By 2000 AD approximately 84 per cent of the world's arable cropland will rely on rainfall. Throughout developing countries the yields of many rain-fed farmers are falling and their ability to sustain production seems uncertain. Land degradation must be halted, security of harvests improved, and wherever necessary yields increased, crops diversified, and the area cultivated extended. For the most cultivators some form of improved rain-fed agriculture is likely to be the only practical route to such goals.
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