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.     

Food security status in rural areas of Mizoram,Northeast India

Rural areas of the Mizoram state, India practice subsistence agriculture where shifting cultivation dominates the farming systems. As a result, output from crops is very low and thus, the rural areas suffer from food insecurity. This paper analyses food security status in the rural areas of Mizoram and suggests the measures to attain food security. A case study of 16 villages, lying in all the eight districts of Mizoram, was conducted in 2014 and1527 households(76%) out of total 2010 households were surveyed through purposive random sampling method. Structured questionnaire was constructed and questions on three food security components and13 indicators were asked. We used Z score technique to calculate data and finally got a composite score of all the components of food security. Our result shows that food availability in the study villages is very less as composite score stands for 0.003 whereas food accessibility is comparatively higher, mainly due to availability of fair price shops(mean value is one),high agricultural working population(40.1%) and high literacy rate(70.6%). Therefore, its composite score is 0.236. Food stability scores only-0.062 and finally overall food security stands for 0.178, which is inadequate. We have suggested that ‘system rice intensification', which is already in practice, should be given priority. Adequate irrigation facilities, proper public distribution system, cultivation of fruits and vegetables, value addition in farm products and access to market may achieve food security.     

Tourist preferences for agricultural landscapes: a case study of terraced paddy fields in Noto Peninsula,Japan

Many agricultural landscapes have been formed through the interaction and co-evolution of nature and people, and represent the living landscapes shaped over time through intensive and continuous human cultivation. Terraced paddy fields are being re-evaluated to take into account the multiple functions they fill beyond only rice cultivation, particularly their contribution to the national biodiversity strategy of Japan. Since the 1990s, terraced paddy fields have been considered a representative cultural landscape of Japan and, at the same time, multi-stakeholder conservation activities have been conducted throughout Japan to reverse the increasing abandonment of terraces. Shiroyone Senmaida is an outstanding cultural landscape and a major tourist attraction in Noto Peninsula, Ishikawa Prefecture, which was designated through an initiative by the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) as a Globally Important Agricultural Heritage Systems (GIAHS) pilot site in 2011. It is important to clarify tourist preference for terraced paddy field landscapes to contribute to future policy making toward improved agricultural landscape conservation. A key finding of this study is that tourists visiting to enjoy the agricultural landscape are also concerned on the sustainability of the farming methods and preferred to maintain the naturalness of the landscape. Respondents with higher educational levels and greater concern for the biological and traditional farming knowledge aspects of the rice terraces were also more inclined to favor sustainable farming practices. Tourists preferred to maintain the naturalness and rurality of the agricultural landscape, and indicated that construction of excessive tourist facilities would cause the landscape to deteriorate. It was suggested that the local community and surroundings, including rural settlements, hills, and forests, should also be conserved together with the scenic terrace.     

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.     

Traditional agrodiversity management: A case study of central himalayan village ecosystem

Environmental, biological, socio-cultural and economic status variation existing in the Central Himalaya have led to the evolution of diverse and unique traditional agroecosystems, crop species and livestock, which facilitate the traditional mountain farming societies to sustain themselves. Indigenous agroecosystems are highly site specific and differ from place to place, as they have evolved along divergent lines. For maintenance of traditional agrodiversity management the farmers of the Central Himalaya have evolved various types of crop rotations in consonance with the varied environmental conditions and agronomic requirements. In irrigated flat lands two crops are harvested in a year with negligible fallow period but in rainfed conditions if a cropping sequence is presumed to be starting after winter fallow phase then four major cropping seasons can be identified namely first kharif season (first crop season), first rabi season (second crop season), second kharif season (third crop season) and second rabi season (fourth crop season). Highest crop diversity is present in kharif season in comparison to rabi season. Traditionally the fields are left fallow after harvest of the second kharif season crop. Important characteristics of agrodiversity management are the use of bullocks for draught power, human energy as labour, crop residues as animal feed and animal waste mixed with forest litter as organic input to restore soil fertility levels. Women provide most of the human labour except for ploughing and threshing grain. The present study deals with assessment of traditional agrodiversity management such as (i) crop diversity, (ii) realized yield under the traditional practices and (iii) assess the differences of realized yields under sole and mixed cropping systems. It indicated that crop rotation is an important feature of the Central Himalayan village ecosystem which helps to continue the diversity of species grown, as are the distribution of crops in the growing period and the management of soil fertility. The cropping diversity existing and the sequences practiced by the traditional farmers seems to have achieved high degree of specialization and thus even when the yield/biomass variations are about 60%, the farmers continue to practice these sequences as they need to maintain diversity and synergistic relationships of crops in addition to manage the food and labour requirements for crop husbandry. Crop yields are generally higher in irrigated systems than rainfed systems and in sole cropping as compared with mixed cropping. However, gross biological and economic yields are higher in mixed cropping than sole cropping systems.     

Food Security of Shifting Cultivation Systems： Case Studies from Luang Prabang and Oudomxay Provinces, Lao PDR

Introduction The shifting cultivation system is one of the most important agricultural systems in Luang Prabang and Oudomxay provinces, where many production systems are found in the uplands. The factors, determining the systems, include ethnicity,Journal…     

Farmer’s adaptive strategies on land competition between societal outcomes and agroecosystem conservation in the purple-soiled hilly region, southwestern China

The worldwide extension and intensification of farming during the last century has led to ecosystem degradation and caused a series of environmental problems.Conservation of ecosystem services in agricultural regions has been implemented by top-down government actions or initiated by resilience scientists in the developed countries,but little attention was paid in the developing countries,especially in some remote mountainous regions.The present paper presents a case study showing how local farmers obtained both maximal societal outcomes and agroecosystem conservation interests in the absence of distinct boundaries between agricultural and protected ecological areas in the densely populated purple-soiled hilly region of southwestern China.The local community(Yanting County) has developed a mosaic agricultural-forestry-fishery-stock breeding system with spatially targeted land uses,diverse agricultural productions and multiple ecological partnerships.It indicates that the local farmers have hereditarily perceived sound strategies on maximizing sustainable societal outcomes and optimizing tradeoffs among macro-market,state policy,new technological facility and ecological reinforcement.     

Cropland physical disturbance intensity: plot-scale measurement and its application for soil erosion reduction in mountainous areas

Various kinds of human disturbances on cropland are the main reasons for soil erosion and land degradation. Farming practices in mountainous areas vary greatly among cropland plots because of the heterogeneity of biophysical conditions and differences in farmers’ management behavior. The main purpose of this paper is to develop a composite index of cropland physical disturbance intensity (CLDI) to reflect the plot-scale discrepancy of potential soil erosion in mountainous areas. The study was based on both plot survey and household interview data, collected from six typical catchments in mountainous areas of southwestern China. Four kinds of physical disturbance practices and two kinds of conservation practices during one crop rotation period were synthesized to develop the CLDI index. The rough set theory was referenced to avoid subjectivity during weight allocation. The results show that conventional tillage, deep fertilization, and manual weeding are the main causes of cropland soil erosion, whereas manure application in combination with seasonal fallow reduces soil erosion. Different crop types as well as cropland location factors determine the spatial pattern of CLDI. Crop rotation modes with major crops of tobacco and maize resulted in a maximal CLDI, and cropland plots with a distance radius of 150 meters away from households received the most intensive physical disturbance. These results are critical to help better protect rural environments in mountainous areas. Based on the results, methods to reduce cropland soil erosion are suggested.     

Agricultural opportunity costs assessment based on planting suitability: a case study in a mountain county in southwest China

Payment for ecosystem services (PES) has become an increasingly popular means of ecosystem conservation. Opportunity cost is an important factor to increase the investment efficiency of PES projects. However, the distribution of opportunity cost is usually unclear in mountainous regions due to the obvious environment changes. In this study, we developed a framework to assess the distribution of agricultural opportunity costs in mountainous regions and applied this method to Baoxing County, a typical mountainous county in Sichuan Province of southwest China. Planting suitability of 17 crops was assessed based on agricultural statistics and natural conditions data within a GIS environment. Agricultural opportunity cost was quantified with a weighted summation of farmers’ willingness to cultivate and each crop’s opportunity cost. Finally, specific agricultural opportunity cost was obtained according to the spatial areas of the protection programs and land use status. The results showed that agricultural opportunity costs of PES in Baoxing County were estimated to be more than $30 million, with a mean of 400.85 $/ha. Agricultural opportunity costs in mountainous regions displayed some obvious spatial variation and areas with lower agricultural opportunity costs could be selected as priority areas for PES. Our findings revealed that the planting suitability evaluation can make agricultural opportunity costs mapping more reasonable. It will be helpful for the PES programs implementation in mountainous regions.     

Classification and Gradation of Cultivated Land Quality in Bishan County of Chongqing, China

The conflicts among food security, economic development and ecological protection are the “sticking point” of undeveloped southwestern mountainous areas of China. The objectives of this study are to identify appropriate inte- grated indicators influencing the classification and gradation of cultivated land quality in the southwestern mountainous area of China based on semi-structure interview, and to promote the monitoring of cultivated land quality in this region. Taking Bishan County of Chongqing as a study case, the integrated indicators involve the productivity, protection, ac- ceptability, and stability of cultivated land. The integrated indicators accord with the characteristics of land resources and human preference in southwestern mountainous area of China. In different agricultural zones, we emphasize different indicators, such as emphasizing productivity, stabilization and acceptability in low hilly and plain agricultural integrative zone (LHP-AIZ), protection, productivity and stability in low mountain and hill agro-forestry ecological zone (LMH-AEZ), and acceptability in plain outskirts integrative agricultural zone (PO-IAZ), respectively. The pronounced difference of classification and gradation of cultivated land, regardless of inter-region or intra-region, is observed, with the reducible rank from PO-IAZ, LHP-AIZ to LMH-AEZ. Research results accord with the characteristics of assets management and intensive utilization of cultivated land resources in the southwestern mountainous area of China. Semi-structure interview adequately presents the principal agent of farmers in agricultural land use and rural land market. This method is very effective and feasible to obtain data of the quality of cultivated land in the southwestern mountainous area of China.     

Soil degradation and food security coupled with global climate change in northeastern China

The northeastern China is an important commodity grain region in China,as well as a notable corn belt and major soybean producing area.It thus plays a significant role in the national food security system.However,large-scale land reclamation and non-optimum farming practices give rise to soil degradation in the region.This study analyzed the food security issues coupled with global climate change in the northeastern China during 1980–2000,which is the period of modern agriculture.The results of statistical data show that the arable land area shrank markedly in 1992,and then increased slowly,while food production generally continually increased.The stable grain yield was due to the increase of applied fertilizer and irrigated areas.Soil degradation in the northeastern China includes severe soil erosion,reduced soil nutrients,a thinner black soil layer,and deterioration of soil physical properties.The sustainable development of the northeastern China is influenced by natural-artificial binary disturbance factors which consist of meteorological conditions,climate changes,and terrain factors as well as soil physical and chemical properties.Interactions between the increasing temperature and decreasing precipitation in the region led to reduced accumulation of soil organic matter,which results in poor soil fertility.Human-induced factors,such as large-scale land reclamation and non-optimum farming practices,unsuitable cultivation systems,dredging,road building,illegal land occupation,and extensive use of fertilizers and pesticides,have led to increasingly severe soil erosion and destruction.Solutions to several problems of soil degradation in this region requiring urgent settlement are proposed.A need for clear and systematic recognition and recording of land use changes,land degradation,food production and climate change conditions is suggested,which would provide a reference for food security studies in the northeastern China.     

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.     

Identification of agricultural systems in the mountains of Northeast Thailand

Agricultural systems in Thailand’s northeastern mountains are described in terms of their type of crops, marketing channels, and labor requirements. Five distinctive systems are identified: The Field crop system, Fruit tree system, Industrial tree plantation system, Specialty crop system and Agro-tourism system. The different systems are compared with each other in order to identify their respective strengths and weaknesses as development models. The Field crop system covers the largest area of agricultural land and is found in all mountainous villages but it generates very low net profits per hectare. The Specialty crop system and Agro-tourism system generate very high net profits per hectare but cover only a small land area and have a restricted spatial distribution. Expansion of these high value systems may be limited because they are capital and labor intensive and require highly skilled farmers to manage them successfully. If these constraints can be overcome, they may offer a useful model for mountain agricultural development.     

Risk assessment of maize drought disaster in southwest China using the Environmental Policy Integrated Climate model

The East Asian monsoon has a tremendous impact on agricultural production in China. An assessment of the risk of drought disaster in maize-producing regions is therefore important in ensuring a reduction in such disasters and an increase in food security. A risk assessment model, EPIC(Environmental Policy Integrated Climate) model, for maize drought disasters based on the Erosion Productivity Impact Calculator crop model is proposed for areas with the topographic characteristics of the mountainous karst region in southwest China. This region has one of the highest levels of environmental degradation in China. The results showed that the hazard risk level for the maize zone of southwest China is generally high. Most hazard index values were between 0.4 and 0.5,accounting for 47.32% of total study area. However,the risk level for drought loss was low. Most of the loss rate was 0.1, accounting for 96.24% of the total study area. The three high-risk areas were mainlydistributed in the parallel ridge–valley areas in the east of Sichuan Province, the West Mountain area of Guizhou Province, and the south of Yunnan Province.These results provide a scientific basis and support for the reduction of agricultural drought disasters and an increase in food security in the southwest China maize zone.     

Coping with pressures of modernization by traditional farmers: a strategy for sustainable rural development in Yunnan, China

Traditional farming practices conform to sustainable rural livelihoods, while agricultural modernisation tends to undermine these practices through various perturbations. A case study in Tengchong County (western Yunnan, China) shows that transformation of traditional alder (Alnus nepalensis) and dry rice (upland rice) rotational farming to introduced Chinese fir (Cunninghamia lanceolata (Lamb.) Hook.) plantations leads to localised water scarcity and soil fertility decline. While farmers are aware of ecological sustainability of traditional farming, they prefer Chinese fir forestry because it is less labour-intensive, has a high market value, and releases time for profitable off-farm work. Farmers adapt to economic liberalization by planting high value crops and trees. However, alternatives to make local agricultural production more profitable through competitive business strategies, cooperative approaches, innovations in integrating high value crops and ‘downstream’ processing for sustainable rural livelihoods have been overlooked largely due to poor information availability and lack of organisational framework.     

Agricultural Land Suitability of Production Space in the Taihang Mountains,China

The contradiction between the shortage of land for agriculture due to rapid expansion of industrialization and urbanization and increasing population pressure is projected to impose great threats to future food security.Agricultural land suitability evaluation is an effective approach to improve the utilization of land resources for crop production and thus enhance the capacity of food provision.In this study, we evaluated the land suitability for agriculture of the production space in the Taihang Mountains by three steps: establishing indicator system, determining weights for indicators, and constructing a fuzzy matter-element model to assess the grades of suitability.Results showed that the land suitability had a significant linear correlation with potential crop yields, indicating our evaluation was effective to predict crop production.The spatial pattern of land suitability for crop production demonstrated that land with higher suitability was generally located in piedmont plains and basins, while land with lower suitability was mostly situated in mountainous areas.The area of highly, moderately, marginally suitable and unsuitable land for agriculture was 32.13%, 28.58%, 37.49% and 1.80% of the production space, respectively.However, the correlation degree analysis indicated that the requirements of these four suitability grades were currently not satisfied but could be potentially fulfilled.In terms of indicator weights, soil properties were much more important than topography and location conditions to influence the grades of suitability.Among all indicators, slope, soil organic matter, soil texture and soil depth were the most influential factors, so slope farming prevention and organic fertilization were most likely to improve land suitability for agriculture.Compared the outputs of our land suitability evaluation model with the distribution of the existing croplands, we found that about 66.52% of marginally suitable and 54.55% of unsuitable land for agriculture were currently used for croplands.Therefore, de-farming policy should be implemented in areas of these two suitability grades.In contrast, cropland expansion was encouraged in the land that was highly or moderately suitable for agriculture.Our evaluation of agricultural land suitability is beneficial for future land use planning and decision-making in the Taihang Mountains.     

Natural resources depletion in hill areas of Bangladesh: A review

Hilly or mountainous terrain occupies around 12% of the area of Bangladesh.Natural resources associated with Bangladesh’s hill are forest resources,biodiversity,minerals,and agricultural crops.Natural resources have been exploited in the recent four decades due to excessive clearing of hill forest cover,resulting in loss of species richness, impacts related to increased water flow variability, increased hill slope erosion and flooding intensity, and a gradual decrease in the extent of hill area in Bangladesh.This review explores the major causes and effects of depletion of natural resources by linking drivers,pressures and the related impacts.A review has been conducted to structure the effects on the hilly areas and describe the responses to minimize them in the associated DPSIR framework.Population growth has been identified as a major driver contributing to high deforestation rates.This may negatively effect agricultural productivity and increase the frequency of serious flooding.Slash and burn cultivation also impacts the regeneration of evergreen forests,which may accelerate soil erosion. Due to this and other factors,local people are facing a deficits of natural resources(food,fodder,fuel wood and water),which exacerbates the effects of poverty. Future research should try to facilitate decision making for sustainable utilization of natural resources management in the hilly areas of Bangladesh. Additional conservation measures should be developed to increase the resilience of ecosystems at national and regional levels.     

Technical efficiency and its determinants of the various cropping systems in the purple-soiled,hilly region of southwestern China

This study examines the technical efficiency (TE) differences among typical cropping systems of smallholder farmers in the purple-soiled hilly region of southwestern China. Household-, plot-, and crop- level data and community surveys were conducted to explore TE levels and determinants of typical cropping systems by using a translog stochastic frontier production function. Results indicate significant difference in TE and its determinants among cropping systems. The mean TEs of the rice cropping system (R), the rice-rape cropping system (RR), the rice-rape-potato cropping system (RRP), and the oil cropping system (O) are 0.86, 0.90, 0.84, and 0.85, respectively, which are over 1.17 times higher than those of the maize-sweet potato-other crop cropping system (MSO) and the maize-sweet potato-wheat cropping system (MSW) at 0.78 and 0.69, respectively. Moreover, Technical inefficiency (TIE) of different cropping systems is significantly affected by characteristics of the household as well as plot. However, the impact of land quality, mechanical cultivation conditions, crop structure, farming system, farm radius, household type, cultivated land area per capita, and annual household income per capital on TIE vary by cropping system. Additionally, output elasticity of land, labor, and capital, as a group, is greater than the one of agricultural machinery and irrigation. Finally, when household-owned effective agricultural labor is at full farming capacity, optimal plot sizes for the R, RR, RRP, MSO, MSW, and O cropping systems are 1.12 hm², 0.35 hm², 0.25 hm², 2.82 hm², 1.87 hm², and 1.17 hm², respectively.     

Changes in Agricultural Biodiversity： Implications for Sustainable Livelihood in the Himalaya

Himalayan mountain system is distinguished globally for a rich biodiversity and for its role in regulating the climate of the South Asia.Traditional crop-livestock mixed farming in the Himalaya is highly dependent on forests for fodder and manure prepared from forest leaf litter and livestock excreta. Apart from sustaining farm production, forests provide a variety of other tangible and intangible benefits, which are critical for sustainable livelihood of not only 115 million mountain people, but also many more people living in the adjoining plains. Extension of agricultural landuse coupled with replacement of traditional staple food crops by cash crops and of multipurpose agroforestry trees by fruit trees are widespread changes. Cultivation of Fagopyrum esculentum,Fagopyrum tataricum, Panicum miliaceum, Setaria italica and Pisum arvense has been almost abandoned. Increasing stress on cash crops is driven by a socio-cultural change from subsistence to market economy facilitated by improvement in accessibility and supply of staple food grains at subsidized price by the government. Farmers have gained substantial economic benefits from cash crops. However, loss of agrobiodiversity implies more risks to local livelihood in the events of downfall in market price/demand of cash crops, termination of supply of staple food grains at subsidized price, pest outbreaks in a cash crop dominated homogeneous landscape and abnormal climate years. Indigenous innovations enabling improvement in farm economy by conserving and/enhancing agrobiodiversity do exist, but are highly localized. The changes in agrobiodiversity are such that soil loss and run-off from the croplands have dramatically increased together with increase in local pressure on forests. As farm productivity is maintained with forest-based inputs, continued depletion of forest resources will result in poor economic returns from agriculture to local people,apart from loss of global benefits from Himalayan forests. Interventions including improvement in traditional manure and management of on-farm trees,participatory development of agroforestry in degraded forest lands and policies favoring economic benefits to local people from non-timber forest products could reduce the risks of decline in agricultural biodiversity and associated threats to livelihoods and Himalayan ecosystems.     

Exploring the Potential of Mapping Cropping Patterns on Smallholder Scale Croplands Using Sentinel-1 SAR Data

It is of paramount importance to have sustainable agriculture since agriculture is the backbone of many nations’ economic development. Majority of agricultural professionals rarely capture the cropping patterns necessary to promote Good Agricultural Practises.Objective of this research is to explore the potential of mapping cropping patterns occurring on different field parcels on small-scale farmlands in Zimbabwe. The first study location under investigation are the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center(CIMMYT) research station and a few neighboring fields, the second is Middle Sabi Estate. Fourier time series modeling was implemented to determine the trends befalling on the two study sites. Results reveal that Sentinel-1 synthetic aperture radar(SAR) time series allow detection of subtle changes that occur to the crops and fields respectively, hence can be utilized to detect cropping patterns on small-scale farmlands. Discrimination of the main crops(maize and soybean) grown at CIMMYT was possible, and crop rotation was synthesized where sowing starts in November. A single cropping of early and late crops was observed, there were no winter crops planted during the investigation period. At Middle Sabi Estate, single cropping on perennial sugarcane fields and triple cropping of fields growing leafy vegetables, tomatoes and onions were observed. Classification of stacked images was used to derive the crop rotation maps representing what is practised at the farming lands. Random forest classification of the multi-temporal image stacks achieved overall accuracies of 99% and 95% on the respective study sites. In conclusion, Sentinel-1 time series can be implemented effectively to map the cropping patterns and crop rotations occurring on small-scale farming land. We recommend the use of Sentinel-1 SAR multi-temporal data to spatially explicitly map cropping patterns of single-, double-and triple-cropping systems on both small-scale and large-scale farming areas to ensure food security.