Improving Indigenous Technologies for Sustainable Land Use in Northern Mountainous Areas of Vietnam

More than 30 ethnic groups are now living in northern mountainous regions, Vietnam, mainly relying on shifting cultivation with the fallow period being shortened from time to time. Naturally, soil fertility reduces from cycle to cycle, entailing the reduction of productivity. Large areas of moderately sloping lands suitable for upland agriculture have become bare after many cultivation-fallow cycles. The soils there have been severely degraded with more toxicity, low porosity, low water retention capacity and poor floral diversity. Normally, these lands cannot be used for food crop cultivation. So farmers in uplands have to rely on slash-and-burn practices for their livelihood. As there is no more forest with good soil in medium slopes, farmers go to cut forests in watershed, high slope lands and old forests up to the mountains‘ top. There are ecologically and environmentally very sensitive areas, so their destruction will inevitably cause hazardous consequences in the whole basin. Meanwhile,cultivation in these areas has low economic efficiency and sustainability because the crop yield may decrease very fast due to severe erosion as the higher the slope, the more serious erosion. Consequently living standards of highland farmers remain low and unstable. Sustainable farming on these lands in the perspective of a seriously deteriorated ecology and environmental is not an easy task. There have been many projects trying to help mountainous farmers get out of their vicious circle. However, due to different reasons, the results gained are low, and in some cases,things ceased to move after the projects phased out. During past few years, based on the farmer experiences, the Vietnam Agricultural Science Institute has cooperated with local and international partners to implement different projects in order to solve the problems by developing simple, easy and cheap cultivation technologies, which can be accepted and applied by local poor farmers for sustainable agricultural production. The first results of our activities offered good opportunities for sustain food production, improve soil health, recharge of aquifers,and enhanced household income for better rural lively hoods in the upland eco-regions of northern Vietnam.     

State and Development： Changes in Livelihood Strategies in Garhwal with Special Reference to Ecotourism in the Gangotri Region

The object of the paper is to provide an insight into the changes in livelihood strategies of the people in the Garhwal Himalayas over time. From sustaining an economy based on transit trade and subsistence agriculture, there has been a shift towards tourism in recent times. This shift has been due to the tradition of pilgrimage to the higher reaches and also due to promotion by the state by developing infrastructure and providing incentives. The paper is divided into four parts. In the first part, the policies of the colonial state and the events leading to the destruction of forests and the impoverishment of the self-sustaining semi-pastoral economy in the Garhwal Himalayas are outlined. It is argued that the destruction of forests and subsequently, the economy of the Himalayas were directly responsible for the large-scale migration to the plains. This also led to further exploitation of forests by the people who were unfamiliar with any other form of livelihood. The paper also discusses the policies of the newly independent Indian state and sees them as an extension of the British policy of large-scale exploitation of Himalayan forests for the purpose of development and economic growth. In the third section, the growth of ecotourism as a direct outcome of the orocess of deforestation and as resulting from the need of society to conserve and yet to earn a livelihood is discussed. The case study of the Gangotrir egion examines the dilemma faced by the people of Garhwal in sustaining their livelihood, income or the development in the area. In addition, tourism has fostered monopolies of groups external to the region thereby contributing neither to the income or the development in the area. In addition, there is an added threat to the environment-deforestation, and erosion-a direct outcome of increased and unplanned tourism. Such problems demand state intervention and management of t.ourism. The conclusion to the paper asserts that in order that the requirements of the society to progress and to sustain itself in its natural habitat are not compromised, it is essential to increase the process of democratization by strengthening local structures and by vesting the community with the autonomy to determine its future. The paper therefore argues that ecotourism in the Himalayas undertaken without local involvement is not desirable. The constant need for local monitoring of external agencies or even of the State‘s participation and the need for re-evaluation of environmental standards are cumbersome details that add to the costs of promoting low-impact tourism. To be viable, ecotourism should be community based and the needs of the community, their ideas of conservation should be given prime importance and local community must be encouraged to review the standards governing conservation. Local structures should thus receive patronage and promotion, so that ecotourism becomes a dynamic facet of economic development.     

Carbon and nitrogen budget in fish-polychaete integrated aquaculture system

Integrated multi-tropic aquaculture(IMTA) systems have been used in China for many years and have achieved significant economic, social, and ecological benefits. However, there is still a lack of benthic bioremediation species that can effectively utilize the aquaculture particulate organic waste in the system. Polychaete Perinereis aibuhitensis Grube is used as an environmental remediation species for large-scale aquaculture to reduce particulate organic waste, which is of great significance to environmental protection. To improve bio-elements utilization efficiency, P. aibuhitensis was applied for IMTA indoor fish( Hexagrammos otakii) farming. Results showed that in the system, production of 1 kg of the fish discharged 2 141–2 338 mg of carbon and 529–532 mg of nitrogen, while in the monoculture of the fish, the figures were 3 033–3 390 mg and 764–794 mg, or 24.84%–35.26% and 30.35%–33.32% less, respectively. This approach promoted IMTA technology that could utilize the particulate organic waste from intensive aquaculture and reduce the adverse environmental effects.     

AREAL DIFFERENTIATION AND CONSTRUCTION OF OASIS AGRICULTURAL ECOSYSTEM IN THE SHIYANG RIVER BASIN

On the basis of the study on areal differentiation of the natural environment of oasis agriculture ecosystems in the Shiyang River Basin, this paper comparatively analyzes the natural productivities, water economic benefits, production efficiency, ecological stabilities and developmental conditions of the Wuwei Oasis agricultural ecosystem in the middle reaches of the river basin and the Minqin Oasis agricultural ecosystem in the lower reaches. Under a same management level and investment of . material and energy, primary productiveness and economic benefits of the former are higher than those of the latter. Construction directions of Wuwei and Minqin oases should be different in order to alleviate the water- use contradiction between the middle and lower reaches. The construction objective of Wuwei Oasis should be efficient irrigated farming production system and Minqin Oasis should become a mixed forestry-pastoral-farming ecosystem taking ecological protection as its major function.     

Sustainable Intensification of Cultivated Land Use and Its Influencing Factors at the Farming Household Scale: A Case Study of Shandong Province,China

Promoting the sustainable intensification of cultivated land use(SICL) has become crucial for ensuring a sufficient supply of grain and important agricultural products, as well as for the sustainable use of resources. Taking widely used areas of Shandong Province in China as examples, an analytical scale and level framework for SICL is constructed in this study. It measures the level of SICL through material flow analysis, constructs Tobit models to analyze the influencing factors of SICL at the farming household scale,and analyzes the transition mechanisms of SICL. The results show that the overall level of SICL in Shandong Province is low, and the spatial distribution is uneven. There are relatively more farmers participating in unsustainable intensification than in medium or low levels of SICL, with farmers working at a high level of SICL making up the smallest proportion. The factors that determine the level of SICL at which farmers work vary significantly. More male farmers operate at a low SICL level than female farmers, while females outnumber males at a high SICL level. This is mainly related to the regional distribution of age and population. Meanwhile, with larger cultivated land areas, there is a lower degree of land fragmentation, with a higher level of SICL corresponding to a smaller distance to the nearest town closer within 1–5 km from the town center. We can see the level of SICL and its processes themselves are closely related to time and space scales. Based on the above analysis, it is necessary to clarify the standard processes of SICL to adapt them to local conditions. This includes instructing managers on how to improve resource utilization, increase the sustainable development of cultivated land and establish a comprehensively efficient and functional SICL mechanism. The sustainable intensification of cultivated land use and its specific application in the new era are conducive to enriching the frontier theories and methodology of sustainable development, and are of great significance to the advancement of green agriculture and the decision-making of rural high-quality development.     

Quantitative comparison of the expression of myogenic regulatory factors in flounder (Paralichthys olivaceus)embryos and adult tissues

MyoD,Myf5,and myogenin are myogenic regulatory factors that play important roles during myogenesis.It is thought that MyoD and Myf5 are required for myogenic determination,while myogenin is important for terminal differentiation and lineage maintenance.To better understand the function of myogenic regulatory factors in muscle development of flounder,an important economic fish in Asia,real-time quantitative RT-PCR was used to characterize the expression patterns of MyoD,Myf5, and myogenin at early stages of embryo development,and in different tissues of the adult flounder.The results show that,Myf5 is the first gene to be expressed during the early stages of flounder development, followed by MyoD and myogenin.The expressions of Myf5,MyoD,and myogenin at the early stages have a common characteristic:expression gradually increased to a peak level,and then gradually decreased to an extremely low level.In the adult flounder,the expression of the three genes in muscle is much higher than that in other tissues,indicating that they are important for muscle growth and maintenance of grown fish.During embryonic stages,the expression level of MyoD might serve an important role in the balance between muscle cell differentiation and proliferation.When the MyoD expression is over 30%of its highest level,the muscle cells enter the differentiation stage.     

Changes in Agricultural System as Farmers Adapt to Economic-Social and Climatic Changes in the Min Upriver Rural Areas in Western Sichuan,Southwestern China

Rapid economic growth in China has brought about great economic-social changes in rural areas, having considerable impact on the society in economy and environment. With a per capita possession of about 0.08 ha of cropland, Chinese farmers in rural areas adopt various ways in response to these changes in a bit to maintain their livelihood, wherein the agricultural system is facing one more options possible. To understand how rural communities have used different mechanisms to adapt to the economic and natural changes, we joined a survey in dry valleys of the Min upriver area under Maoxian county of western Sichuan province, southwestern China and visited the local people. Changes in the main crop cultivation have shown up an important means to keep up their household income. Farm households start seeking economic growth through diversified cultivating of cereal and economic crops in five lines, namely cereal, apple monoculture, apple and vegetables, plum and vegetables, mixed fruits and vegetables. These new lines mirror farmers’ flexibility to cope with today’s economic-social and climatic changes. The farming operation has changed all the more from a subsistence on grain to special agricultural products. Economic reforms in the early 1980 s motivated theprogress first in conversion of production from grain to fruits, and the desire to increase family income turned out to be an impetus for the subsequent events. At present, more farmers moving out of the rural areas, uneasy availability of labor force, increased opportunity cost of labors and their wages, increased farm size, and the urgent demand for the agricultural labor force, all these combine into the trend of the agricultural system of China on facing further economic-social reforms and reconstruction of the countryside across China.     

Food intake rate and delivery strategy in aquaculture

In aquaculture, it is important to estimate in advance how much food cultured animals would take. The rate of food consumption by cultured animals to available food amount is defined as the food intake rate （FIR） in this paper. To some extents, FIR reflects the quality of food, the health of cultured animals and the delivery efficiency. In practice, it is difficult to estimate in advance the accurate quantity of food that cultured animal needs. Usually, food is provided more than the need by animals, causing excess food that may pollute water and environment. Our experiments in past years show that FIR at 80% is recommended.     

Revisiting the Relationship Between Urbanization and Economic Development in China Since the Reform and Opening-up

The relationship between urbanization and economic development has become a hot topic in the scientific community due to its great practical significance,and economic and social value.However,this relationship continues to change dynamically.In the new stage of urbanization,it is urgent to reveal the causal relationship quantitatively and diagnose the future direction systematically.Based on this,this paper calculates the contribution rate of China’s urbanization to economic development from 1978 to 2019 and uses the panel data cointegration test method to explore the causal relationship between urbanization and economic development in China.The study has three principal results.First,the contribution rate of urbanization to economic growth has maintained the overall growth trend from1978 to 2019,but the growth rate of urbanization’s contribution to economic growth has been relatively low since 2012.It is an important reason that the real estate sector has moved into a new stage of transformation.Second,the cointegration test shows that economic development is a significant factor in advancing urbanization and the urbanization is the product of economic development.Urbanization has a positive feedback effect on economic development,but this effect does not pass the 5%significance level test.The impulse response function shows that the impact of urbanization on economic development is relatively small and stable,indicating that it is limited that the boost of economic development by land-centered urbanization.Third,China’s urbanization and economic development have both shown rapid growth for some time,but their relationship is still the low level of coordination,which has also led to a downward trend in the contribution of new-type,people-oriented urbanization to economic growth in recent years.In the future,China’s urbanization and economy need to maintain relatively medium-low speed growth in the medium-long term,and we should boost the coordinated development of urbanization and economy from low level to high level.     

Natural resource conditions and economic development in the Uttaranchal Himalaya, India

Uttaranchal is bestowed with numerous rivers, huge forest resources ranging from tropical to temperate, tourists＇ places, pilgrimages and feasible climatic conditions for growing fruits, vegetables, food grains, livestock rearing, tea garden practices, etc. The economic development, on the other hand, could not take place partly due to lack of modern technology with innovation in agricultural system and also unwillingness of the people towards using it. Furthermore, due to its harsh climatic conditions, rigorous terrain and distinct identity, as a part of Uttar Pradesh state, the development could not take place and today the state is believed to be one of the poorer states. Infrastructurally, this region is lagged behind due to its inaccessibility. The ideal geographical and agrarian conditions might be used evenly for the developmental processes. Ecologically, the whole region is socio-economic activities, fragile. The diverse harsh traditional beliefs and hard working potentials further change the entire scenario of the state. Only the need of the hours is to frame and implementation of the rational policies and planning for sustainable development of the state. What had appeared during the past, pertaining to the economic development, needs radical changes in policies, planning and beliefs. This paper aims to evaluate the present conditions of resources as a form of natural vegetation, agricultural crops, horticultural farming, herbs, tea garden practices, livestock rearing, hydropower projects and economic development of the Uttaranchal Himalaya.     

Farmers’ perceptions of and adaptations to drought in Herat Province,Afghanistan

Drought is a significant natural hazard in Herat Province, Afghanistan. The objective of this study was to explore farmers’ perceptions of the drought’s prevalence and characteristics, its socioeconomic and environmental impacts, their strategies for coping with and mitigating it, and types of conflicts and resolution mechanisms. A questionnaire was completed by 147 farming households. The results indicate that farmers' perceptions regarding drought are in line with the results obtained using the precipitation data. Even though the respondents have religious belief in interpreting the weather related issues, they also perceived drought as the climatic and environmental factors such as increased temperature, decreased precipitation, and other factors like war, financial weakness, deforestation, over-exploitation of groundwater, lack of electricity supply etc. The results show that drought has had serious economic impacts, including loss of employment and reduction in crop yield and livestock production, which have reduced farmers’ livelihood options and weakened their financial situation. Social impacts have included migration, a sense of hopelessness and loss, conflicts over water, health problems, impacts on the schooling of children, malnutrition, and limits to food options. Significant environmental impacts such as an increase in temperature, pasture and forest degradation, deterioration of water quality, damage to fish and wildlife habitats, and groundwater depletion were also reported. Farmers used local techniques to adapt to drought and lessen its effects. Farmers perceived irrigation water to be a major source of conflict. Local elders, water-user associations, and formal courts were reported to be the most successful conflict resolution methods. It is expected that the results of this study will support policy makers within government and development agencies in Afghanistan to develop future drought adaptation policies.     

Traditional farming in the mountainous region of Bangladesh and its modifications

Shifting cultivation is a traditional farming system practiced in the tropical mountainous areas. Although it has been widely perceived as an economically inefficient and environmentally harmful agricultural production system, recent science reviews, however, indicate that the deleterious impacts of shifting cultivation on environment may have been overestimated. Despite the pressures of agricultural intensification in areas where shifting cultivation occurs, farmers across the tropics still maintain this traditional farming system. The objective of this study was to explore existing traditional shifting cultivation practices and their various modifications including the innovative farming techniques developed by farmers in the Chittagong Hill Tracts (CHTs), the mountainous region of Bangladesh, and examine their importance with respect to recent socio-economic and environmental changes. The study revealed that shifting cultivation still exists as the most dominant farming method which supports livelihoods and culture of the hill ethnic people. However, demand for more food and household income to meet livelihood needs of an increasing population combined with a rapid deterioration of soil and water quality over decades contributed to development of innovative farming practices through fallow land farming, crop substitution, agroforestry and homestead gardening in the CHTs. Through these farming techniques farmers maintain a strong relationship with traditional knowledge system embedded in the age-old shifting cultivation practices. Today state policies and market forces act in favor of replacement of traditional farming with intensive cash crop agriculture. It seems that disappearance of traditional farming practices from the hills may threaten local biodiversity and food security. It may be recommended that shifting cultivation should be encouraged in areas where they have potential for contributing to preservation of native biodiversity and ecosystem services, and protection of local peoples’ food security and cultural identity.     

ECONOMIC APPROACH FOR CONTROL AGRICULTURAL NONPOINT SOURCE POLLUTION IN CHINA

1 IN T R O D U C T IO NM ostofthepastw aterm anagem enthasfocused on pointsource pollution,w ith less attention to nonpointsourcepollution.A fterpointsourcesofpollution have been al-ready heavily controlled, nonpoint source pollution(N PSP) has becom e th…     

Characteristics and mechanism of agricultural transformation in typical rural areas of eastern China: A case study of Yucheng City,Shandong Province

Rural off-farm employment, rapid loss of agricultural land, and advanced technology popularization had led agricultural production in Chinese typical rural areas come at a critical transformation and upgrade stage. Based on sample survey data gathered from 401 households in Yucheng City, Shandong Province, this paper focuses on the characteristics and mechanism of agricultural transformation in typical rural areas of the eastern China. It was found that 74.3% of households surveyed kept at least one member engaging in off-farm employment, and 57.1% looked forward to expanding the operational scale of arable land, while just 13.7% had actually transferred their agricultural land. Since growing off-farm employment does not result in the collapse of traditional subsistence agriculture, therefore, agricultural production in Yucheng City is at an incomplete transformation phase from traditional small-holder farming to modern scale economy. It is caused by both macro environments and family characteristics, while urban-rural dual structure, imperfect rural development policy and agricultural technology popularization make peasant economy strengthen upon maintenance, and small-holder farming becomes peasant’s natural response owing to pluriactivity, local off-farm employment, reverse elimination, etc. In order to achieve smooth agricultural transformation of typical rural areas in the eastern China, it needs to promote professional differentiation among peasants, under clear policies adopted by central government. Providing comprehensive services for agricultural production and improving production skills and knowledge of farmers who are still living in the countryside will effectively stimulate the process of agricultural transformation.     

MARKETIZATION OF GREEN FOOD RESOURCES INFOREST REGION OF THE CHANGBAI MOUNTAINS

The Changbai Mountains is rich in the resources of green food. At present, the low marketization of green food resources in the forest region of the Changbai Mountains becomes the bottleneck to restrict the benign development of its green food industry. With huge market demands at home and abroad, it is the urgent problem how to improve marketization process of green food resources and transfer the resources superiority into the market superiority in the region. According to the investigation, this paper analyzed the status quo and the cause of formation of low-marketization with the method of combining comparative research and practice research. It pointed out that necessary condition of marketization of green food resources in the forest region, such as strategy, economic environment, marketization allocation of sci-tech resources, etc. should be established. Furthermore, the concrete strategies of marketization of green food resources in the region such as market location, strategies of objective markets, combined strategy of marketing, etc. were advanced.     

How can saline and hypersaline lakes contribute to aquaculture development? A review

A considerable part of the world's population is currently experiencing a severe scarcity of freshwater and nutrition. Inland aquaculture has the fastest growth in fresh waters, and this contributes to the eutrophication of freshwater bodies. The increase in freshwater aquaculture impacts on the increasing demand for fresh water. A way to overcome this is to develop aquaculture in saline lakes. This article discusses how saline and hypersaline lakes may contribute to overcome this problem and gives a list of fish and shrimp species that can be cultivated in saline lakes. Successful development of aquaculture depends on a healthy cultured stock of commercial fish and shrimps. A sustainable healthy stock of fish and shrimps can be only maintained using live food for the cultured fish larvae, fry and fingerlings. As well as Artemia spp. there are many other crustacean species with the potential for growing in hypersaline waters. At least 26 copepod species around the world can live at a salinity above 100 g/L with 12 species at a salinity higher than 200 g/L, and these all have excellent nutritional value. There is a high potential to use eukaryotic organisms of diff erent taxa in saline/hypersaline aquaculture for food, agri-aquaculture, diff erent industries and as food supplements.     

论中国西部的经济开发

本文多方面系统地分析了中国西部地区的经济态势,从生产总值、产业结构(第一产业、工业、矿产、能源,第三产业等)以及生态环境等,论述西部的经济开发。