Economic values and incentives affecting soil and water conservation in developing countries

Soil is an essential input to farming. This is especially true in the poorest countries, where agricultural production is crucial to development, the livelihoods of the majority of the population depend on the primary sector, and non-labor inputs in agriculture are negligible. And yet agricultural land use in these countries often results in the degradation of natural soil fertility and reduced productivity. Soil degradation under farming also inflicts off-site costs, through the processes of erosion, sedimentation, and leaching. The on- and off-site impacts of soil degradation are part of the social cost of agricultural production in developing countries. However, these costs are routinely neglected by farmers and public planners, due to market and policy failures that mask the full cost of degradation to society. An important task for policy analysts and decision-makers is to identify the underlying causes of excessive soil degradation, to evaluate their economic significance, and to create incentives for less destructive land-use practices. Appropriate policies can help by making the full costs and benefits of alternative land-use practices more apparent to land users. This paper addresses these issues by discussing the various economic factors that influence land degradation in developing countries …