Vulnerability and agricultural intensification in drylands - an alternative framework for development research

摘要

Despite decades of investment in research and development in dryland areas around the globe challenges of underdevelopment,chronic food insecurity,and poverty persist,and are now increasingly exacerbated by climate change.The scarcity of progress in dryland development is aggravated by a lack of clarity around whether development objectives should aim primarily to reduce vulnerability or to promote intensification.Vulnerability and intensification are typically assumed to lie on the same continuum,so that a household with a high level of vulnerability is assumed to have low potential for intensification,and vice versa.The same idea is also applied at larger scales to communities and regions.This widespread view ignores the dynamic nature of vulnerability in drylands and the opportunities for sustainably enhancing livelihoods and food security through alternative development pathways.Development targeting and research in the drylands must take account of vulnerability and potential for intensification,but must avoid oversimplifying the relationship between the two.