Land degradation in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) is believed to be expanding at an alarming rate, accompanied by the lowest agriculture and livestock yields of any region in the world. While cereal production has increased marginally over the past two decades, more than 70 percent of this growth is due to area expansion rather than yield increases. The region also suffers from the world’s highest rate of deforestation, with some countries having lost more than 10 percent of their forest cover in the five years up to 2009 (IFAD, 2009) and is most likely continuing at the same rate to this day.