A New Zealand-wide postal survey of farmers was undertaken in the winter months of 1985 seekinginformation on farmerknowledge and use of pasture cultivars commercially availablein New Zealand, their sources and adequacy of information on these cultivars, pasture problems, and amount of pasturerenewal carried out. Of the 1700 questionnaires sent out, 943 (55.5%) valid returnswerereceived. Perennial ryegrassand white clovercultivarshad the highestlevelof knowledge and use. Farmerstended to have better knowledge and higheruse of oldercultivars, withonly thenew perennial ryegrass cultivars 'Grasslands Nui' and Ellett among all farmers and 'Grasslands Pitau' among dairy farmers being higher than older cultivars. New cultivarsof other grass and legume species werelessusedthanoldercultivars.lnregions wheremajorresearchwas carriedout on a specific cultivar, its level of use by farmers in the region appearsto have been influenced Farmersrevealed stronguseofagriculturaljournals (e.g.,Proceedings A89043 of the New Zealand Grassland Association), their district farming paper, and the daily newspaper's farming page for seeking information on new cultivars,andgrainandseedmerchantrepresentatives werethe mostpopularpersonalsourcesof information.Though60%of the farmers indicatedsatisfaction with information received on seed mixtures, 76%consideredthatdistrictpaddock-sizedemonstrationareasofnewcultivarswouldbethemostappropriatewayofpromoting thenewcultivars. 62%of the samplelisted pasture problems they wished to see researched for theirdistrict.

Abstract. Shifting cultivation is an agricultural practice that is the basis of subsistence for the Indigenous population in Guyana and has impacted on a total forest area of 13,922ha to varying degrees of impact on forest carbon. Generally, within these communities, there are two types of shifting cultivation: pioneer and rotational. Pioneer shifting cultivation involves the cutting of primary forest and subsequent cropping and then abandonment. Rotational shifting cultivation involves revisiting areas on a rotational cycle. In Guyana, shifting cultivation is not included in the sustainable land use system since no work has been done to understand the rotational cycles. This study utilized an Object-based image analysis (OBIA) of time-series satellite data (Landsat TM5 and OLI) for the period 2004 to 2017 to determine the dynamics of land cover, time-series changes, and prevailing shifting cultivation cycle in the indigenous communities of Jawalla and Phillipai in the western section of Guyana. OBIA proved to be an efficient method for shifting cultivation and sustainable forest management analyses in Guyana. The findings of this study indicate that short fallows are associated with shifting cultivation in Guyana and the size of the patches cleared each year has been increasing. These trends have potential ecological and livelihood implications that can impact the flow of ecosystem services and the sustainability of livelihoods.