PreviousFeatures of national action programmes
Implementation: phases and procedures
Features of national action programmes
IT IS ESSENTIAL THAT NATIONAL ACTION PROGRAMMES CONTAIN MEASURES TO REDUCE POVERTY, DISCOURAGE MIGRATION INTO MARGINAL LANDS, IMPROVE THE QUALITY OF DIET AND CREATE A DEMAND FOR PRODUCTS OTHER THAN THOSE NEEDED SOLELY FOR SUBSISTENCE.
National Action Programmes (NAP) may be elaborated for the implementation of conservation-effective land management and desertification control. Although the scope of desertification control programmes is broader than that of conservation-effective land management, in that they also deal with drought mitigation, the guidelines produced by the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification also serve as an excellent basis for elaborating NAP on conservation -effective land management.
The overall purpose of NAP is to identify factors contributing to degradation problems and practical measures to overcome them. They should place emphasis on local action programmes based on the participation of land users, the community, local authorities, government, non-government and private sectors. The roles of each category of participants and the resources needed to implement the actions should be specified. The NAP must be integrated with other national policies for sustainable development and should be sufficiently flexible to be responsive to changing socio-economic and environmental conditions.
In the establishment of action priorities, it is important to recognize the multi-dimensional character of the problems and the need for increased production combined with sustainable development, yet to take into account the human limitations due to lack of education, training and resources.
To facilitate the successful implementation of NAP the following aspects must be addressed: political, institutional and legal frameworks; the creation of a NAP coordinating commission; capacity building; education and awareness; strengthening research and extension; promotion of more profitable conservation technologies; financial aspects; regional support and international cooperation.
NAP may also include the establishment and strengthening of food security systems through storage and marketing facilities, economic development to alleviate rural poverty, promotion of alternative livelihoods and the development and use of alternative energy sources.
Legal framework
It will be necessary to carry out modifications to the existing legislation if it does not provide an acceptable framework for the use, management and conservation of lands and for desertification control in the context of sustainable agricultural development. A system of incentives and penalties may need to be incorporated to facilitate the adoption of conservation-effective land management and desertification control practices that are in accordance with the government's policy on natural resource use and conservation.
The proposed NAP must be consistent with the legislation governing the use and management of land and water, land tenure and the rights and responsibilities of local government and community organizations.
Political and institutional frameworks
Various political actions and decisions need to be taken to facilitate and accelerate the development process, as well as to make agriculture more profitable and rural life more attractive. For example, changes in subsidies, prices and market structures can greatly influence the income of a small-scale farmer. Improvements to roads and health services can markedly improve the quality of rural life, thereby stemming the migration of farmers from rural to urban areas.
Legislation and information Present legislation related to agriculture and the environment is frequently obsolete or inadequate and needs to be revised for consistency with the new concepts, strategies and policies of conservation, as well as adapted to create effective and appropriate conditions for the management, planning and sustained use of natural resources. Communities must assume a collective responsibility for their natural resources and need to develop a holistic strategy for the rational management of land and water that considers all the interactions among the various users of natural resources. The implementation and continual updating of land-use databases are prerequisites to the preparation of any type of effective strategy; the database should consist of an inventory of lands and other natural resources, using technical and scientific criteria that combine to provide an overall view of the country's land and water resources. These data will serve as a base-line for reformulating agricultural policies and programmes. They are also useful for identifying and guiding the introduction of new cropping systems and technologies that will promote the use of agricultural inputs for increased production and investment. In extreme cases they will facilitate the relocation of farmers to less degraded areas. |
Institutions be strengthened and decentralized where appropriate. For example land-use planning should be decentralized to the level of municipal governments, local authorities and possibly farmers' associations. Central government should cease to be the exclusive implementing body, but should instead adopt the role of a catalyzing and coordinating entity.
Institutions must also act in a much more participatory manner; they should aim to promote coordination and cooperation in a spirit of partnership between government institutions and non-government organizations (NGOs), the private sector, local communities and land users.
Establishment of a NAP coordinating commission
Government may wish to create a NAP coordinating commission that will be responsible for the disbursement of funds and for promoting, coordinating, monitoring and reviewing the planning and implementation of activities proposed in, then subsequently developed in accordance with, the NAP. The commission will be responsible for ensuring the appropriate and timely disbursement of funds so that activities are not delayed, also avoiding incompatibility between actions and duplication of effort. The commission should be created at different levels, with appropriate responsibilities and decision-making authorities, with the participation of all stakeholders, the various public and private entities, communities and farmers' associations, that are engaged in using land and water resources.
Capacity building, education and awareness
The need to strengthen the planning, administrative and executive capacities of national and local institutions in research, technology transfer, data collection, supporting services and local authorities must be considered. This may be accomplished through institutional restructuring, changes in the mandates of institutions, staff training and the acquisition of improved facilities.
Attention may need to be given to organizing training courses on how to conduct participatory planning for conservation-effective land management and desertification control programmes. The training courses should be directed to farmers, community and local government leaders and decision-makers, government and NGO extensionists, technicians from key institutions and stakeholders from the private sector.
Improvements in school curricula are also important, with more emphasis on natural resource issues so that children grow up with the responsible attitude of 'producing whilst conserving'.
More attention may need to be given to promoting awareness campaigns to convince farmers and the public that natural resources, especially land and water, are the heritage of their own and future generations, as well as being essential to the development of life in all its expressions.
Attention should also be given to the acquisition of indigenous knowledge on agricultural and land management practices and how they might be adapted to make them more appropriate to existing conditions.
Steps must be taken to ensure that improved conservation-effective land management and desertification control practices are incorporated and promoted in any national, district or local development programme.
Strengthening research and extension
It may be necessary to modify agricultural research programmes and the attitudes of researchers to ensure that research activities truly respond to priority problems identified jointly by farmers, extensionists and researchers, so that the research outputs will be validated by farmers and useful to them. More emphasis should be given to farmer - participatory investigations; there must be adequate contact between researchers and farmers and extensionists.
In those research programmes that are dominated by attempts to increase crop productivity to a maximum, the importance of conservation-effective land management must be stressed.
Researchers should be encouraged to investigate production systems that correspond to the reality of farmers' situations. In many cases these will include low inputs, low capital, low cash flow, low risk acceptance and limited labour availability.
Farmers can benefit from technical advice provided not only by government institutions, but also by NGOs and private companies. Therefore, when considering the strengthening of extension services, all of the actors involved should be considered.
Extensionists may also need to change their approach by adopting a much more participatory role, so that they become facilitators and advisers rather than instructors imparting information to farmers in a top-down approach. Such a facilitating approach will greatly assist farmers in making their own decisions about the integrated management of their land, water, crops, pastures, animals and forests.
It may be necessary to implement suitable extension and sensitizing techniques in order to promote the participation of farmers and of their families in the planning and implementation of NAP, recognizing that they are the principal actors in the implementation process.
The long-term aim of extension services should be to foster the empowerment of farmers so that they can assume greater responsibilities for identifying their own problems and possible solutions, for testing alternative solutions, developing appropriate technologies to meet their requirements and for promoting the transfer of sustainable land management technologies, making use of farmers' associations to accelerate the process.
Introduction of new, more profitable technologies
Farmers will make optimum use of natural resources when they obtain short-term benefits, which may be monetary or in some other form. However, to gain such benefits implies the existence of an enabling environment such as the presence of supporting services and acceptable incentives.
Technologies and profit Wheat and soybean research centres in Paraná state, Brazil, have found much evidence that the loss of soil structure due to excessive use of disc ploughs and other inappropriate practices leads to yield reductions. As a result many farmers have adopted conservationist practices such as contour sowing, leaving crop residues on the soil surface, using chisel ploughs and zero tillage instead of disc ploughs, which enable them to carry out field operations more rapidly and to obtain higher yields. The adoption of these practices has led to a better use of water and less frequent flooding, with little evidence of erosion. Many farmers from the hilly zones of Santa Caterina state in Brazil used to complain that the residues from summer crops could not be guaranteed to supply sufficient feed in winter for their livestock. By sowing cover crops such as oats or winter legumes, in fields that would otherwise have remained fallow during the winter period, they now obtain additional quantities of feed, which also avoids problems of erosion and runoff. In this way, not only do the livestock gain from a better nutrition, which helps to stabilize agricultural production levels, but soil conditions are improved as well. |
To convince farmers to abandon their traditional practices that may be damaging the land or the environment, the potential benefits of new practices must be immediately apparent. For example, farmers from the south of Brazil have enthusiastically adopted minimum tillage systems because the cost per ton of grain is much lower; at the same time erosion and runoff are controlled.
Financial aspects
Governments should make every effort to ensure that adequate finances are available to implement the NAP by rationalizing and using their existing resources more efficiently and effectively.
Conservation-effective land management practices are relatively simple, but the costs of introducing these practices may exceed the financial resources of some farmers. In such cases credit facilities may be necessary which require only modest sums of money compared to other types of investment. Credit supplies must be on easy terms for farmers living in marginal areas, given their limited capacity to repay loans.
National Action Programmes to combat desertification The Paris Convention to Combat Desertification has produced detailed guidelines on the formulation of national action programmes. Many features are identical to those required for land conservation and land rehabilitation action programmes; however, some guidelines are distinct, such as those related to actions to mitigate the effects of drought:
An additional feature of NAP to combat desertification in Latin America and the Caribbean derives from the region having the 'largest resources of biological diversity in the world', which makes the negative environmental effects of desertification all the more serious. Thus the following guideline is included:
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Regional support
Regional cooperation among countries should be pursued to promote exchange and mutual assistance in research, training and technology transfer activities.
At a regional level, FAO offers countries the benefits of research programmes through networks such as RELACO (Latin American Network for Conservation Tillage). Nevertheless, more research is still necessary on methods and indicators for evaluating sustainability, the processes and factors responsible for land degradation and desertification, and the development of predictive models for extrapolating results to similar agro-ecological zones. In addition, a system is needed to evaluate and monitor the economic and environmental impacts of land management and conservation, plus the impacts of participatory planning.
FAO also promotes a system of visits of professionals between countries, referred to as "Technical Cooperation among Developing Countries" (TCDC), which facilitates the exchange and transfer of knowledge and experience among countries, thereby achieving the maximum benefit from the expertise that exists within a region.
Networks as instruments for cooperation Teams of researchers from 17 countries form part of the Latin American Network for Conservation Tillage (RELACO), which is concerned with tillage research and technology transfer. The aims of the network are to exchange technical experience and knowledge, to collaborate in research and training and to strengthen national capabilities in combating soil degradation and desertification due to inappropriate land management. FAO is preparing a regional network entitled 'Network of advice, development and information on fertilizers for Latin America and the Caribbean (FADINLAC)'. The aim of this network is to promote the adoption of integrated systems of plant nutrition by assisting countries to formulate an official policy on the use of plant nutrients in agriculture, including aspects of fertilizers manufacture, importation, distribution, pricing and financing through incentives and subsidies. All countries in the region are invited to participate in this network through the 'Technical Cooperation among Developing Countries' programme. The FAO Regional Office, besides giving direct technical assistance, promotes and facilitates technical cooperation among countries through the activities of more than twenty networks. Three of these are concerned with land-use issues, i.e., 'Management of watersheds', 'Arid and semi-arid lands' end 'irrigation and drainage'. |
Besides national institutions, there are several international organizations that generate or promote technologies at a regional level, which contribute to the conservation and sustainable use of natural resources:
• CATIE (Tropical Agronomy Centre for Investigation and Teaching).
• CEPAL (Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean).
• CIAT (International Centre for Tropical Agriculture).
• CIMMYT (International Centre for Maize and Wheat Improvement).
• CIP (International Centre for Potatoes).
• FAO/RLC (Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations - Regional Office for Latin America and the Caribbean).
• IICA (Inter-American Institute of Cooperation for Agriculture).
• TCA (Amazon Cooperation Treaty).
Technical Cooperation among Developing Countries The TCDC programme facilitates the efficient utilization of regional expertise, whereby visits of professionals between countries are financed by FAO to enable knowledge and experience from one country to be used to benefit and complement that of another country. This programme has been used to transfer soil conservation technologies, to strengthen the capacity of national organizations in the development of sustainable land-use systems, to prepare projects on the formulation of policies to control land degradation, to produce technical manuals and to achieve the standardization of methodologies and criteria. |
International cooperation
The principal objectives of international cooperation are to promote scientific research, technology transfer and the exchange of information, avoid duplication, foster the development of regional institutions, optimize the efficient use of financial resources and facilitate the provision of financial and technical assistance. These activities should be carried out in close collaboration with national institutions, non-governmental organizations, the World Bank, the (International Fund for Agricultural Development, the Conference of the Parties of the Convention to Combat Desertification and with specialist agencies of the United Nations. FAO is disposed to collaborate with countries on the elaboration of policies and NAP on conservation-effective land management and desertification control.
Implementation: phases and procedures
The first step is for a country's government to request representatives of FAO and other international agencies to participate in a multidisciplinary NAP advisory mission. The task of the advisory mission is to identify the need for a NAP, its nature and approximate magnitude, and the approximate location where priority activities are to be implemented.
The need for a NAP as well as its nature will probably depend inter alia on the incidence of poverty, the severity of land and water degradation and the nature of the main degradation processes occurring. The magnitude will depend on the expected level of funding, likely costs and the availability of trained personnel. The location(s) of the NAP should be determined according to priority issues selected according to appropriate social, economic and environmental criteria.
Although the term used in this document is 'National Action Programme,' it should not be inferred that the programme will be nationwide in extent from the start. Indeed, it is probably advisable that the programme is initially of limited extent.
For countries where little information exists on technologies to combat degradation, raise productivity and improve rural living standards, or on methods to promote their adoption, it would be advisable to initiate the NAP in only one or two pilot areas. This would then permit the technologies and the most appropriate implementation and adoption procedures to be ascertained before embarking on a NAP of larger magnitude. This phased approach will also strengthen the country's case for requesting higher levels of funding from external sources for subsequent phases of the NAP.
Implementation: phases and procedures
Pilot area(s) will need to be identified for the initial phase of the NAP on the basis of selected criteria that ensure an adequate degree of biophysical and socioeconomic representativity.
The first phase should be conceived as a test case in which the effectiveness of the selected technologies, the procedures used to promote adoption and the monitoring mechanisms are evaluated to assess their technical, social, economic and environmental success.
For this first phase and subsequent phases of the NAP it is imperative that problems and solutions should be identified and the NAP formulated with the full participation of representatives of all interested parties and of both genders, i.e., land users, local communities, local authorities, government institutions, non-government organizations and the private sector, who are engaged in, or affected by, the use and management of land and water resources in the wider context. The best mechanism for arriving at acceptable decisions on the problems, solutions and planning of the NAP may be a fully participatory workshop.
When the first phase of the NAP has been concluded, clear indications should have emerged of the most suitable and acceptable technologies for solving the problems, but also good evidence on the most appropriate methodologies for implementing the technologies. These results can then be used for replicating the NAP in other and larger areas.
On the basis of the results of the first phase, another NAP advisory commission should be convened to consider an expansion of the NAP at a larger scale into other areas using the experience and knowledge of the successful procedures and technologies that were gained during the first phase.
The planning of all phases of the NAP must take account of other development plans such as national economic development plans, environmental action plans, national land and water conservation strategies and forestry action programmes, as well as ongoing land use, management and conservation projects, to avoid incompatibilities and duplication of effort.
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