The bulk of poverty in India is found among those with no land or insufficient land with which to feed themselves. This predicament is a result of both population growth and the failure of the government to create sufficient employment opportunities in rural areas. India's inheritance custom, which calls for a sharing of property among a deceased's heirs, has fragmented farms into ever smaller holdings. The sharecropping system has created obstacles against participation of the rural masses in the development effort. The failure of agrarian reform efforts in India is attributed to the resistance of the powerful land-owning interests, supported by small landowners. Industrialization has not provided employment for the many rural unemployed who drift to the cities. It is not the lack of agricultural investment per se that is the source of the problem of the landless poor. Rather, social and political issues are involved. Large farms tend to obtain whatever aid is available for rural development. The increased use of electrification and mechanization has reduced the amount of employment available for landless workers. Half of India's arable land remains in the hands of 7% of the big land-holders. Thus, the gap between the haves and the have-nots has actually increased as a result of agricultural development. Food production has increased, but the ability of the poor masses to purchase food has decreased. As long as they are weak economically, the poor are likely to remain weak politically. Thus, there is a need for both economic and political reform. Resources must be massively diverted for the benefit of the rural sector, and power must be developed within democratic organizations at the rural level. The consequences of such change may be unacceptable to the elite classes who control the state apparatus and have the power to eradicate poverty and reduce inequality, however.
China's population growth process has gone through 4 stages since 1950: 1) the period 1950-57, when there was a net population increase of 100 million people in response to postwar economic recovery; 2) the period 1958-61, when the birth rate declined and the death rate increased as a result of the upheavals caused by the "great leap forward" movement; 3) the period 1962-75, during which family planning was introduced; and 4) the period 1976-80, during which time family planning has been rigorously practiced. As a result of conscious population reduction measures, the natural growth rate has been reduced to less than 1% in the urban areas and slightly over 1.2% in rural areas. If an annual growth rate of 1.4% is maintained, China's population will grow to a peak of 1380 million before beginning its decline early in the 21st century. The total population of China stood at 1,008,175,288 at the time of the 1982 census, with a male to female ratio of 106.3:100. Over 60% of the population was born after 1949. Those born during the population peak periods of 1954-57 and 1962-75 have already reached reproductive age. The illiteracy rate has declined to 23.5%. The number of people employed in the primary sector has remained consistently high (80% of the total work force), while employment in the secondary sector has increased and employment in the tertiary sector has declined slightly. In 1982, 20.9% of China's population was urban and 6.7% of the population was from an ethnic minority grouping. Finally, the 1982 Census indicated an average life expectancy of 67.88 years. Population reduction measures in China have included the 1-child family policy, incentives and penalties, and social welfare measures for the elderly. In addition, family planning units at every level of government conduct family planning promotion activities, provide free family planning services, and encourage delayed 1st marriage.
Desertification is a result of overexploitation of the land through overcultivation, overgrazing, deforestation, and poor irrigation practices. This process is a result of the growing imbalance between population, resources, environment, and development. The principle problem causing desertification is not population increase per se; rather, it is due to mismanagement of the land. However, rapidly increasing population densities in the drylands of Africa, Asia, and Latin America have upset the former balance upon which subsistence agriculture depended, including long fallow periods to allow the land to regain its fertility. Arable land for the world as a whole is projected to decrease from its 1975 level of .31 ha/person to .15 ha/person by the year 2000. Population increases in the remaining croplands are expected to produce further encroachment on rangelands and forests and increased ecologic degradation, in turn producing further population pressure, poverty, land degradation, and desertification. The basic need is for better resource utilization. Halting desertification requires the restoration of the balance between man and land. Development, good resource management, and use of appropriate technologic advances are key factors. There is also a crucial need for each country to relate its population policy to its resource base and development plans. Population increase cannot continue indefinitely without regard for the realities of resources, development, and the environment.
Desertification threatens 35% of the earth's land surface and 19% of the world's population. Each year, 60,000 sq km of land are reduced to desert-like conditions. Of the world's drylands, 60% has already been affected by the desertification process. The direct cost of desertification in the form of loss in agricultural production has been estimated at US$26 billion/year. To halt and perhaps reverse the desertification process, the United Nations Conference on Desertification (UNCOD) formulated a comprehensive Plan of Action to Combat Desertification (PACD) in 1977. However, there has been little progress in implementing the 28 recommendations contained within the PACD. Less than US$50,000, none of it from developed countries, has been raised toward the US$90 billion needed over a 20-year period. Developed nations prefer to give assistance through bilateral aid agreements that allow them to secure secondary benefits such as contracts, employment, and political influence. Another problem involves policies within the affected countries. Environmental programs tend not to be awarded high priority because of their lack of quick visual evidence of results. Government leaders must be convinced that desertification is a steady process that is robbing their lands of productive capabilities and increasing economic dependence on outside sources of support. A national machinery and institutional support to coordinate national action must be established. This requires development of a national plan of action to combat desertification, in which a detailed assessment is made of a country's desertification problems, priority projects are identified, and the institutional support to organize and coordinate the national plan is outlined. The United Nations Environment Program is prepared to assist any developing country in the preparation of such plans.
