Many of the financial and social challenges that face Central and West Asia and North Africa (CWANA) can be addressed through more efficient and sustainable use of arable land and water resources. In recent years improvements in land and water use have come from an agricultural sector that is moving from state to market control, but without greater changes the region will continue to be constrained by environmental degradation, institutional inefficiencies, and persistently high population growth rates. This chapter presents a trend analysis of major cropping groups for the period 1961–2002 and summarizes ways to address the key problems of food security, poverty reduction, and conservation of natural resources throughout the CWANA region. The International Center for Agricultural Research in the Dry Areas (ICARDA) and its partners are presented as a regional knowledge portal through which many of these initiatives can occur.

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