Improving Hill Farming: From Maize Monocropping to Alternative Cropping Systems in the Thai Highlands

Lately, the Hill Pond Rice System (HPRS) is being promoted as a form of alternative farming systems in selected northern provinces of Thailand, in which the land conversion is designed to maximize rainwater harvesting in farmland consisting of forest trees, water reservoirs, paddy fields, and high-value crop cultivation to serve environmental and livelihood needs. This study employed the double-hurdle model and the tobit technique to investigate the farm-level factors associated with land conversion from maize monocropping to the HPRS using primary data collected from 253 households in Nan, Chiang Mai, Tak, and Lampang Provinces. It was found that education, farming knowledge, understanding benefits of the HPRS, access to water sources, access to advis, and workforce sharing raised the likelihood and extent of farmland conversion into the HPRS. In contrast, perceived complexity of the HPRS, experiences with negative shocks, and land tenure security lowered the likelihood and extent of land conversion. The findings suggest that on-farm collective action should be promoted to mitigate labor constraints in implementation and that access to equipment should be enhanced through HPRS advisors’ visits.

Urban Land and Development Management in a Challenged Developing World: An Overview of New Reflections

The urban development and management challenges of the developing world are well documented in the literature. However, the global built environment landscape is undergoing rapid changes. These changes are steeped in three fundamental imperatives, which have serious implications for the developing world. These imperatives are population growth and rising urbanisation; environmental challenges, particularly climate change and the quest to embrace sustainability as a panacea; and advances in technological development. This paper discusses these three imperatives with the view to teasing out their implications for urban development and management in the developing world. Consistent with the literature, the paper establishes that most of the population growth and rising urbanisation are occurring in the developing world, particularly Africa and Asia, and although these phenomena have the tendency to increase economic density and promote both private and public investment in urban development, especially construction/housing and related infrastructure activities, there are and will be several problems with them. These include land tenure insecurity, lack of access to decent affordable housing and the threat of destruction to heritage sites. Furthermore, environmental challenges such as poor waste management, and climate change are and will remain pressing issues requiring the adoption of sustainability credentials because of legislative requirements, moral suasion, and value addition. Despite the potential disruptive nature of technology with respect to some aspects of the built environment, it is recognised that advances in technology are essential to the achievement of optimal urban development and management outcomes in the developing world. The paper, therefore, recommends better understanding of the socio-economic, cultural, and political forces underlying urban growth in the developing world, factoring in technology and sustainability in urban development and management, and collaboration among relevant actors, particularly government and the private sector, for optimal outcomes.

Factors influencing migration and settlement of pastoralists in Nairobi City, Kenya

Pastoralism is globally recognized as the backbone of the economy in the vast arid and semi-arid rangelands. Despite its enormous economic contribution, the system is facing a myriad of challenges, among them, land use and land tenure changes, resulting in diminished grazing land. Accompanying such changes is the conversion of traditional grazing lands into other uses such as settlements, with urbanization being one of the key drivers of pastoral system dynamics. Understanding such dynamics in the face of compounding factors such as frequent droughts linked to climate change is key in guiding policy formulation and interventions aimed at achieving a sustainable pastoral production system. This study investigated factors determining migration and settlement of pastoralists in Nairobi City of Kenya. Data was collected through a snowball sampling approach using semi-structured household questionnaires, focus group discussions (FGDs) and key informant interviews (KIIs) in five Sub-counties of Nairobi City County. A total of 144 household interviews, 6 FGDs and 16 KIIs were conducted to elucidate drivers of urban pastoralism, opportunities and challenges encountered by pastoralists in the city. A binary logistic regression model was used to analyse the determinants of their migration. Results show that search for pasture and water resources, and alternative markets especially during droughts, are the main reasons for pastoralists’ migration to the city. In addition, educated herders were found to be more likely to migrate to the city as they pursue wage employment. Whereas these findings revealed that migration to the city exposes pastoralists to diverse livelihood opportunities, they are equally faced by a number of challenges - mainly road accidents involving livestock, frequent land displacements to pave way for development of real estates, and livestock poisoning from sewage and garbage wastes. There is a need for policy and regulatory interventions to recognize pastoralism alongside other forms of urban farming and addressing challenges facing sustainable pastoral production.

ANALISIS BIBLIOMETRIC DARI SERTIFIKAT TANAH (BIBLIOMETRIC OF LAND CERTIFICATE)

This article is a bibliometric analysis of articles published in Scopus indexed journals that discuss land certificates. Knowing how studies related to land certificates are progressing is the aim of this research. Data was collected from the Scopus database by using the keyword term "land certificate". The researchers analyzed and visualized the database obtained in the VosViewer software. The highest number of citations occurred in 2016-2020 was 31 citations. The most publication trend occurred in 2019 with 40 articles. Articles from the collaboration of three authors include 12 articles from Deininger K., 8 from Ritz B. 8 and 3 from Zhang I. The most common title terms are “policy, demography” (2000) 20 items, “environmental protection” (2005) 55 items, “human, female, male” (2010) 23 items, “certification, land tenure, land use” (2015) 24 items. Abstract as many as 52 items 'human', 41 items 'humans', 23 items 'certificate', and 21 items 'land use'. Moreover, the country that published the most land certificate articles was the United States with 64 articles, followed by China with 29 articles and Germany with 21 articles. Citation analysis in the article the land certificate shows an increase as well as a decrease. The highest citation rate occurred in 2020, while the citation of land titling articles decreased in 2021.