Mashreq and Maghreb Project Achievements and Lessons Learnt from Phases I and II
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Citation
Nasri Haddad, Mohammed El Mourid. (1/10/2007). Mashreq and Maghreb Project Achievements and Lessons Learnt from Phases I and II. Beirut, Lebanon: International Center for Agricultural Research in the Dry Areas (ICARDA).
Abstract
The countries of West Asia and North Africa (the Mashreq and Maghreb regions) are characterized by high population growth rates, large and rapidly increasing food deficits, highly variable income levels, and limited natural resources, particularly arable land and water. Climatic features, especially the low and variable rainfall, limit the options available to farmers. Economic growth, increasing urbanization, and the associated rising consumer demand are forcing changes in production practices that threaten the natural resource base of the region.
Most of the rural population, particularly in the low rainfall areas, is poor, depends on agriculture for a living, and tends to supplement farm income with off-farm earnings or remittances from working in other countries. Some form of co-existence prevails between the livestock owners and the settled farmers (who themselves own some livestock).
In the low rainfall areas, small ruminants (sheep and goats) represent the principal economic output and constitute a large proportion of the income of farmers and nomadic or semi-nomadic herders. The region has experienced a substantial increase in animal numbers. Livestock producers have been encouraged to increase flock sizes by the increased demand for animal products combined with the favorable price ratios between livestock products (live-weight, meat and milk) and barley, the principal livestock feed. Feed subsidies and other measures intended to mitigate the effects of feed shortages in drought years have provided further incentives to retain greater numbers of animals.
Expansion in flock size and flock numbers has been particularly noticeable at the drier end of the arable farming spectrum, where more native pasture lands are open to free grazing. The native pasture vegetation in these rangelands once provided a large proportion of the feed needs of the small ruminant population. Today, however, the natural rangelands can no longer provide such a high component of animal feed needs. As livestock numbers have grown, so has supplemental feeding, mainly of barley grain, straw, and industrial crop by-products. Not only is rangeland a resource insufficient to meet current demand, the absolute level of feed resources is falling due to overgrazing, removal of vegetation through plowing or for fuel wood, and soil erosion.
As livestock numbers have increased, so has the area planted to barley (Table 1). This has been achieved primarily by cultivating previously uncultivated marginal land and by replacing the annual fallow in barley areas with continuous barley cropping. However, such mono cropping is rapidly depleting soil fertility and stimulating the build up of pests and diseases. There are indications that barley yields in these systems are declining.
