vForeword
Given the pressure on the world’s ecosystems, dryland agriculture—a sector that
has been neglected in the past—is becoming increasingly important in meeting
global food requirements in the future. Drylands cover more than 40 % of the
world’s land surface and are home to 2.5 billion people, or one-third of the global
population, about 50 % of this population living in poverty and 90 % living in devel-
oping nations. Half of the inhabitants in the dryland depend directly on rainfed or
irrigated farming and pastoralism. Poverty, food insecurity, biodiversity loss, fre-
quent droughts and environmental degradation are widespread in these areas. The
effects of climate change will lead to even more water scarcity and declining crop
yields, leaving the people of these regions excessively vulnerable in the absence of
appropriate technologies and risk management strategies.
In recent decades, food production has fallen significantly in most dryland areas,
while food demand has increased due to high levels of population growth. The chal-
lenge for global agriculture to produce 70 % more food and fibre by 2050 cannot be
achieved without implementing more sustainable farming methods and responding
to climate change in dry areas. With half of the population of dryland regions
depending on agriculture, the economic development of these regions is inextrica-
bly tied to the performance of the agriculture sector.
Drylands differ from humid lands in several ways. Yet, development pathways
for drylands are often driven by a distorted idea of how drylands should or could
exist, often modelled on more humid areas. Notions of “greening the desert” are
developed from a misunderstanding of dryland ecology and have led to many harm-
ful policies and investments. Furthermore, misrepresentation of drought and water
scarcity in the drylands diverts attention from sustainable and adaptive manage-
ment, capable of being supported by limited resources, towards unsustainable prac-
tices that are ecologically harmful. Rather than adapting development strategies to
fit the drylands, considerable effort has been expended trying to adapt drylands to fit
the development strategies.
The sustainability of dryland agriculture must consider (1) practices that main-
tain soil organic matter and restore soils degraded by past practices, (2) crop culti-
vars and species that can withstand climatic abnormalities (3) and growers who can