Environmental and socio-economic assessment of arid land farming

The impacts of the agricultural development policies on the environment are of major public concern, in both developed and developing countries. Understanding these impacts requires information on the relationship between agriculture, the environment and sustainable development. In Egypt, the agricultural development policies have embarked on desert land reclamation to establish new settlements by extending the cultivated area. The main destinations of the new settlements are potential areas such as the Lake Nasser region. This book presents a comprehensive evaluation of the impacts of such development activities in Lake Nasser area on the settling farmers and the surrounding natural environment. The analyses proceeded in three steps. It started by analyzing the socio-economic settings of the farmers which allowed for better understanding of their resource capacities, problems and resource management approaches. The second step investigated the impacts of the current development activities on the successful establishment of a sustainable farming community in the area. It relied on a group of indicators that were developed using the properties of the agroecosystems and the main dimensions of sustainable development. The indicators cover the environmental, economic and social properties of the farming systems and emphasize their most potential components and interactions. The book is concluded by suggesting strategies that could improve the socio-economic status of the farming families while alleviating the negative impacts on the natural resources. The empirical results of this book contribute in the operationalization of the concept of the environmental, economic and social evaluation of the sustainable development of agricultural activities.