“Poverty reduction cannot be achieved without improved soil management.” Discuss this statement.

Responses should show a clear understanding of the terms “poverty reduction” and “soil management” and comment on the direct links or lack of links between the two.

Possible themes include:

• soil erosion and overgrazing and the harm to farmers’ livelihoods
• salinization and the long-term problems it creates in some low-income countries
• poverty reduction can also be achieved through international aid and debt relief
• migrant remittances play an important role in some contexts
• soil management techniques including terracing, afforestation, rotation, additional fertilizers.

Good responses that score well at AO3 (synthesis/evaluation) will consider both sides of this question and may use one or more of the following approaches:

Spatial – On a local, national or regional scale where agricultural activities are the norm, soil management strategies will no doubt have a positive impact on communities and help in reducing poverty. By comparing strategies in rural/urban and/or different geographic regions responses may evaluate the success of different poverty reduction strategies.

Temporal – Soil management may reduce poverty in the long-term, but is unlikely to have any positive impact in the short-term, whereas other strategies such as micro credit, aid, family support payments and remittances may be more appropriate and have more short-term benefits.

Perspectives – Responses could comment that soil management is only part of any poverty reduction strategy as it only focuses on one limited aspect of poverty. Reducing poverty for agricultural communities is not only about yields from farmlands but is also about access to markets and a fair price for produce. Also poverty reduction
is not only about increasing wealth, but also intricately connected to education, health and gender issues, where improved soil management may not make much of a difference.

Responses do not need to consider more than one of these ways in order to access top marks. They may also tackle the question on any scale, local, regional or global.

Better answers will discuss not only soil management strategies but other ways in which poverty can be reduced, such as debt relief, remittances, aid, trade and market access.

At band D, responses will describe some aspects of soil management techniques or may focus on alternative approaches to reducing poverty.

At band E, responses will either explain both sides of the question or will synthesize well developed themes to discuss how poverty as a concept goes beyond only the quality of soil.

At band F, expect both.

Marks should be allocated according to the markbands.