Manual for describing land degradation indicators

Table of Contents

1. Editor
2. Introduction
3. Classification of indicators
4. Land degradation indicators
5. Evaluation and short-list of indicators
6. Explanations for filling the information sheets
   1. General information
   2. Climate indicators
   3. Water indicators
   4. Soil indicators
   5. Vegetation indicators
   6. Water runoff indicators
   7. Forest fires indicators
   8. Agricultural indicators
   9. Cultivation indicators
   10. Husbandry indicators
   11. Land management indicators
   12. Land use indicators
   13. Water use indicators
   14. Tourism indicators
   15. Social indicators
   16. Institutional indicators
7. Farm survey research
8. Focus group approach
9. References

Agricultural indicators

Farm ownership:It is defined as the percentage of rented agricultural land in the owner-farmed agricultural area. Agricultural land is the sum of arable land, kitchen gardens (horticulture), permanent pastures and meadows and permanent crop. According to the EUROSTAT CODE the utilised agricultural area can be classified as following: (a) owner - farmed, agricultural land being farmed by the holding which is the property of the holder or farmed by him as usufructuary or inheritable long-term lease holder or under some other equivalent type of tenure; (b) tenant - farmed, land rented by the holding in return for a fixed rent agreed in advance (in cash, kind or otherwise), and for which there is a (written or oral) tenancy agreement; (c) shared- farmed, land (which may constitute a complete holding) farmed in partnership by the landlord and the sharecropper under a written or oral share-farming contract. The output (either economic or physical) of the share cropped area is shared between two parties on an agreed basis; (d) state farm, and (e) other modes. Other modes of tenure not covered elsewhere. This includes inter alia land over which the holder enjoys rights.

Farm size:It is defined as the ratio between the number of farms belonging to the size classes less than 2 hectares and the number of farms belonging to the size classes more than 50 hectares. This indicator contributes to the definition of the agricultural structure of the area affected by desertification. The following classes are defined: less than 2 ha, 2-5 ha, 5-10 ha, 10-20 ha, 20-30 ha, 30-50 ha, 50-100 ha, and >100 ha.

Land fragmentation: It is defined as the number of parcels per holdings. A parcel is defined a separately assessed lot or piece of real property. The following classes are defined: 1-3, 4-6, 7-9, 10-12, 13-15, 16-19, and >19 parcels.

Net farm income: The farm income plays a very important role in defining the strategies of the farmers with respect to the land management. If the farmers get sufficient income from the farm, they will adopt all possible strategies to preserve the soils and the environment. The Net Farm Income is defined as: NFI = Total Output (A) - All Inputs (B) + net public receipts (subsidies less farm taxes). The following classes are defined: (a) range: low, range: <Local Mean - St.Dev.; (b) moderate,
range: > Local Mean - St. Dev. < Local Mean, (c) high, range: > Local Mean < Local Mean + St. Dev.; and (d) very high, range: > Local Mean + St. Dev.

Parallel employment: It is defined as the percentage of off-farm Income as a percentage of the Total Family Income (Family Farm Income plus Off-Farm Income) or as the parallel employment in other sectors except agricultural such as industry, municipality, state, etc.