Land Use Intensification and Disintensification in the Upper Cañete Valley, Peru
01 Jun 1999-Human Ecology (Kluwer Academic Publishers-Plenum Publishers)-Vol. 27, Iss: 2, pp 319-339
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors show that the direction of land use change depends on the production zone in which it takes place, and that land in distant rainfed agropastoral zone is disintensified through land abandonment and an increase of the fallow period, land in nearby irrigated agropasteoral zone are intensified through more frequent cropping, and the use of high-yielding potato varieties, fertilizers, and pesticides.
Abstract: Farmers in the Upper Canete valley have both disintensified and intensified land use. The direction of land use change depends on the production zone in which it takes place. Although land in the distant rainfed agropastoral zone is disintensified through land abandonment and an increase of the fallow period, land in the nearby irrigated agropastoral zone is intensified through more frequent cropping, and the use of high-yielding potato varieties, fertilizers, and pesticides. Simultaneous intensification and disintensification contradicts Boserup's theory of agricultural intensification, which predicts unilinear change for all land use systems within a village territory. Population has decreased in the Upper Cante valley, but this factor alone cannot explain the dynamics of land use. Land use change is also driven by differences and complementarity between production zones, their distance from the villages, and social, economic, and technological change.
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TL;DR: In this article, a review of soil fertility decline from a management perspective and considers six basic approaches to enhance nutrient cycling, crop nutrient acquisition, and long-term productivity is presented.
Abstract: Small farmers in the high Andes (> 2500 m) of Bolivia, Ecuador, and Peru face increasing threats to their livelihoods due to land degradation, climate change, and overall decreases in agricultural productivity. The fragile nature of these agroecosystems and limited capacity of resource-poor farmers in the region to adopt the large-scale use of conventional fertilizer and pest control technologies suggest the need for agroecological intensification to restore soil functioning and ensure long-term sustainability in these systems. This review addresses soil fertility decline from a management perspective and considers six basic approaches to enhance nutrient cycling, crop nutrient acquisition, and long-term productivity. A mass balance approach first defines basic boundaries for nutrient cycling and suggests that erosion control and identification of alternative nutrient sources (e.g., peri-urban wastes, rock phosphate) are critical for reversing negative nutrient budgets. Meanwhile, short-term nutrient dynamics could benefit greatly from improved management of organic residues in combination with low-level inorganic fertilizer applications. There is also a need for greater understanding of soil physiochemical properties throughout much of the Andes and the impacts of management. Similarly, soil biological functioning is critical for successful agroecological intensification and there is great potential for both inoculative and management strategies to promote beneficial soil communities. Crop breeding for smallholder environments should complement strategies of agroecological intensification, taking advantage of high regional agrobiodiversity and experience from stress breeding programs in other regions. Finally, we suggest several means by which the spatial and temporal organization of farms may be improved to enhance overall agroecosystem function.
60 citations
Cites background from "Land Use Intensification and Disint..."
...At the same time, local labor shortages and high emigration (more typical of rural areas) can lead to de-intensification and resultant increases in erosion, due to the associated deterioration of soil conservation structures or continued soil loss from fields with degraded vegetation and poor soil cover (Harden, 1996; Wiegers et al., 1999; Zimmerer, 1993)....
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...…(more typical of rural areas) can lead to de-intensification and resultant increases in erosion, due to the associated deterioration of soil conservation structures or continued soil loss from fields with degraded vegetation and poor soil cover (Harden, 1996; Wiegers et al., 1999; Zimmerer, 1993)....
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..., reduced fallow periods) has led to a growing reliance on synthetic fertilizers (when available and affordable) to make up the difference (Claverı́as, 1994; Wiegers et al., 1999)....
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...…used to restore soil fertility (Hervé, 1994; Sarmiento and Bottner, 2002), intensification of cropping systems (i.e., reduced fallow periods) has led to a growing reliance on synthetic fertilizers (when available and affordable) to make up the difference (Claverı́as, 1994; Wiegers et al., 1999)....
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Book•
07 Oct 2016
TL;DR: The Cultural Development of the Andes: The Andes as transport space of physical geography has been studied extensively in the last few decades as mentioned in this paper, with a focus on conservation and protected areas.
Abstract: 1 Introduction- 2 Factors, Processes and Spaces of Physical Geography- 3 Conservation and Protected Areas- 4 The Cultural Development of the Andes- 5 Ethnic and Demographic Structures and Processes- 6 Rural and Urban Settlements- 7 Economic Structures and Regions- 8 The Andes as Transport Space- 9 Geo-Political and Religio-Geographical Parameters- 10 Development Aspects and Perspectives- Epilogue- Glossary- References
57 citations
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01 Dec 2006
TL;DR: Folk experiments in agriculture are often inspired by new ideas blended with old ones, motivated by economic and environmental change as discussed by the authors, and the new ideas that catalyze folk experiments may be provided by development agencies, but paradoxically, the folk experiments are so common that the agencies that inspire them usually pay little attention to them.
Abstract: Folk experiments in agriculture are often inspired by new ideas blended with old ones, motivated by economic and environmental change. They tend to save labor or capital. These notions are illustrated with nine short case studies from Nicaragua and El Salvador. The new ideas that catalyze folk experiments may be provided by development agencies, but paradoxically, the folk experiments are so common that the agencies that inspire them usually pay little attention to them. Some folk experiments are original, but others simply copy innovations that farmers have seen somewhere else. Unlike formal scientific research, in which results are consistently written, folk experiments are rarely “inscribed,” because the results are for use by individual farmers and need not be shared with an audience.
50 citations
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors analyzed the medium and short-term evolution of vegetation cover, fluvial islands and main channel characteristics along a gravel-bed reach of the Piave River (North-eastern Italy), with special emphasis on the changes in the vegetation cover type and structure.
Abstract: During the last decades, several Italian gravel-bed rivers suffered from different types and levels of human pressures that changed their morphological and vegetation patterns. This study aims to analyze the medium- and short-term evolution of vegetation cover, fluvial islands and main channel characteristics along a gravel-bed reach of the Piave River (North-eastern Italy), with special emphasis on the changes in the vegetation cover type and structure. The Piave River experienced different types of human disturbance such as gravel mining, hydropower schemes, and land use changes. A sequence of aerial photographs (1960, 1970, 1982, 1991, 1999, 2006, 2010 and 2012) have been analyzed to detect the medium-term (about 50 yr) evolution of riparian vegetation along a reach about 30 km-long in the middle course of the Piave River. In addition, LiDAR data (2003) and seven repeated topographic surveys (done between 2007 and 2011) have been used to quantify changes in three cross sections on a sub-reach about 2 km-long, in order to analyze the channel evolution over a short period (1–8 yr). The medium-term analysis revealed that changes in the river evolutionary trend depended on the variations in human activities both in the main channel and at basin scale. In fact, during the last five decades there has been a consistent and continuous increase of riparian vegetation within the river corridor, from around 50% up to 68%, which corresponds to a continuous decrease from around 46% to 29% in the area of exposed gravel and low flow channels. Considering the different vegetation cover types, there was a predominant increase of stable and tall vegetation from around 34% up to a maximum of around 67% (1999), then a slight decrease to around 62% (2010 and 2012). After a slight recovery phase subsequent to the cessation of gravel mining in the late 1990s and associated to flood events in the early 2000s, the Piave River appears to have been in an equilibrium phase in terms of bed elevation, planform morphology and areas of vegetation, which is becoming taller and more mature, as a result of the combination of flow regulation, reduced bedload input from upstream and lack of relevant flood events. These results suggest that in highly regulated — in terms of flow and sediment fluxes — rivers the cessation of gravel mining alone is not sufficient to revert a degradation trend and thus restore prior morphological patterns.
44 citations
TL;DR: In this paper, a survey of 197 farms in the Peruvian Altiplano around Lake Titicaca was conducted to investigate the role of social capital in creating incentives and removing barriers to soil conservation.
Abstract: The debate over sustainable intensification has hinged on private incentives to abate land degradation. Largely missing is the role of social capital in both creating incentives and removing barriers to soil conservation. Yet soil conservation embodies the externality problem that bedevils so many aspects of natural resource management. Action by one farmer to reduce water or wind erosion may benefit neighboring fields by slowing the rate of water or wind movement across those lands. Yet these benefits are not fully captured by the farmer making the conservation investment. However, when economic agents care for one another, these externalities can be internalized, reducing the individual's disincentive to perform a socially level of natural resource conservation. Likewise, community organizations may provide collective capital and labor to overcome adoption barriers faced by individuals. The twin hypotheses that 1) farming practices influence soil erosion and 2) social capital influences the adoption of sustainable farming practices are tested with data from a 1999 survey of 197 farms in the Peruvian Altiplano around Lake Titicaca. The survey used cluster sampling of farms in villages to represent each of three arable agro-ecological zones in the Ilave-Huenque river basin. Relative asset levels were used to stratify resident households within villages. Personal interviews collected a wide range of data on farm household assets, management practices, and status of agricultural natural resources.
36 citations
References
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Book•
01 Jan 1965
TL;DR: In this paper, Boserup argues that changes and improvements occur from within agricultural communities, and that improvements are governed not simply by external interference, but by those communities themselves using extensive analyses of the costs and productivity of the main systems of traditional agriculture.
Abstract: This book sets out to investigate the process of agrarian change from new angles and with new results. It starts on firm ground rather than from abstract economic theory. Upon its initial appearance, it was heralded as "a small masterpiece, which economic historians should read--and not simply quote"--Giovanni Frederico, Economic History Services. The Conditions of Agricultural Growth remains a breakthrough in the theory of agricultural development. In linking ethnography with economy, developmental studies reached new heights. Whereas "development" had been seen previously as the transformation of traditional communities by the introduction (or imposition) of new technologies, Ester Boserup argues that changes and improvements occur from within agricultural communities, and that improvements are governed not simply by external interference, but by those communities themselves Using extensive analyses of the costs and productivity of the main systems of traditional agriculture, Ester Boserup concludes that technical, economic, and social changes are unlikely to take place unless the community concerned is exposed to the pressure of population growth.
3,639 citations
1,122 citations
Book•
01 Sep 1993
TL;DR: The authors argues that the practice of small-holders is more efficient and less environmentally degrading than that of industrial agriculture which depends heavily on fossil fuel, chemical fertilizers, pesticides and herbicides.
Abstract: Contrasting the prevailing theories of the evolution of agriculture, the author argues that the practice of smallholding is more efficient and less environmentally degrading than that of industrial agriculture which depends heavily on fossil fuel, chemical fertilizers, pesticides and herbicides. He presents a convincing case for his argument with examples taken from Africa, Asia, Europe and the Americas, and demonstrates that there are fundamental commonalities among smallholder cultures. "Smallholders, Householders" is a detailed and innovative analysis of the agricultural efficiency and conservation of resources practiced around the world by smallholders.
870 citations
TL;DR: In this article, the authors argue that the practice of small-holders is more efficient and less environmentally degrading than that of industrial agriculture which depends heavily on fossil fuel, chemical fertilizers, pesticides and herbicides.
Abstract: Contrasting the prevailing theories of the evolution of agriculture, the author argues that the practice of smallholding is more efficient and less environmentally degrading than that of industrial agriculture which depends heavily on fossil fuel, chemical fertilizers, pesticides and herbicides. He presents a convincing case for his argument with examples taken from Africa, Asia, Europe and the Americas, and demonstrates that there are fundamental commonalities among smallholder cultures. \"Smallholders, Householders\" is a detailed and innovative analysis of the agricultural efficiency and conservation of resources practiced around the world by smallholders.
797 citations
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01 Jan 1930
704 citations