Download or read book Properties and Management of Soils in the Tropics written by Pedro A. Sanchez and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2019-01-10 with total page 685 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Long-awaited second edition of classic textbook, brought completely up to date, for courses on tropical soils, and reference for scientists and professionals.

Download or read book Slash and Burn Agriculture written by Cheryl Palm and published by Columbia University Press. This book was released on 2005-08-17 with total page 494 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Caused in part by the slash-and-burn practices of both large- and small-scale farmers, the environmental implications of tropical deforestation remain a worldwide concern. Yet the small-scale farmers who use slash-and-burn agriculture depend on it to produce food and make a living for their families. With contributions from scientists, economists, ecologists, and anthropologists, this book provides an overall analysis of the environmental, economic, and social reasons for why slash and burn is so common and presents alternatives to this destructive practice.

Download or read book Domesticating Forests written by Geneviève Michon and published by . This book was released on 2005 with total page 208 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book Nature s Matrix written by Ivette Perfecto and published by Earthscan. This book was released on 2009 with total page 257 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Landscapes are frequently seen as fragments of natural habitat surrounded by a 'sea' of agriculture. But recent ecological theory shows that the nature of these fragments is not nearly as important for conservation as is the nature of the matrix of agriculture that surrounds them. Local extinctions from conservation fragments are inevitable and must be balanced by migrations if massive extinction is to be avoided. High migration rates only occur in what the authors refer to as 'high quality' matrices, which are created by alternative agroecological techniques, as opposed to the industrial monocultural model of agriculture. The authors argue that the only way to promote such high quality matrices is to work with rural social movements. Their ideas are at odds with the major trends of some of the large conservation organizations that emphasize targeted land purchases of protected areas. They argue that recent advances in ecological research make such a general approach anachronistic and call, rather, for solidarity with the small farmers around the world who are currently struggling to attain food sovereignty.Nature's Matrix proposes a radically new approach to the conservation of biodiversity based on recent advances in the science of ecology plus political realities, particularly in the world's tropical regions.

Download or read book Alternatives to Slash and burn Agriculture written by Pedro A. Sánchez and published by . This book was released on 1994 with total page 144 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book Alley Farming written by B. T. Kang and published by IITA. This book was released on 1999 with total page 121 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Tropical Agriculturalist is a series of practical field guides and textbooks for: producers, farmers and farm managers, agricultural extension officers agricultural diploma, degree and vocational students, teachers and lecturers, senior secondary students, as reference books, adult education, rural and community development programmes.

Download or read book Agricultural Technologies and Tropical Deforestation written by Arild Angelsen and published by CABI. This book was released on 2001-04-20 with total page 440 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book has been developed from a workshop on Technological change in agriculture and tropical deforestation organised by the Center for International Forestry Research and held in Costa Rica in March, 1999. It explores how intensification of agriculture affects tropical deforestation using case studies from different geographical regions, using different agricultural products and technologies and in differing demographic situations and market conditions. Guidance is also given on future agricultural research and extension efforts.

Download or read book Slash and burn Agriculture written by Cheryl Ann Palm and published by Columbia University Press. This book was released on 2005 with total page 496 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Alternatives to Slash and Burn (ASB) consortium was formed in 1992 by a group of concerned national and international research institutions to address the global and local issues associated with this form of agriculture. With contributions from scientists, economists, ecologists, and anthropologists, this book synthesizes the first decade of ASB's work. It assesses the environmental, economic, and social impact of deforestation and the needs of small-scale farmers who rely on slash-and-burn agriculture for their livelihood.

Download or read book Fire less Alternatives to Slash and burn Agriculture TAVY in the Rainforest Region of Madagascar written by Erika Dorothea Styger and published by . This book was released on 2004 with total page 724 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book Slash and Char as Alternative to Slash and Burn written by Christoph Steiner and published by Cuvillier Verlag. This book was released on 2007 with total page 189 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The extraordinary fertility of manmade Terra Preta soils in the Brazilian Amazon provided the incentive to study the effects of soil charcoal amendments on soil fertility, nutrient cycling, and soil biology. The existence of Terra Preta suggests that tropical soils, which are notorious for being infertile, can be greatly improved. The agricultural produces charcoal out of fallow vegetation instead of converting it to carbon dioxide through burning. Slash and char improves soil quality by transferring organic carbon into recalcitrant soil organic matter pools. This newly described agricultural practice has important implications for the earth's carbon budget and sustainability in tropical agriculture.

Download or read book Farmers in the Forest written by Peter R. Kunstadter and published by University of Hawaii Press. This book was released on 2019-03-31 with total page 599 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Farmers in the Forest, while using examples chiefly from northern Thailand, is concerned with complex problems found in all tropical countries. In these areas rapid population growth, increasing demands for food, and burgeoning international markets for forest products and other raw materials are associated with active competition for land and natural resources in upland areas. This book brings together studies by administrators, agronomists, anthropologists, forest ecologists, geographers and jurists, who describe a variety of swidden systems and their effect on soil, forest, society, and economy. They point to conflicts between traditional farming systems and modern legal and administrative constraints now being imposed, and they describe special and technological conditions that contribute to a marginal, stagnant upland economy, increasing socio-economic disparities with the lowlands, and the serious ecological consequences of these conditions. Several possible solutions are suggested to solve these problems.

Download or read book Tropical Forestry Action Plan written by Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations. Committee on Forest Development in the Tropics and published by . This book was released on 1985 with total page 176 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book Fire free Land Preparation as an Alternative to Slash and burn Agriculture in the Bragantina Region Eastern Amazon written by Maria do Socorro Andrade Kato and published by Cuvillier Verlag. This book was released on 1998 with total page 162 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Shifting cultivation is the most important agricultural land-use system in the Amazon region and the slash-and-burn practice is the traditional method for land praparation used by small farmes. Durin slash and burning, however, high amounts of nutrients are lost through volatilization. This fact, exacerbate by reduced fallow time, decreases the total nutrient stock of fallow systems and compromises the system's sustainability. The objectives of this study were: 1) to evaluate the effects of fire-free land preparation on crop performance and phosphorus dynamics; 2) to evaluate the importance of the use of chemical fertilizer in systems without the use of fire and 3) to select rice, cowpea and cassava cultivars suitable for mulch systems. The studies were conducted in the community of Cumaru in the municipality of Igarape Acu (Para, Brazil) on two neighboring sites with 4-year-old (FV4y) and 10-year-old fallow vegetation (FV10y). Three treatmenst for land preparation were tested with and without fertilizer. The treatments were: 1) burning + NPK fertilization; 2) mulching + NPK fertilization; 3) incorporation of the fallow vegetation biomass into the soil + NPK fertilization. Rice was planted followed by cowpea and cassava in two consecutive cropping periods. Yield characteristics of the crops as well as the phosphorus dynamics in the soil and uptake by the crops were evaluated. Furthermore, screening experiments were set up to evaluate the yield characteristic of a total of 8 rice maize, 21 cowpea and 5 casava cultivars under mulch conditions with and without fertilizer application. The land preparation experiment revealed that without fertilization, burning significantly increased the grain yields of rice in the first cropping period compared to cropping without burning. This result was most likely to the slow release of nutrients from the mulch or the incoporated plant material, possibly acerbated by nutrient immobilization, especially P. In the second cropping period, no differences in rice yield were detected in the FV10y due to increased yields in the non-burned and non-fertilized treatment. Compared with the firts cropping period, with burning the rice grain yields showed an overall reduction of 7 in FV4y and 36% in FV10y in the second cropping period. The opposite offect may be noticed in systems without the use of fire; an increase in yilds of 117% and 233%, respectively, in the second cropping period compared to the first on could be observed. The yield increases in the second cropping period may be related to the liberation of nutrients through the decomposition of much. The use of fertilizers significantly increased the rice grain yields in the two cropping periods in both areas and erased the land preparation effect seen without the use of fertilizers. The cowpea yields without fertilizer were around 0.3 t ha in the burned treatments. When the field was not burned the yields were around 0.20 t ha in FV4y but cowpea did not produce at all in FV10y. With fertilization, cowpea grain yields were ariund 1.5t ha, regardless of the length of the fallow period and land preparation method. In the secon cropping period the greatest response in grain yield in relation to the first period were in the plots with mulch (with and without fertilizer). In the first cropping period cassava tuber yields were not influenced by land preparation, but residual fertilizer of the previously fertilized rice and cowpea crop doubled the yields. In the second period, without residual fertilizer, tuber, yields decreased in the burned plots by 30% and 34% in FV10, respectively. With residual fertilizer such a reduction was observed only in FV4y. In the non-burned treatments tuber yields were higher in FV4y than in FV10y. The total phosphorus uptake of the aboveground rice biomass in the first cropping period was 44% higher in FV10y than in FV4y, which is line with an increase of 52% in total rice biomass due to an improved nutrient supply in FV10y after burning. Given the fact that the P stock in the fallow vegetation of FV4y and FV10y were the same (9 kg ha), the uptake of P by rice has been soil derived rather than ash derived. In spite if the higher plant absorption observed in the burned treatments, the P utilization was higher the treatments that were not burned. In non-burned and non-fertilized plots the total P content of the cowpea pods was reduced by 50% in FV4y, compared to fertilized treatments. In FV10y this comparison connot be made because cowpea did not yield without fertilizer. P uptake not affected by the land preparation method when fertilizer was applied. The total amount of absorbed by cassava was similiar in FV4y and FV10y. Residual fertilizer of the previous rice and cowpea crop increased P uptake of cassava by 37% and 42% in FV4y and FV10y, respectively, in relation to the plants without fertilizer. The burning of the fallow vegetation significantly increased the pH of the soil as well as inorganic phosphorus (Pi) extractable with resin, and organic phosphorus (Po), extractable with NaHCO3-, but without fertilizer application this increase, during cultivation, was only short-lived. Fertilization increased the P level in the soil. Without fertilizer, the levels of inorganic P decreased with time to pre-burn levels within 8 moths. The dynamics of resin-Pi and NaHCO3- Pi levels were synchronized with the dynamics of the less available NaOH-Pi fraction. The NaHCO3-Po pool was not affected by land preparation methods nor by the fertilizer treatment at either site. Regardless of the land preparation method, seasonal changes were observed in this fraction. The addition of crop residues contributed through its decomposition to an increase in the NaOH-Po level. This pool seems to be important for all P dynamics. NaOH-Po was the fraction that showed the highest shot-term increments as compared to other fractions. An increase in NaOH-Po was concomitant with a decrease in resin-and NaOH-Pi. The NaOH-Po seemed to be an indicator of the soil P and fertily status. The inorganic P fractions (resin, NaHCO3- and NAOH- ) of the soil of sites were highly correlated with the available P determined in maize used as extractor plant in bioassay tests and with the rice, cowpea and cassava yields grown in the field. The plant bioassay P extracted from the soil by test plant and the microbial biomass P were reduced by burning when fertilizer was not applied. With fertilization, the differences between the available P levels of the burned and the non-burned plots were greater at FV10y than at FV4y. From the screening of cultivars suitable for the slash-and-mulch system without fertilizer use, only the rice cultivar CNA 7706 showed with a satisfactory productions level (39%) over the local cultivar ligeiro). It was not possible to identify any cultivar for either maize or cowpea able to offer satisfactory yields without the use of fertilizer. With fertilizer, the newly introduced rice cultivars yielded beteween 2.2 t ha to 3.0 t ha, with cultivars Progresso, Xingu and Araguaia standing out. The best yielding maize cultivars were Cincalli 93 SA3, Cincalli 93 Sa6, BR 5102, CMS 04C, CMS 39, CMS 50 and Saracura (2 to 3 t ha). The cowpea cultivars produced only fertilizer was used. The best performance showed TE 86-80-86F and TE 86-80-3G, with yields around 1.4 t ha. Cassava tuber yields were increased by residual effect from the fertilizer applied in the previous screening experiment (maize). The cultivars Mameluca, Pretinha, Aipim Rosa and Milagrosa seem suitable for shs-and-mulch sysytems. The fire-free land preparation appears to be viable technology for the nutrient-poor soil of the Eastern Amazon Region if fertilizers are applied to compensate for the loss of the fertilizing effect of the ashes from burning and the microbial immobilization of nutrients during the decomposition of the mulch layer. The availability of P was dependent on the decomposition of plant material (mulch or incorporated plant material), reflectiong and increase in the production during the second cropping period. The results suggest that P was the limiting element to crop production.

Download or read book Rainforest Ecosystems of East Kalimantan written by Edi Guhardja and published by Springer Science & Business Media. This book was released on 2000 with total page 364 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Since the late 1960s the Indonesian state of East Kalimantan has witnessed a marked increase in the impact of human activities chiefly commercial logging and agricultural exploitation. Located on the island of Borneo, East Kalimantan also was subjected to prolonged droughts and extensive wildfires in 1982-83 and 1997-98 that were linked to the El Nino-Southern Oscillation (ENSO) phenomenon. The changes in the rainforest ecosystem in East Kalimantan during this 15-year cycle of severe ENSO events are the subject of this book. With an eye toward development of rehabilitation techniques for sustainable forest management, the authors examine possible interactive effects of drought, fire, and human impacts on the flora and fauna of the area.

Download or read book Integrated Soil Fertility Management in Africa written by Nteranya Sanginga and published by CIAT. This book was released on 2009 with total page 270 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Forward. A call for integrated soil fertility management in Africa. Introduction. ISFM and the African farmer. Part I. The principles of ISFM: ISFM as a strategic goal, Fertilizer management within ISFM, Agro-minerals in ISFM, Organic resource management, ISFM, soil biota and soil health. Part II. ISFM practices: ISFM products and fields practices, ISFM practice in drylands, ISFM practice in savannas and woodlands, ISFM practice in the humid forest zone, Conservation Agriculture. Part III. The process of implementing ISFM: soil fertility diagnosis, soil fertility management advice, Dissemination of ISFM technologies, Designing an ISFM adoption project, ISFM at farm and landscape scales. Part IV. The social dimensions of ISFM: The role of ISFM in gender empowerment, ISFM and household nutrition, Capacity building in ISFM, ISFM in the policy arena, Marketing support for ISFM, Advancing ISFM in Africa. Appendices: Mineral nutrient contents of some common organic resources.

Download or read book Alternative Irrigation written by Christopher J Barrow and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2014-02-04 with total page 191 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: An introduction to runoff agriculture - a form of agricultural irrigation - this text describes how the use of surface and subsurface water, often overlooked and wasted, enables both small farmers and commercial agriculturists to improve yields and the security of harvest, even in harsh and remote environments. The text introduces the techniques and strategies, as well as the challenges and the potential of the crucial approach, which can contribute so much to reducing land degradation and improving conservation and sustainability.

Download or read book A Fire Upon The Deep written by Vernor Vinge and published by Tor Science Fiction. This book was released on 2010-04-01 with total page 626 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Now with a new introduction for the Tor Essentials line, A Fire Upon the Deep is sure to bring a new generation of SF fans to Vinge's award-winning works. A Hugo Award-winning Novel! “Vinge is one of the best visionary writers of SF today.”-David Brin Thousands of years in the future, humanity is no longer alone in a universe where a mind's potential is determined by its location in space, from superintelligent entities in the Transcend, to the limited minds of the Unthinking Depths, where only simple creatures, and technology, can function. Nobody knows what strange force partitioned space into these "regions of thought," but when the warring Straumli realm use an ancient Transcendent artifact as a weapon, they unwittingly unleash an awesome power that destroys thousands of worlds and enslaves all natural and artificial intelligence. Fleeing this galactic threat, Ravna crash lands on a strange world with a ship-hold full of cryogenically frozen children, the only survivors from a destroyed space-lab. They are taken captive by the Tines, an alien race with a harsh medieval culture, and used as pawns in a ruthless power struggle. Tor books by Vernor Vinge Zones of Thought Series A Fire Upon The Deep A Deepness In The Sky The Children of The Sky Realtime/Bobble Series The Peace War Marooned in Realtime Other Novels The Witling Tatja Grimm's World Rainbows End Collections Collected Stories of Vernor Vinge True Names At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.