From wasteland to oasis
Transformative effects of trees on farmland and livelihoods
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 21648384 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Inga Mareike Nienkerke (0000-0001-6883-4579, Department of Environmental Systems Science ETH Zürich Zürich Switzerland, corresponding author), Anthony Patt (0000-0001-8428-8707, Department of Environmental Systems Science ETH Zürich Zürich Switzerland) |
| Year | 2022 |
| Volume | 33 |
| Issue | 18 |
| Pages | 3773-3785 |
| Publication date | 2022-12-01 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Land Degradation and Development (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 1085-3278 • E-ISSN: 1099-145X |
| Publisher | Wiley (PUBLISHER • GB) |
| DOI | 10.1002/ldr.4422 |
| OpenAlex | W4287092802 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 3 |
| References cited | 24 |
In face of today's alarming trend of resource degradation and reversal of poverty reduction, path‐breaking strategies are needed. However, there is limited evidence to inform the design of policies. We scrutinized an agricultural development program that follows a holistic approach and includes the cultivation of fruit trees, to tackle this natural resource degradation and human vulnerability nexus. Can it transform so‐called wastelands and lift marginalized smallholders out of poverty? The geographic rollout of the program produced a natural experiment that allowed for an evaluation design with treatment and control groups and a survey of 2000 households randomly sampled from 188,231 participants in four Indian states, covering geographically diverse areas. This is the first time that the livelihood impacts of such farming systems have been analyzed on such a large scale and over a 23‐year period. Our results show that degraded farmland can be transformed into green assets if poverty alleviation and environmental regeneration are tackled in a holistic manner. We find a clear and significant trend in the improvement of socio‐economic factors, including higher income and positive life changes, as well as ecological benefits. By assessing the potential of trees to reverse environmental degradation and alleviate chronic poverty, this study provides much‐needed evidence for the science‐policy dialog of development programs. This video (3 minutes) gives an impression of the context of the study (Video S1 )
Agriculture · Business · Economic growth · Economics · Environmental degradation · Environmental planning · Environmental resource management · Geography · Land degradation · Livelihood · Natural resource · Natural resource economics · Political science · Poverty · Agricultural Innovations and Practices · Agriculture, Land Use, Rural Development · Computer Science · Conservation, Biodiversity, and Resource Management · Engineering · Ecology
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Limited effects of tree planting on forest canopy cover and rural livelihoods in Northern India
Inequality of Educational Opportunity in India
Escaping and Falling into Poverty in India Today
Chronic Poverty in India
Environmental rehabilitation and the vulnerability of the poor
Plantations and pastoralists
| Unique citing works | 3 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 0,75 |
| Citation span | 2022 - 2024 (3) |
| Citation velocity | recent |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 2 |