In one way or another, one out of three
people are being affected by land degradation. It is estimated that, about
every year, 75 billion tonnes of soil material are being lost worldwide as a
result of land degradation. Recent findings also showed that about 2 billion
hectares of land were severely degraded, in some cases in an irreversible way,
all these caused a severe damage to local ecologies as well as contributed a
lot for climate change and its associated effects on the wellbeing of humanity.
Apart from this, the major portion of most developing countries population are
still dependent on the un-mechanized and primitive forms agriculture, livestock
production, forestry and fishery, and their livelihood and options for economic
development are directly linked to the quality of the land and its resources.
The objective of this article is to reaffirm the role of Sustainable Land
Management in the process of agricultural development, the main source of
livelihood in the developing countries. The paper initially explored the basic
concept and principles of sustainable management. Causes of land degradation,
the prime challenge of sustainable land management and development are also
dealt in detail.
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