Traditional Agricultural Management of Kam Sweet Rice (Oryza Sativa L.)in Southeast Guizhou Province, China

Background: The Dong people mainly live in Hunan, Guangxi and Guizhou provinces, China, with a long history of glutinous rice cultivation, among which Kam Sweet Rice (KSR) is a group of rice landraces that has been domesticated for thousands of years by the Dong people. The core distribution area of KSR is Liping, Congjiang and Rongjiang County of southeast, Guizhou Province. Paddy fields, forests, livestock and cottages have formed a special artificial wetland ecosystem in local area, and the Dong people have also formed a set of traditional farming systems of KSR for variety breeding, field management, and soil and water conservation. However, this traditional agricultural management has not been reported at multiple levels based on landraces, species and ecosystems.Methods: Fieldwork was conducted in ten villages in southeast Guizhou from 2019-2021. A total of 229 informants were interviewed from the villages. Semi-structured and key informant interviews were administered to collect ethnoecological data on the characteristics and traditional utilization of KSR, traditional farming systems and agricultural management of the Dong people. Results: (1): A total of 57 KSR varieties were recorded as used by the Dong people in southeast Guizhou. We analyzed the cultural importance index (CII) of all KSRs. Varieties with high CII often have a pleasant taste, special biological characteristics of cold resistance, disease and insect resistance and high utilization in the traditional culture of Dong people. (2) There is a clear division of labor between men and women in the breeding, seed retention, field management and grain storage management of different varieties of KSR in Dong communities. In order to resist natural disasters and insect pests, the cultivation of KSR is usually managed by multi-variety mixed planting. These agricultural management modes are the result of Dong people's understanding and adaptation to the local natural geographical environment, as well as the experience and wisdom crystallization of Dong people's long-term practice. (3) The traditional farmland of Dong People is a typical artificial wetland ecosystem that is planted with mixed KSR varieties with rich traditional wisdom. In addition, the economic benefit of the rice-fish-duck symbiotic system was 3.07 times that of hybrid rice alone; therefore, the rice-fish-duck system not only has the function of maintaining soil, water and ecological balance but also improves the income of Dong people.Conclusion: KSR is a special kind of rice that has been domesticated and cultivated by Dong people for thousands of years. Dong people have also formed traditional agriculture dominated by KSR cultivation. The traditional agricultural management of Dong people provides suitable habitats for flora and fauna with biodiversity protection, and convenient conditions for rational utilization and distribution of water resources were also provided. This traditional management mode is of great significance for environmental protection, climate change response, community resource management, sustainable utilization, and agricultural transformation in modern society. Therefore, we call for interdisciplinary research in natural and social sciences, in-depth study of the ecological culture of ethnic areas, and sort out treasures conducive to the development of all mankind.

Impact of COVID-19 on Rural Tourism in Nepal

This paper has focused upon the rural tourism in Nepal and the impacts of COVID-19 on its development. In Nepal tourism mostly occurs in rural environments and involves rural experiences. Wonderful rural cultures and traditional farming are attracting tourists in the rural areas. The villages of Nepal have their own unique natural and cultural dimensions. The fresh environment, natural and cultural artifacts, and the lifestyle of the local people are the main things to experience in the villages. Greatest potential benefit of rural tourism is its ability to generate money, which can translate into numerous positive economic opportunities for locals and their communities. But the COVID-19 pandemic has had a significant adverse impact on most businesses including rural tourism. Before COVID-19, rural tourism had become one of the most important activities to generate income in some rural areas of Nepal. But now all activities of rural tourism are in coma. Thus, in the post COVID-19 scenario, the very survival of the rural tourism industry will become the biggest challenge because there was no specific preparedness strategy in case of any crisis of this scale. Some measures are suggested to address the challenges and help prepare the strategy.

Constraints Faced by Vegetable Growers in Amaravati Division of Maharashtra

Vegetable cultivation involves intensive cultural operations since sowing to marketing, providing regular employment opportunities to unemployed youth and farm family. Vegetable production is now commercialized, but still traditional farming is done in far flung areas. Besides, they are not as well served by the extension system as the farmers growing food grains. Moreover, most of the vegetable growers in this region are small and marginal farmers, and they have their peculiar concerns and problems which need to be studied urgently and earnest. The present study was carried out in Akola and Amravati districts of Vidarbha region of Maharashtra state during the year 2019 with a sample size of 120 respondents to define the constraints faced by vegetable growers in Amravati division of Maharashtra. The major constraints faced by the vegetable growers were price fluctuation, electricity, fertigation, exploitation by middle men and lack of market knowledge.

The value of transhumance for biodiversity conservation: Vulture foraging in relation to livestock movements

In recent decades, intensive techniques of livestock raising have flourished, which has largely replaced traditional farming practices such as transhumance. These changes may have affected scavengers’ behaviour and ecology, as extensive livestock is a key source of carrion. This study evaluates the spatial responses of avian scavengers to the seasonal movements of transhumant herds in south-eastern Spain. We surveyed the abundance of avian scavengers and ungulates, and analysed the factors affecting the space use by 30 GPS-tracked griffon vultures (Gyps fulvus). Griffons’ foraging activity increased in the pasturelands occupied by transhumant herds, which implied greater vulture abundance at the landscape level during the livestock season. In contrast, facultative scavengers were more abundant without transhumant livestock herds, and the abundance of wild ungulates did not change in relation to livestock presence. We conclude that fostering transhumance and other traditional farming systems, to the detriment of farming intensification, could favour vulture conservation.

Circular Approaches in Small-Scale Food Production

Globally, food production is one of the main water and energy consumers. Having in view the growing population on global scale, a higher efficiency of food production is needed. Circular approaches offer a large potential to enhance the efficiency of food production and have a long tradition in the food production process of mankind. However, industrial farming has interdicted traditional cycle-closed farming approaches leading to a variety of environmental challenges. The contribution illustrates the basics of traditional gardening and farming approaches and describes how their characteristics are adapted in innovative modern farming systems like aquaponic, permaculture, urban farming, as well as recovered traditional farming systems. The approach to combine traditional farming methods with modern ones will provide multiple benefits in the future to ensure food security. There is to be underlined that such a strategy holds a substantial potential of circular flux management in small scale food production. This potential could be transposed to a larger scale also, particularly in terms of agroforestry and integrated plant and animal husbandry or integrated agriculture and aquaculture. In this way, small-scale food production holds a large potential for the future implementation of the water-energy-food security nexus.

Traditional Farming Practices: Espousal and Committed by Farmers in Northern Senatorial Districts of Gombe State, North – eastern Nigeria

This study was conducted in the northern senatorial district of Gombe state which comprises of local government areas like Gombe, Dukku, Nafada, Funakaye and Kwami respectively. The objective of the research is to ascertained the use of traditional farming practice in the said study area, Quantitative and descriptive research design was adopted for this study and the cluster sampling technique were used to randomly select 50 farmers from each of the five clusters in the study area making a total of 250 farmers as sample size. Structured questionnaire containing nine different organic farming practices on two point scale of yes and no that indicate use or not use was administered. Data generated for this study was analyzed using mean and standard deviation whereby six out of nine traditional farming practices was found to be commonly used by the farmers which are: Farm sanitation (use of fire) (mean value = 1.83, standard deviation (SD) = 0.6), Use of animal manure (mean value = 1.75, SD = 0.5), Light tillage (mean value = 1.65, SD = 0.4), intercropping (mean value = 1.63, SD = 0.4), Use of cover crops ( mean value = 1.55, SD = 0.3), Application of compost (mean value = 1.45, SD = 0.3). The trend of traditional farming practice used by the farmers in the study area shows that the above six practices are the prominent ones among the farmers, the demography of the respondents shows that farming is solely a venture of the men. However, this study recommended that farmers in the study area should have to increase their knowledge of the traditional farming practice for judicious and better conservation of soil, also they should adopt and increase their awareness of the traditional farming practices to drive home the benefits of eco-friendly nature of the practices. However, others include introduction of the practice as practical course in the curriculum of basic learning level and reorientation of the younger ones on the benefits of the practice ecologically and environmentally.

Eating Insects: A Christian Ethic of Farmed Insect Life

Proponents of entomophagy have argued that the farming of insects offers many advantages when contrasted with more traditional farming practices. This article explores the place of insect farming within a wider Christian food ethic and argues that insect farming has much to recommend it. However, through exploring the role of animal agriculture within the ideological structures of anthropocentrism, a more ambiguous picture of the ethics of insect farming emerges. This belies a simple endorsement or denunciation of insect farming as an ethical alternative to the farming of larger animals. Moreover, the example of insect farming reveals that Christian food ethics needs to radically reimagine the entire food provisioning system if it is to inculcate substantive change in human relationships with nonhuman animals.