ABSTRACT
Land degradation represents a key issue threatening rural societies due to the depletion of vital resources. In particular, rural areas focused on conventional agricultural activities are facing relevant difficulties. Therefore, rural poverty appears as a consequence of land abandonment (LA) and land degradation (LD). In several plantations along the Mediterranean belt, farmers use herbicides, chemicals or tillage instead of performing sustainable soil management activities. Nowadays, diverse studies promote the use of cover crops, mulches, buffer strips and organic farming to reduce the soil degradation thus obtaining positive impacts on farmers’ incomes. Nevertheless, the perception of the stakeholders on the economic costs of these control measures contradicts the scientific findings. In this chapter, different case studies have been analysed on LD and farmers’ perception in the Mediterranean for vineyards, citrus and olives. Results show that the use of control measures can reduce soil erosion, but stakeholders accept them in their plantations only if subsidized.
