Farmers’ assessment of soil quality in rice production systems

Abstract

a b s t r a c tIn the recent past there has been increasing recognition that local knowledge of farmers can yield insight into soil quality. With regard to constraints and possibilities for the production of irrigated rice in the south of Brazil there is no documentation on local soil knowledge. The goals of this study were to answer the following questions: (1) Which soil quality perceptions do rice farmers have? (2) Which soil quality indicators are most important to them? (3) Do rice farmers use their knowledge about soil quality indicators when making soil management decisions and developing sustainable management? The study was carried out in the municipality of Camaquã-Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil. The research methods used included semi-structured interviews alternated with group discussions. Farmers named eleven characteristics as good indicators for soil quality: earthworms, soil colour, yield, spontaneous vegetation, soil organic matter, root development, soil friability, rice plant development, colour of the rice plant, number of rice tillers and cattle health. Out of these, three indicators were found to be useful in farmers' decision-making: spontaneous vegetation, rice plant development and soil colour. The potential use of local knowledge for maintaining soil quality and developing sustainable land management is discussed.

Soil Properties and Soil Management Practices in Commercial Organic and Conventional Vegetable Farms in Kathmandu Valley

“…It was maybe because for farmers, crop yield was the main yardstick to categorise soil productivity (Lima et al 2011).…”

Farmer knowledge, perception and management of soils in the Las Vegas agricultural district, Madrid, Spain

“…There was a strong correspondence between the soil degradation factors identified and the direct measures (e.g. manure, appropriate tillage, soil fertility and the levelling of fields) proposed by farmers to cope with them a relationship that has been found in a wide array of regions (Ali, ; Desbiez et al ., ; Price, ; Mairura et al ., ; Lima et al ., ; Rushemuka et al ., ). This reinforces the idea that farmers have a good understanding of soil quality and its appropriate use, the main obstacles to more sustainable management practices being cost and other enabling factors (Price, ; Shiferaw et al ., ).…”

Local soil quality assessment of north-central Namibia: integrating farmers' and technical knowledge

“…Technical knowledge, on the other hand, is valuable for its level of standardisation, which allows for spatial and temporal comparisons and facilitates international communication (Niemeijer and Mazzucato, 2003). Scientists should therefore integrate both knowledge systems to provide tools connecting FFEs and technical knowledge (Lima et al, 2011). Methodologies to select indicators for SQ based on the integration of FFEs with technical knowledge have been developed and discussed, and yielded promising results (Barrios et al, 2006).…”

“…FFEs acknowledge the importance of "soil darkness" to estimate SQ. SOC is used as an index of SQ in many studies because of sensitivity to management practices (Barrios and Trejo, 2003;Lima et al, 2011;Musinguzi et al, 2015;Osbahr and Allan, 2003). Sanchez et al (2003) used the concept of C saturation to evaluate the soil fertility capability, in which a C saturation above 80 % indicated good soil conditions.…”