Editing IPCC:AR6/SRCCL/Chapter-3 (section)

==== 3.6.3.2 Policy responses supporting economic diversification ====

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Despite policy responses for combating desertification, other factors will put strong pressures on the land, including climate change and growing food demands, as well as the need to reduce poverty and strengthen food security (Cherlet et al. 2018 <sup>[[#fn:r1397|1397]]</sup> ) (Sections 6.1.4 and 7.2.2). Sustainable development of drylands and their resilience to combined challenges of desertification and climate change will thus also depend on the ability of governments to promote policies for economic diversification within agriculture and in non-agricultural sectors in order make dryland areas less vulnerable to desertification and climate change.

'''Investing into irrigation.''' Investments into expanding irrigation in dryland areas can help increase the resilience of agricultural production to climate change, improve labour productivity and boost production and income revenue from agriculture and livestock sectors (Geerts and Raes 2009 <sup>[[#fn:r1399|1399]]</sup> ; Olayide et al. 2016 <sup>[[#fn:r1400|1400]]</sup> ; Oweis and Hachum 2006 <sup>[[#fn:r1401|1401]]</sup> ). This is particularly true for Sub-Saharan Africa, where currently only 6% of the cultivated areas are irrigated (Nkonya et al. 2016b <sup>[[#fn:r1402|1402]]</sup> ). While renewable groundwater resources could help increase the share of irrigated land to 20.5–48.6% of croplands in the region (Altchenko and Villholth 2015 <sup>[[#fn:r1403|1403]]</sup> ). On the other hand, over-extraction of groundwaters, mainly for irrigating crops, is becoming an important environmental problem in many dryland areas (Cherlet et al. 2018 <sup>[[#fn:r1404|1404]]</sup> ), requiring careful design and planning of irrigation expansion schemes and use of water-efficient irrigation methods (Bjornlund et al. 2017 <sup>[[#fn:r1405|1405]]</sup> ; Woodhouse et al. 2017 <sup>[[#fn:r1406|1406]]</sup> ). For example, in Saudi Arabia, improving the efficiency of water management, for example through the development of aquifers, water recycling and rainwater harvesting, is part of a suite of policy actions to combat desertification (Bazza, et al. 2018 <sup>[[#fn:r1407|1407]]</sup> ; Kingdom of Saudi Arabia 2016 <sup>[[#fn:r1408|1408]]</sup> ). The expansion of irrigation to riverine areas, crucial for dry season grazing of livestock, needs to consider the income from pastoral activities, which is not always lower than income from irrigated crop production (Behnke and Kerven 2013 <sup>[[#fn:r1409|1409]]</sup> ). Irrigation development could be combined with the deployment of clean-energy technologies in economically viable ways (Chandel et al. 2015 <sup>[[#fn:r1410|1410]]</sup> ). For example, solar-powered drip irrigation was found to increase household agricultural incomes in Benin (Burney et al. 2010 <sup>[[#fn:r1411|1411]]</sup> ). The sustainability of irrigation schemes based on solar-powered extraction of groundwaters depends on measures to avoid over-abstraction of groundwater resources and associated negative environmental impacts (Closas and Rap 2017 <sup>[[#fn:r1412|1412]]</sup> ).

'''Expanding agricultural commercialisation.''' Faster poverty rate reduction and economic growth enhancement is realised when countries transition into the production of non-staple, high-value commodities and manage to build a robust agro-industry sector (Barrett et al. 2017 <sup>[[#fn:r1413|1413]]</sup> ). Ogutu and Qaim (2019) found that agricultural commercialisation increased incomes and decreased multidimensional poverty in Kenya. Similar findings were earlier reported by Muriithi and Matz (2015) for commercialisation of vegetables in Kenya. Commercialisation of rice production was found to have increased smallholder welfare in Nigeria (Awotide et al. 2016 <sup>[[#fn:r1414|1414]]</sup> ). Agricultural commercialisation contributed to improved household food security in Malawi, Tanzania and Uganda (Carletto et al. 2017 <sup>[[#fn:r1415|1415]]</sup> ). However, such a transition did not improve farmers’ livelihoods in all cases (Reardon et al. 2009). High-value cash crop/animal production can be bolstered by wide-scale use of technologies, for example, mechanisation, application of inorganic fertilisers, crop protection and animal health products. Market oriented crop/animal production facilitates social and economic progress, with labour increasingly shifting out of agriculture into non-agricultural sectors (Cour 2001). Modernised farming, improved access to inputs, credit and technologies enhances competitiveness in local and international markets (Reardon et al. 2009 <sup>[[#fn:r1417|1417]]</sup> ).

'''Facilitating structural transformations''' in rural economies implies that the development of non-agricultural sectors encourages the movement of labour from land-based livelihoods, vulnerable to desertification and climate change, to non-agricultural activities (Haggblade et al. 2010 <sup>[[#fn:r1420|1420]]</sup> ). The movement of labour from agriculture to non-agricultural sectors is determined by relative labour productivities in these sectors (Shiferaw and Djido 2016 <sup>[[#fn:r1421|1421]]</sup> ). Given already high underemployment in the farm sector, increasing labour productivity in the non-farm sector was found as the main driver of labour movements from farm sector to non-farm sector (Shiferaw and Djido 2016 <sup>[[#fn:r1422|1422]]</sup> ). More investments into education can facilitate this process (Headey et al. 2014 <sup>[[#fn:r1423|1423]]</sup> ). However, in some contexts, such as pastoralist communities in Xinjiang, China, income diversification was not found to improve the welfare of pastoral households (Liao et al. 2015 <sup>[[#fn:r1424|1424]]</sup> ). Economic transformations also occur through urbanisation, involving the shift of labour from rural areas into gainful employment in urban areas (Jedwab and Vollrath 2015 <sup>[[#fn:r1425|1425]]</sup> ). The majority of world population will be living in urban centres in the 21st century and this will require innovative means of agricultural production with minimum ecological footprint and less dependence on fossil fuels (Revi and Rosenzweig 2013 <sup>[[#fn:r1426|1426]]</sup> ), while addressing the demand of cities (see Section 4.9.1 for discussion on urban green infrastructure). Although there is some evidence of urbanisation leading to the loss of indigenous and local ecological knowledge, however, indigenous and local knowledge systems are constantly evolving, and are also being integrated into urban environments (Júnior et al. 2016 <sup>[[#fn:r1427|1427]]</sup> ; Reyes-García et al. 2013 <sup>[[#fn:r1429|1429]]</sup> ; van Andel and Carvalheiro 2013 <sup>[[#fn:r1430|1430]]</sup> ). Urban areas are attracting an increasing number of rural residents across the developing world (Angel et al. 2011 <sup>[[#fn:r1431|1431]]</sup> ; Cour 2001 <sup>[[#fn:r1432|1432]]</sup> ; Dahiya 2012 <sup>[[#fn:r1433|1433]]</sup> ). Urban development contributes to expedited agricultural commercialisation by providing market outlet for cash crops, high-value crops, and livestock products. At the same time, urbanisation also poses numerous challenges in the form of rapid urban sprawl and pressures on infrastructure and public services, unemployment and associated social risks, which have considerable implications on climate change adaptive capacities (Bulkeley 2013 <sup>[[#fn:r1434|1434]]</sup> ; Garschagen and Romero-Lankao 2015 <sup>[[#fn:r1435|1435]]</sup> ).

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