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 analyzed remotely sensed data sources to evaluate land-use history within the Peruvian department of Amazonas and demonstrates the utility of comparing present and past land use patterns using continuous datasets, as a complement to the often dispersed and discrete data produced by archaeological and paleoecological field studies.
Abstract: This paper analyzes remotely sensed data sources to evaluate land-use history within the Peruvian department of Amazonas and demonstrates the utility of comparing present and past land-use patterns using continuous datasets, as a complement to the often dispersed and discrete data produced by archaeological and paleoecological field studies. We characterize the distribution of ancient (ca. AD 1–1550) terracing based on data drawn from high-resolution satellite imagery and compare it to patterns of deforestation between 2001 and 2019, based on time-series Landsat data. We find that the patterns reflected in these two datasets are statistically different, indicating a distinctive shift in land-use, which we link to the history of Inka and Spanish colonialism and Indigenous depopulation in the 15th through 17th centuries AD as well as the growth of road infrastructure and economic change in the recent past. While there is a statistically significant relationship between areas of ancient terracing and modern-day patterns of deforestation, this relationship ultimately explains little (6%) of the total pattern of modern forest loss, indicating that ancient land-use patterns do not seem to be structuring modern-day trajectories of land-use. Together, these results shed light on the long-term history of land-use in Amazonas and their enduring legacies in the present.
4 citations
01 Jan 2004
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors argue that natural resource sustainability in developing countries is not the result of a direct cause-effect relationship, but rather is engendered by a web of causal factors.
Abstract: Sustaining natural resource stocks especially those underpinning the capacity to produce food is key to most definitions of sustainable development. Yet troubling evidence has surfaced of instances where the rural poor were forced to sacrifice long-term sustainability for the sake of near-term survival (Mink 1993; Figueroa 1998). Are such cases special ones, or is rural poverty a driving factor in causing soil erosion, overgrazing, deforestation, and degradation of other natural resources? This paper argues that natural resource sustainability in developing countries is not the result of a direct cause-effect relationship, but rather is engendered by a web of causal factors. Untangling that web entails separating out strands for poverty from those for location-specific natural resource conditions, human institutions, technology, and population. This paper reviews the history of the poverty-environment debate, examines three sets of case studies that shed light on key relationships, and finally proposes policy interventions to promote the sustainability of the natural resources that underpin agricultural productivity.
4 citations
01 Apr 2013
TL;DR: A typologie d’unites de production agricole familiales (UPAF) as mentioned in this paper is constructed on the base of 6 groups of communautes which differencient des systemes agraires dans le haut bassin-versant du Canete (departement de Lima, Perou).
Abstract: Une typologie d’unites de production agricole familiales (UPAF) est construite sur la base des 6 groupes de communautes qui differencient des systemes agraires dans le haut bassin-versant du Canete (departement de Lima, Perou). L’hypothese est que la differenciation socioeconomique entre les unites de production est limitee du fait des fortes contraintes du milieu montagnard qui encadrent les ressources disponibles, et du fait de leur appartenance a des communautes paysannes qui en regulent l’acces et la distribution. On utilise une methode semi-automatique d’agregation sur des poles virtuels definis avec une technique de centres mobiles, et caracterises selon des modalites de variables descriptives. Le croisement de la typologie des communautes paysannes avec celle des unites de production familiales, facilite par l’utilisation d’un meme concept de zone de production, fournit une representation precise de la diversite des unites de production agricole familiales, qui s’etend depuis le niveau de la communaute a celui de la province. Plus de 2 000 UPAF se repartissent ainsi dans 33 types definis par des oppositions de topographie (altitude-fond de vallee), systeme de production (elevage a laine sur parcours ou laitier sur luzerniere, agriculture sous pluie ou irriguee) et structure locale (diversification-specialisation, pauvrete-richesse, gestion collective-privatisation). Deux tendances se dessinent chez les unites de production les plus stables : 1) de specialisation vers les elevages d’altitude, l’elevage bovin laitier sur luzernieres ou la production fruitiere, et 2) d’accumulation au cours du cycle vital de l’exploitation. Il apparait aussi que certaines communautes sont fragilisees par une proportion relativement elevee de chefs de famille avec peu ou pas de ressources agro-pastorales, âges ou residant en dehors de la communaute. Les deux groupes de communautes d’eleveurs d’altitude ont des caracteristiques clairement differenciees par rapport aux quatre autres groupes d’agriculteurs-eleveurs. En altitude, l’activite d’elevage (ovins et auquenides, puis bovins) est soumise a la concurrence des activites minieres et touristiques, ce qui est a mettre en rapport avec la presence de nombreux chefs de famille avec peu ou pas d’acces aux ressources agropastorales mais avec une activite exterieure. En milieu de vallee on observe un phenomene de destructuration du systeme social traditionnel fonde sur l’entretien collectif des infrastructures d’irrigation, lesquelles sont soumises a l’abandon ou partiellement transformees vers la production individuelle de cultures annuelles sans mais ou de luzerne a bovins. Ces communautes sont clairement fragilisees par la presence de nombreux chefs de famille âges ou ayant un acces limite aux ressources agropastorales et, souvent, une activite exterieure dans les exploitations minieres. En fond de vallee on trouve des communautes specialisees en fruiticulture (dans d’anciennes parcelles a culture annuelle irriguee avec mais ou luzernieres), avec aussi des nombreux chefs de famille âges ou sans acces aux ressources agropastorales, mais souvent avec une activite exterieure. Dans ces communautes se verifie une concurrence croissante d’activites diverses plus orientees vers les services, ainsi qu’une presence accrue de non residents dont l’acces au territoire est facilite par l’amelioration des infrastructures de transport.
3 citations
TL;DR: Fan and Hazell explicitly look at changes over time, addressing the wealth maximization objective of the SD problem at the district scale within two huge countries as mentioned in this paper, and find that agricultural investment in the less-favored areas leads not only to higher marginal rates of return, but also to sharper declines in poverty incidence.
Abstract: development based on indicators of change in the natural capital stock alone, such as the indicators used by Kerr and by PGB&E This constrained maximization problem for sustainable development leads to two linked objectives: increase in wealth and maintenance of the capital stock, especially the natural capital stock Returning to our metaphor, the elephant must enjoy feeding without trampling and overgrazing the bush Through this elephantine lens on sustainable development, the disparate research questions of the three articles fit into view Fan and Hazell explicitly look at changes over time, addressing the wealth maximization objective of the SD problem at the district scale within two huge countries They find that agricultural investment in the less-favored areas leads not only to higher marginal rates of return, but also to sharper declines in poverty incidence They speculate Scott M Swinton is associate professor in the Department of Agricultural Economics at Michigan State University This article was presented in a principal paper session at the AAEA annual meeting (Chicago, IL, August 2001) The articles in these sessions are not subjected to the Journal's standard refereeing process
2 citations
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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.
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
Book•
01 Jan 1930
704 citations