Author: James A. SpurneyPublisher:
ISBN:
Category : Mycorrhizas
Languages : en
Pages : 324
Book Description
An Integrated Assessment of the Sustainability of Milpa and Conventional Agriculture in Belize with an Emphasis on Soil Organic Matter, Aggregate Stability and Vesicular-arbuscular Mycorrhizal Activity
Author: James A. SpurneyPublisher:
ISBN:
Category : Mycorrhizas
Languages : en
Pages : 324
Book Description
Traditional Milpa Agriculture in Belize
Author: John D. H. LambertPublisher:
ISBN:
Category : Agricultural development projects
Languages : en
Pages : 90
Book Description
Ecological and Socio-cultural Dynamics of Traditional and Legume-based MILPA Agriculture in Southeast Mexico
Author: Isabel M. Sohn López-FormentPublisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 656
Book Description
Abstract: The traditional milpa, a shifting slash and burn, followed by fallow cultivation system typical of Middle America, is changing rapidly due to management intensification. This dissertation explores changes in such traditional shifting milpa systems and alternative legume-based milpa systems with more intensification, among Mayan and Nahuat communities in Yucatan and Veracruz, Mexico. The dynamics of shifting milpa systems are analyzed at the community and landscape level reviewing traditional knowledge, and at the ecosystem level by examinign carbon and nitrogen cycling and soil organic matter dynamics.
Intensive Smallholding Farming in the Belizean Maya Milpa and Matahambre Agro-ecosystems
Author: Carmen Julia CortezPublisher:
ISBN: 9781369201413
Category :
Languages : en
Pages :
Book Description
Small-scale non-industrialized farmers using traditional ecological knowledge (TEK) and household labor manage a system of shifting cultivation in their maize milpa and matahambre forest plots. The feedbacks from their immediate environment and household provide a platform where micro-level agricultural dynamics are practiced for subsistence. In Belize, Mayan farmers in their lands sustain their families and maintain a level of sustainability by relying on their household, ecology, and community rather than industrialized or mechanized strategies. This dissertation details three main facets of this farming system: 1.) The effect of fallow and soil property on maize yields in a shifting swidden farm system called the milpa, 2.) The effect of household (HH) labor and cultivation lengthing on the selection of weed control strategies in the slash and mulch farm type, matahambre and 3.) The effect of school enrollment has on how much school going versus non-school going young adults participate in activities that build traditional ecological knowledge (TEK). We did not find an effect of fallow length, or any of our soil properties (pH, TKN, %OM, or P) on maize yields. This suggests that other cultural factors such as land tenure, weeding management, and pest management may instead play a role in the selection of sites with a variety of fallow ages for planting maize. In the matahambre system we find that household hand weeding is still the prevalent method of weeding and weakly found support for the relationship of cultivation lengthening associated with a decrease in the use of herbicides while displaying an increase in the use of both herbicides and cover crops. Finally, critical to land-based subsistence activities, is TEK that is learned by young adults by participating in community agro-ecological activities that engage the practice of this knowledge. We find no difference between school going (SG) and non-school going (NSG) females' time devoted to TEK related activities. We also found that SG males spend less time engaged in agricultural related activities than NSG males. Despite the national state level policies that attempt to undermine land tenure, customary management of milpa and matahambre farming, and threaten traditional ecological learning in the Mayan lands, Mayan farmers' milpa management with respect to fallow does not appear to hinder their sustainability in terms of yields and possibly to soil. Management of matahambre continues to consider HH weeding as its main method of weeding rather than the use of herbicides or cover crops. Finally, our final results suggest that traditional ecological knowledge and agricultural activities must be included in school curriculum to transmit subsistence farming knowledge. Altering farming practices without full consideration of HH decision making, the parameters these decisions are made under, their consequences on the environment and the exclusion of the farmer's themselves from the development project table is detrimental to long term sustainability of both natural and human communities.
Soil Fertility, Agroecology, and Social Change in Southern Belize
Author: Henry Anton PellerPublisher:
ISBN:
Category : Agricultural ecology
Languages : en
Pages : 0
Book Description
This dissertation examines three aspects of the contemporary environment and natural resources of Toledo district, southern Belize: the properties and management of soils, agroecological dynamics of milpa farming, and class processes of rural social change. Chapter 1 classifies five groups of soils and 13 unique types found in a study area of three Maya-speaking communities. People manage their soils differentially across a range of customary and commercial land use activities, which are mediated in part by physical, chemical, and biological properties inherent to soil types. Chapter 2 models the impacts of contemporary land use change on soil properties, where a shift has occurred over the past four decades from extensive swidden farming of maize and beans (`customary milpa’) towards new forms of agriculture including cattle pasture and intensive grain farming. The core hypothesis is confirmed that land use change negatively impacts soil properties including organic carbon, nitrogen, and bulk density. Chapter 3 links changes in management and soils to plants, weeds, and especially grass weeds, which have become a central problem for milpa agriculture in recent decades. A decrease in fallow (the regeneration period of forest species) and more frequent use of fire are closely associated with the exponential increase in grass weeds across the study area. Farmers employ several strategies including herbicides, cover crops, fire use and non-use (mulching), among others, to mitigate weed and soil management problems—but at present there are no satisfactory solutions to deteriorating milpa agroecosystems. Chapter 4 explains environmental change by way of class processes, or how capitalism transforms household livelihood strategies. This analysis focuses on two common pathways for upward mobility in rural Toledo, namely higher education and commercial farming, finding that both are implicated within the growing inequality, land-based conflicts, and agroecological change in southern Belize. The conclusion re-iterates major findings, reflects them onto the threats to smallholder farming posed by climate change, and then considers multi-species cover cropping as a means of adaptation.
Agroecology
Author: Stephen R. GliessmanPublisher: Springer
ISBN:
Category : Nature
Languages : en
Pages : 400
Book Description
Interdisciplinary and integrative research in its formative stage that will provide the scientific basis for establishing long-term stability and sustainability of both the natural resource base upon which agriculture depends and the cultural systems in which they interact. The purpose of this volume is to develop a research approach as well as to give examples of this research.
Safety Assessment of Transgenic Organisms
Author: OECD.Wheat Health Management
Author: R. James CookPublisher: American Phytopathological Society
ISBN:
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 188
Book Description
Table of ContentsWheats in the Wild; Growth and Development of the Healthy Wheat Plant; Limiting Effects of the Physical and Chemical Environment; Limiting Effects of Pests and Diseases; Economic Implications of Wheat Health Management; Principles of Pest and Disease Control; Wheat Health Management Before Planting; Wheat Health Management at Planting; Wheat Health Management Postplant and Postharvest; Holistic Health for Wheat; Index
Pulse Crops (grain Legumes)
Author: B. BaldevSafety Considerations for Biotechnology
Author: Organisation for Economic Co-operation and DevelopmentPublisher: OECD
ISBN:
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 52
Book Description