30 | Central and West Asia and North Africa (CWANA) Report

of households. Agricultural development programs have frequently failed to integrate women's needs and priorities, gender equity objectives and, instead, frequently contributed to increasing women's workloads.

15. With few exceptions, farmers associations have remained very weak because of insufficient public policies. These weaknesses represent major constraints for consolidating the agriculture sector. Countries with strong farmer associations have a stronger agriculture sector and have successfully promoted more decentralized and participatory development as well as reinforced the professional organization of farm producers. Strong farmer associations will likely promote the participation of farmers in technology development, transfer and adoption.

2.1 Natural Resources, Agricultural Production and Infrastructure

2.1.1 Land use and land cover

Land use and land cover characteristics are affected by a changing climate and increasing climate variability. Both land use and climate affect the biogeochemical cycles and properties of ecosystems, altering the supply of goods and services to society, including carbon sequestration. A slight increase in agricultural land has been observed over the last 50 years, but has reached a plateau in most countries and decreased in others. At present, agricultural land covers from 3 to 80% of a country. The highest proportion of use of agricultural land is observed in Central Asia and Caucasus (CAC) countries.

Agricultural land is mainly devoted to permanent pasture and rangeland. For the whole CWANA region the proportion is 83%, the lowest proportion in Southwest Asia (55%) and the highest proportion in the Arabian Peninsula (98%). In the Arabian Peninsula, an almost twofold increase in permanent pasture was observed in the last 50 years; permanent pastures increased from 86x106 ha to about 171x106 ha. In the other subregions, permanent pastures increased only slightly.

Arable land area in CWANA increased the last 50 years, but differences were observed among the subregions. In some, arable land increased significantly and is still increasing (Nile Valley and Red Sea: from 15.5x106 ha in 1961 to 22.5x106 ha in 2002; Arabian Peninsula: from 1.1 to 3.7x106 ha for the same period). In North Africa and in Southwest Asia, arable land increased in the 1970s, but is now stable (Skouri and Latiri, 2001). In the Central Asian countries, arable land area decreased in the beginning of the 1990s but is now increasing again.

During the last 50 years, irrigated land area increased in all the subregions except in the CAC countries. This increase and its proportion in irrigated land worldwide varied only slightly, except in the Arabian Peninsula. There irrigated land almost doubled due to considerable investment that supported dynamic development in the Arabian Peninsula. The share of irrigated cropland increased from about 30% in the early 1960s to more than 50% in 2000. The increase in irrigated land in the other CWANA subregions was much lower. At present, the proportion of irrigated land varies. The largest concentration of irrigated land is in Southwest

 

Asia, around 23% of the agricultural area, corresponding to 14% of the world irrigated area. In the other regions, irrigated land varies between 2 and 5%. Forests and woodlands are only around 136x106 ha, 3.3% of the world area in forest. This proportion has not changed significantly in the last 50 years.

2.1.2 Agricultural production, cropping patterns and productivity

While West Asian and North African countries have important advantages in agriculture due to natural endowments, countries in the Nile Valley, Arabian Peninsula and near the Red Sea have natural constraints to overcome to satisfy their food needs. Since the mid-1950s this has driven them to import food. Crops grown are a function of climate and soil, country priorities and needs, irrigation water and profitability. Cropping patterns changed distinctly from 1961 to 2005. CWANA depends increasingly on expanding yields of rainfed crops and cash crops in irrigated areas.

2.1.2.1 Cereals

Among the agricultural products produced in the CWANA region, cereals continue to be important. Grains are the essential resource for human nutrition. Wheat is the most important grain in the Mediterranean, rice in Pakistan. Cereals represent over 35% in crop rotation systems with wheat as the most widespread crop (27%), followed by barley. In dry areas, sorghum and millet are important as well.

In the last 50 years, cereal production increased from 51x106 tonnes in 1961 (without CAC countries) to about 173x106 tonnes in 2005. Yet production is not stable and yearly variations are high partly due to variation in the timing and amount of rainfall. Because of high demographic pressure, only South and West Asian countries had stable per capita production in the four decades. The Nile Valley, Red Sea and North African countries saw per capita production fall quite sharply, requiring significant grain imports. Compared to world averages, grain production in the CWANA region is lagging behind.

The increase in production is associated with an increase in yield during the last 50 years (1960-1965: 1 tonne ha-1 to 2000-2005: 1.9 tonnes ha-1). Overall yields are still low, compared to the world average, even when annual rainfall is good. The world average increased from 1.4 tonnes grain ha-1 in 1960-1965 to 3.2 tonnes ha-1 in 2000-2005. Only in countries where cereals are irrigated is the yield high and stable (Figure 2-1).

Southwest Asia produces about 60% of the cereals grown in CWANA, about 4.6% of world production. The rapid production increase in Southwest Asia, 35x106 tonnes in the 1960s to more than 100x106 tonnes in 2005, can be attributed to both increased yield (1.0 to 2.2 tonnes ha-1) and area harvested (35 to 44x106 ha). Some countries, e.g., Turkey had high yield increases, while others did not.

In North Africa, production increased mainly from yield increases since land under cultivation had reached its maximum (9.4x106 ha). Annual yield variations are high and yields are still extremely low during dry years. These countries have high annual variation in rainfall; and drought is considered a permanent risk and the main factor affectin