IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/taf/oxdevs/v29y2001i2p189-207.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Food Insecurity, Soil Degradation and Agricultural Markets in West Africa: Why Current Policy Approaches Fail

Author

Listed:
  • Niek Koning
  • Nico Heerink
  • Sjef Kauffman

Abstract

The agricultural sector in West Africa is not at present capable of meeting the growing demand for food for its population and of reversing unfavourable trends in soil degradation. We argue that integrated soil management is an essential condition for sustainable agricultural development in the many regions in West Africa where population pressure forces an intensification of land use. Such an approach combines improved soil-moisture storage measures, and the use of organic and inorganic fertilizers and soil amendments. The synergetic effects which could result from this combination are indispensable for achieving the productivity increases needed to cope with the pressure of population. Current (neo-liberal and ecological-participationist) policy approaches are unable to realize the transition towards integrated soil management technologies. The time lags involved in learning to use new technologies, in the adaptation of technologies to local circumstances, and in reaping the benefits of soil fertility investments call for (at least temporary) support of agricultural incomes.

Suggested Citation

  • Niek Koning & Nico Heerink & Sjef Kauffman, 2001. "Food Insecurity, Soil Degradation and Agricultural Markets in West Africa: Why Current Policy Approaches Fail," Oxford Development Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 29(2), pages 189-207.
    • Handle: RePEc:taf:oxdevs:v:29:y:2001:i:2:p:189-207
    DOI: 10.1080/13600810124747
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/13600810124747
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1080/13600810124747?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. McGuirk, Anya & Mundlak, Yair, 1991. "Incentives and constraints in the transformation of Punjab agriculture," Research reports 87, International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI).
    2. Pinstrup-Andersen, Per & Pandya-Lorch, Rajul, 1994. "Alleviating poverty, intensifying agriculture, and effectively managing natural resources.:," 2020 vision discussion papers 1, International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI).
    3. Scherr, Sara J. & Yadav, Satya N., 1996. "Land degradation in the developing world: implications for food, agriculture, and the environment to 2020," 2020 vision discussion papers 14, International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI).
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Vondolia, Godwin Kofi & Eggert, HÃ¥kan & Stage, Jesper, "undated". "Nudging Boserup? The Impact of Fertilizer Subsidies on Investment in Soil and Water Conservation," RFF Working Paper Series dp-12-08-efd, Resources for the Future.
    2. Niels Batjes, 2004. "Estimation of Soil Carbon Gains Upon Improved Management within Croplands and Grasslands of Africa," Environment, Development and Sustainability: A Multidisciplinary Approach to the Theory and Practice of Sustainable Development, Springer, vol. 6(1), pages 133-143, March.
    3. Shuhao, Tan, 2009. "Impact of Land Institutional Factors on Farm Management and Soil Quality," 2009 Conference, August 16-22, 2009, Beijing, China 51662, International Association of Agricultural Economists.
    4. Sheldrick, William F. & Lingard, John, 2004. "The use of nutrient audits to determine nutrient balances in Africa," Food Policy, Elsevier, vol. 29(1), pages 61-98, February.
    5. Conceição, Pedro & Levine, Sebastian & Lipton, Michael & Warren-Rodríguez, Alex, 2016. "Toward a food secure future: Ensuring food security for sustainable human development in Sub-Saharan Africa," Food Policy, Elsevier, vol. 60(C), pages 1-9.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Andam, Kwaw & Ahmed, Hanane & Richey, Jeffrey & Bruns, Bryan & Al-Wadaey, Ahmed, 2015. "Characterizing Rural Landscapes and Communities through Integrated Information: An Application to Yemen," 2015 Conference, August 9-14, 2015, Milan, Italy 210946, International Association of Agricultural Economists.
    2. Liu, Can & Wang, Sen & Liu, Hao & Zhu, Wenqing, 2012. "The impact of China's priority forest programs on rural households' income and income mobility," PEP Working Papers 164292, Partnership for Economic Policy (PEP).
    3. Sylvain Dessy & Jacques Ewoudou & Isabelle Ouellet, 2006. "Understanding the Persistent Low Performance of African Agriculture," Cahiers de recherche 0622, CIRPEE.
    4. Marie Balková & Lucie Kubalíková & Marcela Prokopová & Petr Sedlák & Aleš Bajer, 2021. "Ecosystem Services of Vegetation Features as the Multifunction Anti-Erosion Measures in the Czech Republic in 2019 and Its 30-Year Prediction," Agriculture, MDPI, vol. 11(2), pages 1-16, January.
    5. Harshi Gunawardana & Dammika A. Tantrigoda & U. Anura Kumara, 2016. "Humanitarian Demining and Sustainable Land Management in Post-Conflict Settings in Sri Lanka: Literature Review," Journal of Management and Sustainability, Canadian Center of Science and Education, vol. 6(3), pages 79-90, September.
    6. Pandey, Lalmani & Rao, P. Parthasarathy & Birthal, P.S. & Bantilan, Cynthia & Binswanger, Hans P., 2012. "Supply Response and Investment in Agriculture in Andhra Pradesh," Asian Journal of Agriculture and Development, Southeast Asian Regional Center for Graduate Study and Research in Agriculture (SEARCA), vol. 9(2), pages 1-16, December.
    7. Yuguo Lin & Chao He, 2021. "Evaluation of Livelihood Sustainability in the Context of Natural Forest Land Degradation Vulnerability: A Case Study of Five Counties in China," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(12), pages 1-16, June.
    8. Mundlak, Yair, 2003. "Economic Growth: Lessons From Two Centuries Of American Agriculture," Discussion Papers 14986, Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Department of Agricultural Economics and Management.
    9. Gill, Gerard J., 1996. "Agriculture and natural resource management," Journal of Asian Economics, Elsevier, vol. 7(2), pages 317-332.
    10. Singh, Nirvikar, 2015. "Punjab’s Agricultural Innovation Challenge," Santa Cruz Department of Economics, Working Paper Series qt4716p3vr, Department of Economics, UC Santa Cruz.
    11. Penning de Vries, F. & Acquay, H. & Molden, David & Scherr, S. & Valentin, C. & Cofie, Olufunke, 2008. "Learning from bright spots to enhance food security and to combat degradation of water and land resources," IWMI Books, Reports H041590, International Water Management Institute.
    12. Kerr, John M., 1996. "Sustainable development of rainfed agriculture in India:," EPTD discussion papers 20, International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI).
    13. Luciene Gomes & Silvio J. C. Simões & Eloi Lennon Dalla Nora & Eráclito Rodrigues de Sousa-Neto & Maria Cristina Forti & Jean Pierre H. B. Ometto, 2019. "Agricultural Expansion in the Brazilian Cerrado: Increased Soil and Nutrient Losses and Decreased Agricultural Productivity," Land, MDPI, vol. 8(1), pages 1-26, January.
    14. Scherr, Sara J. & Yadav, Satya N., 1996. "Land degradation in the developing world," 2020 vision briefs 44, International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI).
    15. Abler, David G. & Sukhatme, Vasant, 1991. "Indian Agricultural Price Policy Revisited," 1991 Annual Meeting, August 4-7, Manhattan, Kansas 271262, American Agricultural Economics Association (New Name 2008: Agricultural and Applied Economics Association).
    16. Michele De Benedictis, 2008. "Peasant Economy: Yesterday and Today," QA - Rivista dell'Associazione Rossi-Doria, Associazione Rossi Doria, issue 3, July.
    17. George N Karuku & Elijah K Mugo, 2019. "Land Use Effects on Lake Ol’bolossat Watershed Conservation, Nyandarua County," JOJ Wildlife & Biodiversity, Juniper Publishers Inc., vol. 1(2), pages 26-34, May.
    18. Subodh Chandra Pal & Rabin Chakrabortty & Alireza Arabameri & M. Santosh & Asish Saha & Indrajit Chowdhuri & Paramita Roy & Manisa Shit, 2022. "Chemical weathering and gully erosion causing land degradation in a complex river basin of Eastern India: an integrated field, analytical and artificial intelligence approach," Natural Hazards: Journal of the International Society for the Prevention and Mitigation of Natural Hazards, Springer;International Society for the Prevention and Mitigation of Natural Hazards, vol. 110(2), pages 847-879, January.
    19. Noble, Andrew, 2012. "The slumbering giant: land and water degradation," 2012: The Scramble for Natural Resources: More Food, Less Land?, 9-10 October 2012 152413, Crawford Fund.
    20. Renkow, Mitch, 2000. "Poverty, productivity and production environment:: a review of the evidence," Food Policy, Elsevier, vol. 25(4), pages 463-478, August.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:taf:oxdevs:v:29:y:2001:i:2:p:189-207. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Chris Longhurst (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.tandfonline.com/CODS20 .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.