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, the authors evaluated whether current Andean production systems provide sufficient energy, iron and zinc output to meet household-level requirements and explored the likely effect of commonly promoted food-based approaches.
Abstract: Child undernutrition is persistently high in the central Andes of Peru, and numerous smallholder households fail to meet their basic needs of energy, iron and zinc. Food-based approaches assume household-level nutrition can be improved following agricultural interventions. This study assesses for the first time whether current Andean production systems provide sufficient energy, iron and zinc output to meet household-level requirements and explores the likely effect of commonly promoted food-based approaches. Across four communities, we determined the crop and livestock production output for each household (n = 165) during one growing season. The household-level nutritional demand or input was calculated as a function of household composition and daily requirements of energy, iron and zinc as established by FAO/WHO. We examined five scenarios, current practice or status quo and four food-based interventions: (1) increased potato yield, (2) introduced biofortified potatoes, (3) promotion of guinea pigs and (4) a mixed strategy combining all of the above. Under status quo, 86, 62 and 76 % of households obtained sufficient production output to meet energy, iron and zinc requirements, respectively. Considering the three parameters simultaneously, 59 % of households were able to meet their energy, iron and zinc requirements. The total crop production among households provided more than the necessary energy, iron and zinc output to meet the demand of all 165 households. Yet, significant differences between households account for individual deficits or surpluses in household-level output–input balances. Potato (Solanum spp.), barley (Hordeum vulgare) and faba (Vicia faba) production was particularly significant in determining the energy, iron and zinc output. Livestock did not make a substantial contribution. The main difference between households with negative versus positive coverage, in terms of household-level production output from agriculture meeting demand (=input), was available cropping area given household size. None of the explored food-based interventions closed the energy, iron and zinc deficit from production among households with negative coverage. The smallholder production systems analyzed are only partially capable of providing sufficient production output to cover household-level energy, iron and zinc demands. Of the four interventions examined, a mixed strategy holds most potential for reducing nutrition gaps. Particularly potato yield increases had a positive effect. The carrying capacity of high-altitude Andean farming systems is strained for households with limited land. Food-based approaches to nutrition under scenarios similar to those reported in this study are advised to balance agricultural interventions with options to enhance off-farm access to food.
8 citations
01 Jan 2002
TL;DR: In this paper, the spatial distribution of wild potato species is analyzed, and the value of geographic, ecological, and taxonomic factors to predict the presence of frost tolerance in wild potatoes is studied.
Abstract: Spatial variation is a fundamental characteristic of agriculture, but crop scientists have largely ignored it, particularly at levels beyond the field scale. This thesis provides examples of analysis of spatial variation over larger areas. It contributes to our knowledge of the potato crop and its wild relatives, and to methodological progress in the use of geographic information in crop science. Part I deals with management of genetic resources. Methods that can be used to improve data quality in biological collection databases, and to assess the presence of spatial biases are discussed. The spatial distribution of wild potato species is analyzed, and the value of geographic, ecological, and taxonomic factors to predict the presence of frost tolerance in wild potatoes is studied. Part II deals with aspects of agro-ecological zoning approaches for research management. First, gobal potato distribution is described and analyzed. This is followed by a constraint-specific agro-ecological zoning study for potato late blight; a study on the potential impact of frost resistant potatoes; and an assessment of the effect of climate change on global potato production. In the final chapter, research needs and challenges to the further use of GIS in crop science are discussed.
6 citations
01 Jan 2007
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors present an archaeological and ethnographic example of intensive agropastoral production from Mount Kasigau in the Taita Hills of southwestern Kenya and compare it with other intensive agricultural systems.
Abstract: Agricultural systems can become complex in many different ways; nor do they necessarily intensify. In local histories, people employ varying agricultural strategies over time. In East Africa, the archaeological and ethnographic records demonstrate considerable variation in the use of extensive and intensive agricultural methods. After defining our terms, we will review some African examples of intensive agricultural systems and their comparative value in studying intensification. We will present an archaeological and ethnographic example of intensive agropastoral production from Mount Kasigau in the Taita Hills of southwestern Kenya.
5 citations
Additional excerpts
...Local histories often, however, demonstrate the complex interplay of intensive and extensive strategies (which might in itself demonstrate “intensification”, depending on one’s definition), and the oscillation from intensive to extensive or even the collapse of intensive systems ( Wiegers et al. 1999 )....
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TL;DR: It is shown that intensification occurs in each landscape through adaptations of traditional management practices while maintaining high intraspecific diversity, which requires adaptive ways to incentivize in situ conservation.
Abstract: In the high Andes, environmental and socio-economic drivers are transforming land use and presumably affecting the in situ conservation of potato (Solanum spp.). To monitor the use and conservation of intraspecific diversity, systematic and comparative studies across land-use systems are needed. We investigated the spatial-temporal dynamics of potato in two contrasting landscapes of Peru’s central Andes: a highland plateau (Huancavelica) vs. an eastern slope (Pasco). We examined household-level areal allocations, altitudinal distribution, sectoral fallowing practices, and the conservation status for three main cultivar groups: (i) bred varieties, (ii) floury landraces, and (iii) bitter landraces. Mixed methods were used to survey 323 households and the 1,101 potato fields they managed in 2012–2013. We compared the contemporary altitudinal distribution of landraces with 1975–1985 altimeter genebank data from the International Potato Center. We show that intensification occurs in each landscape through adaptations of traditional management practices while maintaining high intraspecific diversity. Access to land and production end use (sale vs. consumption) significantly affected smallholder management and differentiated the landscapes. Total areas in Huancavelica and Pasco were allocated to 82.9% vs. 74.2% floury landraces, 9.2% vs. 25.7% bred varieties, and 7.9% vs. 0.1% bitter landraces. In market-oriented Pasco, fields in sectoral fallows between 3,901 m and 4,116 m above sea level consistently contained the highest levels of landrace diversity. The bulk of diversity in subsistence-oriented Huancavelica occurred between 3,909 m and 4,324 m outside sectoral fallows. Most of the unique landraces documented were scarce across households: 45.4% and 61.7% respectively in Huancavelica and Pasco. Bred varieties showed the widest (1,100 m) and bitter landraces the narrowest (400 m) altitudinal distributions. Potato cultivation has moved upward by an average of 306 m since 1975. Landrace diversity is versatile but unevenly distributed across landscapes. This requires adaptive ways to incentivize in situ conservation.
5 citations
01 Jan 2007
TL;DR: The contributors of this volume have tackled fundamental archaeological issues that have long been taken for granted as discussed by the authors, such as subsistence intensification, innovation and change in pre-history, but only a handful of treatments do more than superficially reiterate these now-questionable theories.
Abstract: The contributors to this volume have tackled fundamental archaeological issues that have long been taken for granted — subsistence intensification, innovation and change. As an underlying assumption in many ‘bread and butter’ problems in prehistory — domestication, social complexity, state formation — the theoretical importance of such processes cannot be understated. What the editors found striking, leading to the development of this volume, is how little attention these topics have actually received. Since the intense flurry of activity around Boserup’s initial publications many decades ago, only a handful of treatments, as noted in our introductory chapter, do more than superficially reiterate these now-questionable theories. Instead, these long-held but unsupported assumptions borrowed from other disciplines have served as paradigmatic ‘place holders’.
5 citations
Cites background from "Land Use Intensification and Disint..."
...It is clear that many archaeological contexts could benefit from the exploration and development of empirical methods with which we can "tease out" intensification, specialization, and diversification (Farrington 1985) and the like, and also examine the issues behind “disintensification” (Conelly 1994, Wiegers et al. 1999 )....
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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.
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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