Agricultural Impact Assessment

In developing countries, development applications are inevitable and often these development applications involve land which has originally been allocated for agricultural purposes.

The objective of an agricultural impact assessment is to provide the authorities with relevant and objective information pertaining to the anticipated positive and negative agricultural impacts associated with the project, together with appropriate management and mitigation measures in order to enable decision-makers to promote sustainable development.

The primary objective of the agricultural impact assessment is to provide specialist agricultural, soil, and land use input for the overall Environmental Impact assessment.

The importance of the process is to add to the body of knowledge required by decision-makers to make informed decisions on the appropriateness of the proposal and conditions necessary to eliminate or lessen impacts to an acceptable level.

An on-site inspection is conducted. The agricultural assessment includes data on Climate, geology, land- use and soil characteristics.

The following can be considered

• the agricultural capability of the land involved;
• the current use of the affected lands (vegetative & crop cover, buildings, structures and infrastructure improvements);
• the nature of the proposed activities and its compatibility within an agricultural area.
• the value, in the long term, of the loss of agricultural production;
• the impact of severing farm units.