Issues paper on food security, population, agriculture and environment

Abstract

In Africa, however, available evidence suggests that environmental degradation such as soil erosion, desertification and deforestation is seriously undermining the very resources on which many African farmers and their families depend for increasing their agricultural productivity. Land degradation is already posing serious limitations to food security in several countries particularly in areas where population densities are high. The United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) has estimated that the area which is prone to desertification world-wide is approximately 38 million km 2 of which 6.9 million km2 (23 per cent) is in Sub-Saharan Africa. In fact, more than a quarter of the African continent is at present in the process of becoming useless for cultivation due to land degradation.