Searching for synergy
In this issue we concentrate on integrated agriculture. The articles pay special attention to synergetic interaction and ways to enhance this king of interaction in agricultural development.
As traditional farmers are very experienced in finetuning their agricultural practices to the local ecological and economic conditions and the needs of their households and the community, it was clear that there should be considerable attention to indigenous knowledge and coping strategies.
Table of contents:
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3 - 5written by Darrell PoseyIt is fundamental to the preservation of the tropical forests to show that standing, living forests are more valuable than cut and burned ones. The sad truth is that currently the forest is economically valuable through cattle, lumber and gold, all of which are attained only through the destruction of tropical forests and savannahs. Indigenous peoples can teach us how to attach greater value to the living tropical forest, they can teach us new models for sustained natural resource use and management.
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6 - 11written by Coen ReijntjesTraditional systems of farming on raised fields have been very successful, but do they provide promising models for agriculture development too?
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12 - 13written by Constance M. McCorkleCombining crops and livestock brings advantages to both sectors, but it is not easy to care for both at the same time. People often turn to kin and co-villagers for help. Much has been written about Andean strategies of mutual assistance in cropping, but their role in stock-raising has received little attention. Here Constance McCorkle describes how the people of a highland community help each other meet their daily herding needs.
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14 - 14written by Modadugu Gupta , Mohammed AktheruzzamanDue to the Islamic \"purdah\" system, rural women in Bangladesh are not able to undertake activities away from the farm, not even to work in their rice fields. Rural aquaculture may offer opportunities for them. In seasonal homestead ponds, short cycle species (tilapia and silver barb) can be farmed with very low on-farm inputs such as cattle dung, chicken manure and rice or wheat bran.
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15 - 16written by Virginia N SandovalWhen making decisions, farmers consider many things at the same time. This leads to hedging, compromise and, as Virginia Sandoval shows here, to maintaining biodiversity. While modernisation pushes toward simplification and homogenisation of agriculture, smallholders have an inherent tendency to safeguard biodiversity, for reasons that make sense.
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17 - 17written by Riza V. TjahjadiTo address the pesticide problem, a national Pesticide Action Network (PAN) was established in 1982. PAN Indonesia is promoting Alternative Pest Control by means of supporting a type of participatory action-oriented, low-cost, small-scale, exploratory experimentation. Riza Tjahjadi describes PAN\'s effort of helping farmers to shift from high-external-input to low-external-input farming.
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20 - 22written by Christoph BackhausIn the highlands of northern Thailand, promoting sustainable farming systems is proving to be more of a socio-economic issue rather than transfer of technology. The Thai-German Highland Development Programme (TG-HDP) tries to develop means and procedures for government extensionists to relate to this new understanding.
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23 - 23written by Andrea CornwallA \'group of villagers\' may include old and young, men, women and children. How can the creation of one model successfully convey the concerns of these different groups? This question was asked by a Participatory Rapid Appraisal (PRA) team in North Omo on a recent training course. The team consisted of 5 persons, one of them reports.
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24 - 24written by John FarringtonThe Asia Regional Workshop on NGOs, Natural Resources Management and linkages with the Public Sector was held in September 1991 in Hyderabad, India. The workshop was a culmination of efforts to encourage practitioners from NGOs and government organisations to document their experiences in establishing institutional links. John Farrington presents the summarises the main points.
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25 - 26written by Helle Munk RavnborgSustainability only becomes a concern when threatened. Therefore, activities to promote sustainable agriculture means addressing the problems of peasants and their perception of UN-sustainability. Helle Munk Ravnborg analyses gender-specific senses of unsustainability. She tries to avoid the mistake of many people: caught in the trap of comparing female and male headed households. In a context of gender issues this doesn\'t make much sense if socio-economic conditions are not taken into account
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27 - 27written by Fransje de WaardWhatever the (farming) system, any produced outputs that are not used any further, create pollution of some sort. This is apparent in most cities. This is where the flow of nutrients, in the form of food from rural to urban areas, stops. While the land looses nutrients with every harvest, cities \'gain weight\', and develop disposal problems.
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28 - 28written by Robert PeckHow can an alternative to deforestation in the Ecuadorian upper Amazon be developed? Farmers are gradually seeing the benefits of planting fewer trees and using a legume ground cover which increases yield and even cuts weeding costs by half! Robert Peck reports on the experiences.
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29 - 30written by Narayan Chandra BasakTraditional farming evolved throughout the world over the centuries. The farmers\' innovative minds selected and adopted profitable practices within given sets of farming conditions that match with their requirements and resources. One such practice, growing chilli, and its further development, is described by N.C. Basak.
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