Most countries today cannot meet their food demands from domestic production and, therefore, depend on food imports in varying degrees, making them the most import-dependent countries in the developing world. Increasing the domestic production of wheat and food legumes will contribute to import substitution and food security. Expanding the use of improved technologies to increase productivity will also enhance farm incomes, particularly of smallholders, and the capacity of farming households to cope with production shocks and climatic instability.
Following the recent food crisis, it became apparent that productivity gains in developing countries, especially in dry areas, have slowed. Enhancing crop productivity is crucial in reversing the current trend of slow growth in the agriculture sector. In WANA there is huge potential to increase yields of staple crops for domestic consumption, and a large part of that production comes from smallholder farming systems. Actual farm yields of crops in the region are far below their potential. ICARDA and its national partners are developing adapted varieties and associated technologies that will enable farmers in dry areas to take full advantage of the cereal-food legume rotations to increase productivity and sustain their wheat-based production systems and adapt to climate change.
The region faces severe challenges to increasing agricultural production, including a limited natural resource base of arable land and water, low and erratic rainfall with frequent drought, low rates of productivity growth due to mono-cropping and related biotic and abiotic stresses, increased rural-urban migration, low public and private investments in rainfed areas, weak extension systems, inappropriate agricultural policies, and low adoption rates of new technologies. These challenges will be amplified with the adverse effects of climate change and variability, and emerging shifts in the distribution of crop diseases and insect pests. Other constraints include increasing salinization of farmland, parasitic weeds, poor crop management practices, weak seed systems and lack of supporting institutions and policies. Moreover, increasing mono-cropping of wheat using only a few wheat varieties is contributing to the depletion of soil fertility and increased intensity of diseases and insect pests. Food legumes play an important role in rotation with cereals in maintaining soil fertility and sustainable cropping systems. However, the area planted to food legumes, particularly in West Asia, has declined over the last 20 years. This has been attributed to low yields, disease constraints and the rising cost of labor; legume production is largely unmechanized, and operations, particularly harvesting, can be highly labor intensive.
Specifically, low productivity of wheat-legume cropping systems combined with the dependence on wheat and legumes of poor smallholder farmers of the drylands for their livelihoods as well as the lack of integration of rural communities in areas with scarce water resources are major problems severing the development of the local environment.
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