Thumbnail Image

Improved production systems as an alternative to shifting cultivation

FAO Soils Bulletin No. 53









Also available in:
No results found.

Related items

Showing items related by metadata.

  • Thumbnail Image
    Book (stand-alone)
    Tillage systems for soil and water conservation
    FAO Soils Bulletin No. 54
    1984
    Also available in:
    No results found.

    The increasing world population is resulting in intensified cropping of the limited areas of arable land to provide the necessary food in some countries. Unless effective conservation practices are used, such intensive cropping tends to increase the loss of soil and water resources. This trend must be reversed. The objectives of the Soils Bulletin are to present the principles and practices if tillage systems for sustained food production and to create an awareness of the need to conserve the world?s soil water energy resources for future generations. Although energy is an integral part of tillage systems, the emphasis is on soil and water conservation. This bulletin emphasizes tillage systems for developing countries, but relies heavily on principles that have been developed throughout the world. The need for more research on conservation tillage in developing countries is stressed.
  • Thumbnail Image
    Book (stand-alone)
    Organic recycling in Africa. Papers presented at the FAO/SIDA Workshop on the Use of Organic Materials as Fertilizers in Africa, Buea, Cameroon, 5-14 December 1977
    FAO Soils Bulletin 43
    1980
    Also available in:
    No results found.

    Policy makers as well as scientists have started to acquire an honest appreciation of the possibilities of reducing the wastage of materials which could be profitably utilized for improving or maintaining soil productivity. In addition, the great opportunities offered by making more efficient use of the potentials of biological nitrogen fixation in farming systems are now fully recognized. A number of recommendations and suggested guidelines were made by the various Working Groups during the t wo-week Workshop. These covered: 1- Cropping systems and crop residue management 2- Biological N-fixation 3- Research, training and extension. A central theme much emphasized at the Workshop was the fact that agricultural policy makers, technicians and scientists need to study more closely the basic practices of the small farmers so that proposal for the introduction of new systems could be easily understood, integrated and accepted by these farmers.
  • Thumbnail Image
    Book (stand-alone)
    Guidelines: land evaluation for extensive grazing
    FAO Soils Bulletin No. 58
    1991
    Also available in:
    No results found.

    Extensive grazing is the predominant form of land use on at least a quarter of the world’s land surface, in which livestock are raised on food that comes mainly from rangelands. Extensive grazing differs from crop or forestry production, in which the produce remains in situ whilst growing. Evaluation for extensive grazing, unlike that for cropping or forestry, must take into account the production of both grazing forage, termed primary production, and the livestock that feed on this forage, term ed secondary production. Extensive grazing also differs from intensive grazing, in which the animal feed comes mainly from artificial, seeded pastures and not from unimproved rangeland. This relationship between livestock and arable farming must be considered when evaluating land for improved uses in which livestock play a major part. If one component of the overall land use is developed in isolation from the others, the balance between extensive grazing and arable farming may easily be distur bed. Land evaluation is used to identify alternative land uses or changes in management that will better meet national or local needs, and to estimate the consequences of each feasible change. In terms of extensive grazing, it encourages the promotion of sustainable land uses that integrate land, livestock and people for their mutual benefit.

Users also downloaded

Showing related downloaded files

No results found.