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Rural development
Content
The sustainable management of natural resources
Agriculture, forestry and fisheries can only ensure livelihoods in rural areas in the long term if they are sustainable. Natural resources must be managed circumspectly. Soil and water must be protected, biodiversity retained, and the balance of ecosystems preserved.
Land
Poverty often forces people to ruthlessly exploit natural resources, They attempt to secure a livelihood through overgrazing, over-exploitation, inappropriate irrigation methods and inappropriate cropping methods. The soil quality drops further and further and fertile cropland is lost. Forests are cleared to make way for more farmland or simply for fuelwood.
The poor rural population cannot afford the long-term investment that would be needed to protect the soil. Experts predict that the amount of farmland available will drop significantly in the next twenty years. It is thought that more than one million square kilometres have been destroyed already over the last few decades.
The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) estimates that in 2025 sub-Saharan Africa will have two thirds less cropland per capita than in 1990. In Asia one third less land will be available to grow food and in South America two fifths less. The World Bank reckons that by 2080 agricultural production will drop in some places by more than one quarter, with almost all African, Latin American, South Asian and Pacific states affected, along with the states of the Middle East.
In order to retain soil fertility in arid areas, the United Nations elaborated the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD). It came into force in 1996 and has now been ratified by 193 states (as at 2010). German development cooperation is helping many countries realise the provisions of the Convention, and is promoting governmental and non-governmental projects and programmes in the fields of erosion control, agroforestry, land resources management, sustainable water resources management and rural development.
Agrobiodiversity
Biodiversity in agriculture, or agrobiodiversity, is particularly important to enable us to feed the world today and in the future. Today it is crucially important in ensuring food security among small farmers in developing countries and transition states. About 75 per cent of the world's poorest live in rural areas and depend on traditional agriculture. Where soil fertility is low and water in short supply, regional crop varieties often produce better harvests than high-yield strains. A wide range of crops reduces the risk of harvest losses. Genetic diversity is also vitally important in allowing agriculture to adapt to changing environmental conditions such as climate change.
For poverty reduction, agrobiodiversity in developing countries is thus a strategic resource. German development cooperation supports the implementation of the United Nations' International Seed Treaty, which aims to protect and ensure the sustainable use of plant genetic resources. From a development-policy stance, two priorities are firstly ensuring farmers' rights, i.e. the traditional rights of farmers when dealing with seed (storing, multiplying, swapping and further developing seed) and secondly promoting the additional value generated by agrobiodiversity.
Water
Water is another important production input in agriculture. Small farmers can often rely on their production to a fairly good extent if they have guaranteed access to water at the critical points in the cropping cycle.
Better availability of water and improved water resources management make it easier to ensure diversified and seasonally appropriate production, which helps achieve food security. Water shortages mean that farmers have fewer crops to choose from. Agriculture is then generally limited to the rainy season and the risks are high. This is particularly true in countries that are badly affected by climate change such as North African and Central Asian states.
Agriculture accounts for 70 per cent of all water used around the globe. Often water is not used efficiently. This is where German development cooperation comes in, so as to ensure that water is used more sustainably by promoting efficiency, productivity and production gains in cropping, livestock farming and forestry.
Information
Publications
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Biological Diversity
Strategies 166
(PDF 450 KB, accessible) -
Combating Desertification
Leaflet
(PDF 1 MB, accessible) -
Rural development and its contribution to food security
BMZ Strategy Paper
(PDF 276 KB, accessible) -
Agricultural Research for Development – Creating Opportunities
(PDF 3.1 MB, accessible) -
Germany’s International Approach to Climate Change
(PDF 2.5 MB, accessible) -
Climate Challenges
Germany’s international approach
(PDF 1.8 MB, accessible) -
Biofuels
Opportunities and risks for developing countries
BMZ Strategy Paper
(PDF 536 KB, accessible)
