Showing papers on "Subsistence agriculture published in 1996"

Roads, land use, and deforestation : a spatial model applied to Belize

Abstract: Rural roads promote economic development, but they also facilitate deforestation. To explore this tradeoff, this article develops a spatially explicit model of land use and estimates probabilities of alternative land uses as a function of land characteristics and distance to market using a multinomial logit specification of this model. Controls are incorporated for the endogeneity of road placement. The model is applied to data for southern Belize, an area experiencing rapid expansion of both subsistence and commercial agriculture, using geographic information system (GIS) techniques to select sample points at 1 kilometer intervals. Market access, land quality, and tenure status affect the probability of agricultural land use synergistically, having differential effects on the likelihood of commercial versus semi subsistence farming. The results suggest that road building in areas with agriculturally poor soils and low population densities may be lose-lose proposition, causing habitat fragmentation and providing low economic returns.

Varietal mixtures: a viable strategy for sustainable productivity in subsistence agriculture

Abstract: Summary Remarkable parallels link the development of varietal mixtures across subsistence farming systems. Mixtures are grown and persist because they prolong harvest and income flow and provide diversity of diet. From our review of research on agronomic and disease aspects of mixtures in modern agriculture, it is also clear that improved stability and decreased disease severity are common features of mixtures relative to their components in monoculture. Such advantages are of value to both modern and subsistence agriculture. However, in the majority of cases, the yield advantage of mixtures is small. Overall, we conclude that varietal mixtures are presently a viable strategy for sustainable productivity in subsistence agriculture, have potential for improvement without sacrifice of diversity, are an important resource for future global food production and may have an expanding role in modern agriculture in situations where qualitative uniformity is not the guiding priority.

Nematode management in sustainable and subsistence agriculture.

Abstract: ▪ Abstract In small-scale, subsistence agriculture in the tropics and the subtropics, traditional farming practices have evolved that provide a sustainable means of reducing the incidence and damage caused by pests including nematodes. Other newer, cultural and low-input practices can also be successfully introduced in small-scale farming. In sustainable and subsistence farming systems, nematodes and some other pests can be managed by integrating different farming practices into four strategies: preventing the introduction and spread of nematodes; using direct, nonchemical, cultural and physical control methods; encouraging naturally occurring biological control agents; and maintaining or enhancing the biodiversity inherent in multiple cropping and multiple cultivar traditional farming systems to increase the available resistance or tolerance to nematodes.

Environmental scarcity and violent conflict : the case of Rwanda

Abstract: On April 6,1994, President Juvenal Habyarimana's plane exploded in the skies above the Kigali region of Rwanda. Violence gripped the country. Between April and August of 1994, as many as 1 million people were killed and more than 2 million people became refugees. Until this recent violence, Rwanda had a population of 7.5 million, a population growth rate estimated at about 3%, and a population density among the highest in Africa. Ninety-five percent of the population resided in the countryside, and 90% relied on agriculture to sustain themselves. Land scarcity and degradation threatened the ability of food production to keep pace with population growth. Rwanda can be described as a country with severe demographic stress, relying for subsistence on a limited resource base. Although environmental factors were significant development issues, environmental scarcity had at most a limited, aggravating role in the recent conflict.

Home Demand and British Industrialization

Abstract: Household budget studies are used to assess working-class demand for manufactures over industrialization. Contrary to demand-side proponents, increased urbanization, enhanced opportunities for women's and children's work, and a declining subsistence sector all retrenched consumption patterns into demand for the products of traditional industries and decreased demand for the products of new manufacturing industries. However, consideration of national expenditure on necessities shows an increasing surplus available for discretionary expenditure between 1801 and 1841. This reflects an increased purchasing power of the middle and upper classes that may have manifested itself as substantially increased demand for domestic manufactures.

Nontimber forest product gathering in Ritigala forest (Sri Lanka): Household strategies and community differentiation

Abstract: Sri Lanka has a long tradition of forest product use. The relationship of people with a dry zone forest was studied using a sample of 48 households in two villages that varied in distance to the forest and access to the market. All households interviewed collected subsistence forest products and a majority of them also collected commercial products. The daily peak-season income from commercial gathering was 4.5 to 7.7 times the daily labor wage. There is a strong gender specialization, with commercial gathering dominated by men whereas subsistence gathering is almost exclusively the task of women. The average forest-derived household income in the village closer to the forest and with better market access was nearly double that of the other village. Family size as a proxy of labor availability was the main discriminating factor between those households who did and those who did not gather commercial products. A small inverse relationship between forest gathering and size of household agricultural land (particularly paddy rice) was observed. No clear relationship was found between total household income and forest derived income, contradicting the view that commercial forest gathering is an exclusive activity of the poorest households.

Iberian foodways in the Moquegua and Torata Valleys of Southern Peru

Abstract: Spanish settlement of the southern Peruvian coastal river valleys and the introduction of new agricultural and industrial enterprises such as wineries and livestock haciendas altered indigenous systems of production and subsistence. A unique pattern of Spanish colonial animal use emerged as a result of introductions of Old World domesticates in combination with the faunal resources of the Central Andes. Zooarchaeological data from four Spanish colonial wineries from the Moquegua valley and the late prehistoric/colonial site of Torata Alta indicate that colonial economy and subsistence combined Old World domestic mammals and South American camelids—llamas, alpacas. In comparison to Spanish settlement in Florida and the Caribbean, the pattern of animal use that developed in the south Central Andes reflects little reliance on local resources. Colonial Andean foodways more closely parallel those of the Iberian peninsula than other areas of Spanish settlement.

Fishing strategies, fishery development and socioeconomics in traditionally managed Fijian fishing grounds

Abstract: Increasing urban drift of the Fijian population coupled with an increasing proportion of Fijians in full time employment has led to escalating demands for fish and an associated rise in fish prices. Traditionally-managed reef fisheries are now exploited to meet existing subsistence needs and to supply large urban markets. The fishing strategies employed by three fishing communities were compared at different stages of their development from primitive to market economies. It was suggested that the fishing-rights owners have expanded their fisheries for economic gain, but that such expansion has, to date, had minimal impact on favoured fishing tactics and management regimes. However, the socioeconomic impact of the transition to a market economy is profound, with increasing reliance upon income from the fishery.

Agrarian change in kusasi, north-east ghana

Abstract: This article examines the nature of agrarian change in the Kusasi area of north-east Ghana. In focusing upon the dynamic of population growth the study has relevance to the recently rejoined discussion concerning the relationship between population growth and agricultural change. The context in which population growth is proceeding in Kusasi is presented as significantly different from that of other parts of tropical Africa where population growth has been recognised as the dynamic bringing about more productive and sustainable systems. In Kusasi's peripheral and subsistence-oriented economy population growth has led to increased pressure on the biological resources of the region. The permanent compound farming system of the area is now increasingly unable to provide sufficient subsistence for household needs, and, although expansion of farmland into areas recently freed from onchocerciasis is taking place, this is interpreted as merely a temporary respite in the interrelated processes of continuing environmental degradation and declining productivity under the prevailing agricultural system. The article raises the question of how, in the absence of progressive change brought about by population growth, development for regions like Kusasi is to be envisaged. Current programmes of agricultural development are considered in the context of past initiatives.

Threats to Brazilian crocodilian populations

Abstract: Brazilian crocodiles are threatened by gold mining and related mercury- and lead-contamination of animals and their habitat, deforestation, increasing use of land for agriculture and destructive forestry, increased human incursions, and commercial and subsistence hunting for skins and meat. Contaminated meat is consumed by local people and miners, and meat and skins are exported to global markets. Already depleted black caiman Melanosuchus niger populations are seriously affected .

Settlement pattern and the spatial organization of subsistence and mortuary practices in the Mesolithic Ganges Valley, North-Central India

Abstract: This article evaluates a cross‐cultural archaeological model linking the rise of formal cemeteries among hunter‐gatherers to subsistence and settlement patterns, using the Mesolithic of the Ganges valley as a case study Faunal data, including ageable deer teeth, and grave orientation in relation to solar variation suggest that the sites of Mahadaha and Damdama were logistically organized and residentially stable The archaeological evidence thus supports the Saxe‐Goldstein formulation on the interrelationship between cemeteries and corporate group rights to crucial resources (aquatic resources in the Gangetic case) It is suggested that this economic appoach should be complemented by an understanding based on cultural beliefs of past societies

A Re-Evaluation of Mimbres Faunal Subsistence

Abstract: Data from NAN Ruin, Grant County, and Old Town, Luna County, New Mexico, suggest that spatial factors influenced variability in faunal subsistence in the Mimbres Valley from A.D. 1150. It had been accepted that environmental effects from the increase of agriculture in the valley caused the jackrabbit population to increase and the cottontail and artiodactyl populations to decrease. However, this reconstruction is not supported when previously published studies are re-examined with new data from NAN Ruin and Old Town. Throughout the Mimbres region, prehistoric inhabitants appear to have relied primarily on rabbits, while also consuming rodents and artiodactyls. Spatial differences were found throughout the valley, with jackrabbits more common in the middle and lower valley and cottontails more common in the upper valley. These spatial differences reflect variations in local environments. This study indicates that variability in Mimbres faunal subsistence is related to these local environmental vari...

Rural subsistence and protected areas : community use of the Miombo woodlands of Lake Malawi National Park

Abstract: This study examines the utilisation of miombo woodland by fishing communities in Lake Malawi National Park (LMNP). Combining methodologies from the natural and social sciences, patterns of use of non-timber forest products (NTFPs), and the impact of harvesting practices on the resource base, are described. The main focus is the commercial and subsistence use of primary woodland resources including: fuelwood, construction materials and grass thatch. Aerial photographic analysis and a quadrat based vegetation survey are used to examine the impact of local utilisation practices on the miombo woodland. Multivariate analyses assess the importance of different environmental variables in explaining the floristic composition of the woodland vegetation. A range of NTFPs are used locally but market surveys indicate that few products are traded outside the villages. A marketing analysis suggests that urban trade is constrained by the low economic value of woodland resources compared to the high cost of rural transport. Specific patterns of collection and use are apparent for each resource. This thesis explores the impact of different harvesting practices on the miombo woodlands. Using household surveys and time allocation, the effects of children on patterns of wood collection and use are examined. The role of daughters in fuelwood collection is discussed in relation to theories of fertility and family size. Furthermore, behavioural ecology approaches are used to examine the decision making in wood collection. This research provides a useful framework for investigating resource use because it combines concurrent studies of village and woodland communities. The quantitative and rigorous approach enables the factors that influence resource use, and their impact, to be defined. This study contributes to theories of conservation and the practice of integrated management of natural resources. Furthermore, the research demonstrates the importance of woodland resources to the subsistence strategies of rural communities within a protected area system.

Betwixt and Between in the Intermediate Area

Abstract: The great diversity in early subsistence practices and in the later development of complex patterns of social, political, and economic organization is one of the Intermediate Area's greatest riches for comparative anthropological study. Archaeological research there is now in the midst of the conceptual shift needed to take full advantage of the opportunities offered.

Case Studies in Human Ecology

Abstract: Foraging: 1. Australian Aboriginal Subsistence in the Western Desert S. Cane. 2. The Ecological Basisof Hunter-Gatherer Subsistence in African Rain Forests: The Mbuti of Eastern Zaire T.B. Hart, J.A. Hart. 3. Batak Foraging Camps Today: A Window to the History of a Hunting-Gathering Economy J.F. Eder. 4. Northern Islands, Human Error, and Environmental Degradation T.H. McGovern, et al. Pastoralism: 5. Who Survives Drought? Measuring Winners and Losers among the Ariaal Rendille Pastoralists of Kenya E. Fratkin, E.A. Roth. 6. Coping with Drought: Responses of Herders and Livestock in Contrasting Savanna Environments in Southern Zimbabwe I. Scoones. 7. From Zomo to Yak: Change in a Sherpa Village N.H. Bishop. 8. What Alpine Peasants Have in Common R.McC. Netting. Subsistence and Intensive Agriculture: 9. Changing Household Composition, Labor Patterns, and Fertility in a Highland New Guinea Population P.L.Johnson. 10. Variation and Change in Fertility in West Central Nepal S. Folmar. 11. Land Use, Soil Loss, and Sustainable Agriculture in Rwanda D.C. Clay, L.A. Lewis. 12. Agricultural Intensification in a Philippine Frontier Community: Impact on Labor Efficiency and Farm Diversity W.T. Conelly. 13. Seventeenth-Century Organic Agriculture in China W. Dazhong, D. Pimentel. 14. Kofyar CashCropping: Choice and Change in Indigenous Agricultural Development R.McC. Netting, et al. 15. Time, Space, and Transnational Flows: Critical Historical Conjunctures and Explaining Change in Northern Nigerian Agriculture L.D. Lennihan. 16. Ecology and Mormon Settlement in Northeastern Arizona W.S. Abruzzi. Index.

Subsistence Hunting And Resource Management Among The Ju/'Hoansi Of Northwestern Botswana

Abstract: An assessment of subsisten~e hunting and natural resour~e management among Ju/'hoansi Bushmen (San) over a period of 30 years from the 1960s In 1995 was carried out as part of anthropological investigations of remote foraging and food-producing populations in the northwestern Kalahari Desert region of Botswana and Namibia. The Ju/'hoansi pursue a diversified set of resource management and utilization strategies, exploiting over 50 species of mammals, birds, and other fauna using a variety of tools and techniques. Wildlife offtake rates in the 1960s "'ere well below repla~cment rates. Although changes have occurred over time in technology and in the use of dogs, donkeys, and horses in hunting, the numbers of animals taken by subsistence hunters were still below sustainable yields in 1995, and wildlife products continue to play a significant role in the socioeconomic and ideological systems of Ju/'hoansi. These findings underscore the importance of ensuring a continuation of the right to hunt legally and to engage in local community-based natural resource management projects.

Caddoan Area archaeology since 1990

Abstract: This paper summarizes recent archaeological research efforts, and changing perspectives, about the native history of the Caddo peoples who lived in the Caddoan Archaeological Area, which centers on the Great Bend of the Red River in Oklahoma, Texas, Arkansas, and Louisiana. Of particular focus are the origins and early developments of the Caddoan tradition, regional diversity, subsistence changes and agricultural intensification, sociopolitical dynamics, and Caddoan-European interaction.

Global Climate Change and Agricultural Productivity in Southern Africa: Thought for Food and Food for Thought

Abstract: The population of southern Africa (defined in the context of this paper as the Republic of South Africa, plus the Kingdoms of Lesotho and Swaziland) is projected to increase from its present 40 million to between 70 and 90 million by the year 2035. To meet the food demands of this growing population, crop production will have to expand at three per cent per annum (Arbuthnot, 1992). This will not be an easy task, however, as the southern African subcontinent is largely semi-arid and sub-humid, has a diversity of soils, physiography, agricultural crops grown, and management levels at which they are grown. Above all these factors, however, is the wide range of climates, characterised by a marked intra-seasonal and inter-annual variability of rainfall. In terms of resource management, this is a high-risk environment which, in the agricultural industry, be it in the commercial or subsistence sector, implies in most areas uncertain production, frequent crop failures and consequently a drain on state finances through subsidies and drought relief.

Domestic Government: Kinship, Community and Polity in North Yemen

Abstract: Domestic Government: Kinship, Community and Polity in North Yemen, by Martha Mundy. London and New York: I.B. Tauris Publishers, 1995. xiv + 204 pages. Notes to p. 239. Appends. to p. 299. Bibl. to p. 312. Index to p. 317. $59.95. This is a carefully crafted, painstakingly detailed, and meticulously analyzed ethnography of rural social organization in the mid-1970s in central Yemen. The author's focus is refreshingly innovative, and the insights provided have important implications for understanding rural society throughout the Middle East. Martha Mundy challenges accepted folk models of rural culture as well as widely accepted social science paradigms of Middle Eastern family life and local-level politics. The communities of Wadi Dahr and nearby Wadis Dula' and Lu'lu'a, a mere 15 kilometers northwest of San'a, had long been a part of the urban-centered market economy, but were nevertheless quite independent of the city. At the time of Mundy's research, the area was abandoning subsistence agriculture in favor of cash-cropping, especially of qat. The study begins with a thorough analysis of the village economy. Mundy marshals her evidence to support a thesis that the traditional economic system was not "characterized by large-scale coordination of human and animal labor, where political control and indeed property in land are bound up with irrigation management. The labor process of cultivation verges on the individual; it requires no animal power and only simple tools" (p. 67). This process is far more important than it seems, because the author is testing traditional models of family and political power, and most of these models identify the control of property and resources as a critical component of power. Mundy shows the central role women played in domestic production, working, and even managing, the land. In the 1970s, agricultural income rose sufficiently in this area, so that emigration of local males to Saudi Arabia and the Gulf states in search of high-wage oil industry employment was minimal. Much of the book pursues the complications arising from linking property control, inheritance, family, and marriage. The author demonstrates how far Middle East ethnology has come in the past decade by ably synthesizing well-known interpretations of Middle Eastern marriage patterns and kinship bonds with a refreshingly nonpolemical, yet unabashedly feminist, perspective. While others have made this case before, Mundy's position is extremely well balanced and documented, so that the emerging portrait of women's activism in mate selection, property acquisition and control, and family decision making is most compelling. …