Allow me a space in your widely read newspaper to express my views about how rural poverty and environmental degradation affects the socio-economic life of the rural people.

 Cutting the remaining trees and cultivating forest lands continuously will only worse the hardship that the rural people are experiencing. This is what extension workers, especially the foresters continue to sensitise farmers on, but they remain to depend on the foresters to sensitise farmers, but they remain to depend on the forest resources to obtain their livelihood.

Trees fulfil many different functions, apart from influencing the amount of rainfall, they provide timber and fuel wood for construction and cooking, respectively. Without fire wood and timber it will be to prepare food and construct furniture.

 As a result of intensification of land use by the rapidly growing population, the cutting of trees for fuel wood and the cleaning of marginal land for cultivation, the increasing exposure to destructive environmental forces. The lost vegetation which help mitigate the destructive impact of heavy winds rains and desiccation by the sun, lead to a more rapid erosion of precious top soil needed for cultivation.

 The fact is, there is a cross- cutting triggering rural people to continuously cut down the trees, perhaps the only means to survival. However, persistent poverty is frequently the root cause. The majority of the people in the rural areas survive on the meagre yields from cultivation of small plots of lands whose soil may be too shallow, too dry or too sandy to sustain continuous agricultural practices. If the land is not in some way replenished through shifting cultivation or use of manufactured of fertilisers, which most rural farmers cannot afford, then the soil become exhausted and yields gradually decreases with successive harvest.

 Another factor in the cycle of rural poverty and environmental degradation is deforestation.The vast majority of the trees cut in the forest are use for fuel wood and timber for home consumption and for commercial purposes. The lost of the forest cover has two devastating effects, environmental implications predominantly for the rural poor population. One, deforestation can can lead to a number of environmental effects, that over a period of time can greatly lower agricultural yields which consequently increase rural hardship. Secondly, on a day-to- day basis, the scarcity of fuel wood means that women must spend larger population of the day in search of fuel wood, diverting their time from other important activities, such as income generation and child welfare development.

 Maintenance of such a problem is the collective responsibility of all citizenry. The increased in natural disaster associated with environmental degradation including flood, drought and landslides can have devastating impacts on both the local and the regional agricultural economy. The issue is, how can the rural poor farmers continue to use the resources and at the same time manage the same forest against destructive agents of the environment