Land Quality, Agricultural Productivity, and Food Security

Land quality and land degradation affect agricultural productivity and food security, but quantifying these relationships has been difficult. Data are extremely limited and outcomes are sensitive to the choices that farmers make. The contributors to this book - including soil scientists, geographers, and economists - analyse data on soils, climate, land cover, agricultural inputs and outputs, and a variety of socio-economic factors to provide new insights into three key issues:

• the extent to which differences in land quality generate differences in agricultural productivity across countries
• how farmers' responses to differences or changes in land quality are influenced by economic, environmental, and institutional factors, and
• whether land degradation over time threatens productivity growth and food security at local, regional, and global levels.

This book can be thoroughly recommended to policymakers, public and private sector researchers, university faculty and graduate students, and non-profit organizations for use in research, education, and decision-making.