Villagers in southern Sumatra collect a number of NTFPs for cash income and subsistence as a supplement to cultivated crops. Deforestation restricts the availability of NTFPs. The aim of the study was, with point of departure in Jernang, to investigate the transition between collection and cultivation of NTFPs. A village survey encompassing 57 households involved in collection, cultivation and/or trade of Jernang in two villages with high NTFP collection was carried out. The study revealed that more than 20 species or species groups of NTFPs were collected, albeit many of them only occasionally and by few people. In addition to Jernang, tree legume pods (Parkia and Archidendron) were the most collected products. Collection of most NTFPs was gendered. Jernang was almost entirely collected by men, since it implies trekking in forest and climbing. Albeit Jernang collectors found that both quantity and income from collection had declined, very few considered to abandon collection. A combination of economic incentives, poor regulations, and psycho-cultural motives for collection and connectedness to forest lead to intensive harvest. The harvest was less intense for other reported NTFPs, which was explained by shorter harvest season, non-marketable products, bulkiness and poor storability. To compensate for declining wild resources, villagers had started cultivation of some NTFPs, primarily Jernang and legume trees. For Jernang, shortage of planting material and fear of theft of fruits were seen as the greatest barriers to cultivation. The study showed that decreased availability of wild NTFPs, high prices and lack of replacement species may lead to cultivation. Adoptability was restricted by both technical problems (e.g. propagules), competition with domesticated crops, and cultural habits. The study gives an insight into the process of domestication of NTFPs at the interface between collection and cultivation.
Tag: cultivation
First successful domestication of a white strain of Auricularia cornea from Thailand
Intraspecies colour variations in cultivated edible mushrooms present novel and potentially valuable alternatives to the research and cultivation industries. In this study, we collected, identified, and domesticated a white strain of Auricularia cornea from Thailand. The brown strain of A. cornea is one of the top two species of Auricularia cultivated and traded in Asia. Since both white and brown phenotypes of A. cornea belong to a single species, we established their similarities or differences. Both morphological characteristics and phylogenetic analysis of ITS rDNA sequence data were used to confirm the taxonomic placement of the white A. cornea strain in the same clade with the brown A. cornea. Nutritional analysis showed that fat, fiber, protein, and total soluble sugar contents of the white A. cornea were significantly higher than the commercially used brown strain. The melanin content of the white strain of A. cornea (less than 1.5 mg/100g) was not significantly different from that of the brown strain. This discovery may create new opportunities for the mushroom growing industry and for smallholder farmers in Asia.
No-till and mulching enhance energy use efficiency and reduce carbon footprint of a direct-seeded upland rice production system
Sustainability of conventional agricultural production systems is threatened by triple challenges of energy and environmental crises, deteriorating natural resources bases, and declining farm profitability. Current agricultural management practices (energy-intensive, inefficient external and natural input use, and crop biomass burning) are negatively impacting the ecosystem services which are the principal drivers for food security and human survival. Hence, there is a need to shift from unsustainable production practices to cleaner production systems. Energy use, carbon footprint (CF), and economic sustainability are important indicators of any clean production systems. Thus, a hypothesis was formulated that no-till (NT) cultivation along with mulching can provide an environmentally clean crop production practice that can enhance energy use efficiency, economic profitability, and reduce the CF. Therefore, the present experiment was conducted for four consecutive years (2012–15) to evaluate the energy budget, CF, and economics of NT along with bio-mulching for a cleaner upland rice production system. The experiment comprised of two tillage practices i.e., conventional tillage (CT) and NT in main plots and four bio- mulches in subplots i.e., rice straw mulch (RSM), Gliricidia sepium mulch (GLM), brown manuring mulch (BMM) of cowpea (Vigna unguiculata), and no mulch (NM) as a control. Results revealed that the adoption of NT curtailed energy use by 48.50%, specific energy by 49.63%, CF by 16.48%, and cost of cultivation by 35% in addition to enhancing energy use efficiency and benefit to cost ratio in comparison to CT. It was also observed that mulching, particularly the BMM, boosted the energy use efficiency, economic productivity, net returns, and benefit to cost ratio over NM. The results suggested that NT with BMM is an environmentally clean production technology to enhance the energy use efficiency, besides reducing the CF of direct-seeded upland rice production system in the Eastern Himalayas and similar eco-regions of the world.
Domestication of Ganoderma Leucocontextum, G. Resinaceum, and G. Gibbosum Collected from Yunnan Province, China
Ganoderma mushrooms have been used in traditional medicines for centuries and as such are highly sought after, especially in Asia. The present study is the first report of the successful cultivation of G. leucocontextum, G. resinaceum, and G. gibbosum collected from the wild, in Yunnan Province, China. One mature fruiting body of the laccate G. leucocontextum, one mature fruiting body of the laccate G. resinaceum, and seven non-laccate G. gibbosum fruiting bodies were collected and isolated into culture. These strains were cultivated using both soil casing layer and non-casing layer methods. The highest yield and biological efficiency (BE) of G. leucocontextum was obtained when using the soil casing layer method (60.43% BE, with 253.82 g/Kg-1 of the total yield) with the non-casing layer method (13.60% BE, with 58.18 g/Kg-1 of the total yield), respectively. Only one cycle of production (26.94% BE and 7.02 g/Kg-1) was obtained for G. resinaceum KUMCC19-0001 when the soil casing layer method was applied, while a high yield of 109.26% BE, with a total yield of 27.75 g/Kg-1, was obtained when the non-casing layer method was used. A BE of 73.80% and total yield of 284.15 g/Kg-1 were obtained for the G. gibbosum KUMCC17-0005 when it was cultivated with a soil casing layer, while a BE of 40.26% and a total yield of 172.08 g/Kg-1 was obtained when the non-casing layer method was used. Based on this comprehensive study, this result will be helpful for the commercial cultivation for laccate G. leucocontextum, G. resinaceum, and non-laccate G. gibbosum.
Climatesmart agriculture and REDD+ implementation: Indian perspective
Geospatial technology has an enormous capacity to analyze large and diversified datasets for evaluating the hidden spatial relationship which provides a better comprehension of the subject and helps significantly in policymaking and planning future strategies. This study has examined the relationship among diversified remote sensing and GIS datasets such as GHG emission from cropland, rice cultivation area, agro-ecological region, Land use/ Land cover (LULC) categories, long-term NDVI (1982-2006) based negative changes, agriculture vulnerability, drought-prone area and future (2021, 2050) climate change anomalies (RCP-6) of India for better understanding and knowledge of the GHG emission scenario, vegetation health, LULC, agriculture vulnerability, and future climate change impact. The LULC analysis revealed that 49.6% (1 628 959 km2) of the geographical area was found to be under category ‘cropland’. The 32.5% of the total cropland areas are used for rice cultivation whereas around 76% of this rice cultivation area is producing high GHG emission (>1000 Mg CO2e/yr.). LULC categories ‘Cropland’ and ‘Plantation’ show the long-term (1982-2006) negative change equivalent to 19.7 and 70.2% respectively. Similarly, around 56% of LULC categories representing the forest show the long-term negative change whereas the maximum change (139 867 km2) was found in the category of ‘Deciduous Broadleaf Forest’. The 30.6% of the LULC category of ‘cropland’ falls in very high agriculture vulnerable areas whereas 31.7% of the same category falls in the drought-prone area. The significant increase in temperature and abrupt rainfall patterns were observed during Kharif and Rabi seasons in the future. Such variation of climate parameter in the future not only adversely affect the agriculture crop production but also the natural vegetation of India. The outcomes of the present study would support the policymakers of India to implement the climate-smart agriculture (CSA) and REDD+ on an urgent priority based on a proper evaluation of the socio-economic condition of the poor people. It will certainly help in the reduction of GHG emission, forest amelioration, will bring the resilience in livelihood and mitigate the poverty among the rural communities for the betterment of people.
Greening rubber? Political ecologies of plantation sustainability in Laos and Myanmar
Over the past decade, the cultivation of rubber trees has expanded rapidly throughout the Mekong region to non-traditional rubber growing areas of Laos and Myanmar. Prompted by rising prices from 1990 to 2010 and government agro-industrialization policies, farmers and investors have rushed to plant the new boom crop. A latex price crash in 2011, however, has made it more challenging for small-scale producers to earn an income, leading to uneven social-ecological transformations and economic consequences. Several proposals have been made to address these challenges by transforming rubber into a more economically, socially, and environmentally sustainable crop. In this paper, which emerged from one such project to investigate the potential for “green” rubber, we argue that the sustainability of rubber is a challenging and elusive prospect – particularly in resource frontier contexts like Laos and Myanmar. Concepts like “sustainability” or “green” production are vague and malleable. They can be imbued with a variety of contradictory meanings, which often do not address the most socially and environmentally problematic aspects of cash crop expansion. Sustainable rubber, if rigorously and specifically defined, would be exceedingly difficult to reach in both countries, due to the ways in which political-economic and governance factors interact with the biophysical and social characteristics of the crop. Instead, we recommend using sustainability as a political tool for highlighting the most harmful socio-environmental impacts of rubber and generating debate concerning the best ways to address these, thus limiting unsustainable practices.
Commerce: Help bigger palm oil yields to save land
Technological innovation in oil-palm farming could help both to boost yields of palm oil and to reduce deforestation, but only if higher productivity causes palm-oil prices to drop sufficiently to discourage additional cultivation. If prices stay high, the demand for land is likely to go up in the push for ever-larger profits.