentally unsuitable areas
- Economies of scale in crop production that encourage land clearance in order to expand output
- Inappropriate input and output pricing policies including subsidies on feed. livestock products and various inputs including chemicals and pesticides
- Inappropriate or non-existent regulatory policies that fail to respect local natural resource management and environmental needs
- Reduced controls leading to changes in resource allocation, cropping patterns, increasing unit yields and cropping intensities, which have lead to increased erosion
- The lack of adoption and inappropriate environmental protection measures
- Inappropriate financial policies on various inputs, exchange rate and import/export policies
- Policies encouraging mechanised land clearing which can lead to high initial rates of soil loss.

Policy options that can lessen the environmental risks from increased land cultivation include
Environmental regulation:

- Improvements in the management of land resources including the adoption of policies supporting more sustainable development
- Policies and incentives to encourage the more efficient utilisation of existing land resources

Regulations to control land use (including restriction on use of cultivable areas considered to be at risk) and encourage soil conservation measures (such as contour ploughing and minimum tillage

Policy favouring crops whose erosion risks are lower

Zoning policies to restrict the encroachment of agriculture into forest and other environmentally sensitive areas

Adapting pricing, subsidy and taxation policies to reduce the level of subsidies on inputs and outputs and to ensure recovery of full cost of land utilisation and greater sustainable use of land resources

Investment and tax incentives to encourage more productive and sustainable use of existing land resources while discouraging expansion of cultivation into new areas

> > [Livestock & Environment Toolbox Home]