scholarly journals “Fallow Band System,” a land management practice for controlling desertification and improving crop production in the Sahel, West Africa. 1. Effectiveness in desertification control and soil fertility improvement

2011 ◽  
Vol 57 (4) ◽  
pp. 573-586 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kenta Ikazaki ◽  
Hitoshi Shinjo ◽  
Ueru Tanaka ◽  
Satoshi Tobita ◽  
Shinya Funakawa ◽  
...  
2018 ◽  
Vol 76 (5) ◽  
pp. 381-394 ◽  
Author(s):  
Walter Timo de Vries ◽  
Winrich Voß

Abstract This article reviews and analyses how and why land-management practice draws on two contrasting value systems: economic and social. Land managers are at the crossroads of different value systems, which both overlap and contrast. The aim of this article is to provide an understanding of which aspects are crucial in each of the value systems, and to provide a basis for how and where the value systems can be connected and where they are contradictory. This is undertaken using an exploratory qualitative and descriptive comparison, which contrasts the epistemic logics of the value systems, the manner in which each system makes use of different scales, and the way in which decisions are made with each value system. Such an understanding is crucial to improve coherence in designing and predicting the future effects of land-management interventions. Currently, practitioners tend to design interventions based on single value systems, rather than on combining or integrating value systems. The discursive comparison provides the initial steps towards a more coherent understanding of the common ground and the missing links in value logics applied in land management. These results are relevant to provide better descriptions and predictions of the effects of land-use interventions and develop improved transdisciplinary models to predict changes and development in the utilization of land or property.


1996 ◽  
Vol 76 (4) ◽  
pp. 559-571 ◽  
Author(s):  
P. R. Poulton

Maintaining soil fertility and sustaining or increasing crop yield is of worldwide importance. Many factors impact upon the complex biological, chemical and physical processes which govern soil fertility. Changes in fertility caused by acidification, declining levels of organic matter, or P and K status may take many years to appear. These properties can in turn be affected by external influences such as atmospheric pollution, global change, or changes in land management practice. Long-term experiments provide the best practical means of studying changes in soil properties and processes and providing information for farmers, scientists and policy makers. This paper shows how the experiments run at Rothamsted in southeast England continue to provide data which are highly relevant to today's agriculture and wider environmental concerns. Examples are given of how crop yield is affected by soil organic matter, by pests and disease and by P nutrition. The effect of atmospheric pollution on soil acidity and the mobilization of heavy metals are also examined. The need for making better use of existing long-term experiments is stressed. Key words: Soil fertility, sustainability, long-term experiments, global change


Agronomy ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (9) ◽  
pp. 1730
Author(s):  
Amir Mor-Mussery ◽  
Hiam Abu-Glion ◽  
Shimshon Shuker ◽  
Eli Zaady

The ‘wadis’ (ephemeral incised channels in arid regions) concern badlands with low agriculture utilisation that expands to neighbouring cultivated areas. They are noticeable and unique landforms characterised by vegetation patches and seasonal flood flows with scenic beauty that must be conserved. The wadi characteristics have influenced the way of life of their indigenous residents from ancient times until now. The main one is grazing with small ruminants (SR). The authorities and public consider grazing in these areas as a destructive land management practice that should be reduced. To assess the viability of grazing in such regions, we hypothesised that fluvial and biological flows tightly correlate with the wadis’ landforms, channels and slopes. The site of study is located in the Yeroham mountains nearby the Rahma planned Bedouin village. Five different transects of channels and slopes were located over representative wadis, including those exposed to grazing. The finding indicates that a herbaceous vegetation expansion uphill was observed only in grazed transects, while the wadi slope patterns affect its patterns. It contains an increased soil water content (from a similar value of 5% until 13% change in the grazed transect), 1.5% higher soil organic matter, 0.08 mg Kg−1 higher Nitrite content and 1–2% higher clay content in the grazed transects, up to 4 m ahead from the channel. The novelty of this finding suggested that the SR influences the organic matter to reach the wadi channel and facilitate the adherence of aggregated clay and the formed colluvial layer that serves as a substrate to the expanded vegetation growth. Adequate implementation of these grazing patterns may rehabilitate degraded ‘wadis’ and increase their tourism eligibility.


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