Policy modelling of the trade-off between agricultural development and land degradation - the Sudan case

The agricultural policy model of the trade-off between agricultural growth and land degradation that we have developed, with Sudan as an application, shares common features with the computable general equilibrium (CGE) models. The model is used to address two questions. First, what are the future prospects of a green gross domestic product (GDP), are there reasons for alarm or not, and to what extent? Secondly, which among the four policies of price incentives, property rights, poverty reduction, and human capital are more effective than the others? We show that the prospects of natural resource-friendly agricultural development in Sudan-a rising green GDP-are not promising in the medium run, but that, indeed, there is a range of effective policies and choices that could reduce the trade-off between economic growth and land degradation. (C) 2001 Society for Policy Modeling. Published by Elsevier Science Inc.