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Jules Siedenburg (in this issue of DPR) has misunderstood the purpose of our 1994 book, which was to differentiate between long-run forces of change and the impact of particular projects. The methodology we adopted is rehearsed in this response, as it authenticates our data. His attack on our use of price data is rebutted. From our data we expanded our original model and derived the policies that had encouraged farmer investment and technology change. Our work can be rebutted if these policies fail, not by the mere existence of continued degradation or failure to adopt particular technical recommendations. We have since tested our model in comparable areas of dryland Africa, and the cited works by others generally support our findings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Focuses on dryland communities in Africa, and the possibility that population growth and environmental management may occur together in the right circumstances. Claim that a successful intersection of ecosystem and human system may be evident in four domains, including ecosystem management, land investments, productivity and personal incomes or welfare; Chart explaining these domains and their indicators; Exploration of sustainable development in different African regions, including the Machakos District in Kenya, the Kano state in Nigeria, the Diourbel Region in Senegal and the Maradi Department in Niger.

The dominant narrative of soil degradation in sub-Saharan Africa, as expressed in global surveys and policy documents, is compared with long-term data on the productive performance of smallholder farming systems under climatic and demographic stress. Cases at national, district and village/farm scale are considered (Nigeria; Diourbel Region, Senegal; Maradi Department, Niger; the Kano Close-Settled Zone, Nigeria). The dominant narrative is found to fail as a predictor of agricultural performance over the longer term. Instead there is evidence of farmers’ achievements in terms of sustained production, and investments in soil fertility maintenance. However at micro-scale, the constraints affecting farmers’ investments are apparent. The dominant narrative is deficient as a guide to policy, which needs to go beyond the fertiliser debate to take a broader view of soil fertility in relation to rural livelihoods and a need to facilitate private investment in natural resources. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

This article describes the chief findings of research carried out in four African dryland areas to investigate the validity of the authors' ‘Machakos hypothesis’, and to derive lessons on appropriate enabling policies. The findings were subsequently submitted to in-country validation and dissemination exercises. The lessons learnt from these in regard to introducing research findings into country policy dialogues are set against the background of current discussion of this issue. The article also discusses uptake at the international level, because it tends to be at this level that development paradigms and practices are formulated and promoted into countries through donor and agency actions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The problem of poverty in Africa was often discussed in terms of the agro-ecological specifics and the internal social relations of societies, production systems and economies. It appeared necessary, therefore, for states and international organizations to intervene. Because poverty was identified with production constraints, such interventions took the form of technological transfer in agriculture. Later, as agro-ecological constraints became more widely perceived, and supposedly "fragile" ecosystems were believed to be under threat from population growth and other factors, emphasis shifted to "environmental sustainability". As with the new technologies, so with sustainable natural resource management, it was often assumed that the new knowledge must come from outside, or from "science", and must be promoted against the natural "conservatism" of smallholders by whatever means necessary--from coercion at one extreme to "participation" at the other. Recently there has been much movement away from such stereotypical positions towards more subtle and varied statements of the problem. However, I believe there is still a lacuna with respect to the autonomy of the smallholder in the "fight against poverty". Intervention is still the name of the game, and receives far more attention than the resources or achievements of poor people themselves. Analyses of long-term trends in the management of resources at the village, regional and national levels in dryland Africa suggest that African farmers have made considerable achievements in the face of a trying environment. An understanding of this long-term trend may provide a better framework for the diagnosis of current problems and the formulation of future policy on poverty and livelihoods in the drylands. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Summary The production of plant biomass on small farms and in woodland in densely populated locations in the Nigerian Sahelo-Sudan is estimated in order to test the hypothesis that conversion of land from natural vegetation to cultivation entails a loss in plant productivity. Estimates are given for reserved forest, woodland, shrubland and farmland at two sites varying in mean annual rainfall and population density. The results fail to support the hypothesis. The role of farmers in causing degradation through loss of plant productivity, and appropriate conservation strategies, may require re-evaluation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Presents a letter to the editor in response to the article "Dryland Development: Success Stories from West Africa," which focused on sustainable development in Africa, in the Jan./Feb. 2005 issue of "Environment."