Integration of Abandoned Lands in Sustainable Agriculture: The Case of Terraced Landscape Re-Cultivation in Mediterranean Island Conditions

Abstract

Agriculture terraces constitute a significant element of the Mediterranean landscape, enabling crop production on steep slopes while protecting land from desertification. Despite their ecological and historical value, terrace cultivation is threatened by climate change leading to abandonment and further marginalization of arable land imposing serious environmental and community hazards. Re-cultivation of terraced landscapes could be an alternative strategy to mitigate the climate change impacts in areas of high vulnerability encouraging a sustainable agroecosystem to ensure food security, rural development and restrain land desertification. The article presents the case study of abandoned terrace re-cultivation in the Aegean Island of Andros, using a climate smart agriculture system, which involves the establishment of an extensive meteorological network to monitor the local climate and hydrometeorological forecasting. Along with terrace site mapping and soil profiling the perfomance of cereal and legume crops was assessed in a low-input agriculture system. The implementation of a land stewardship (LS) plan was indispensable to overcome mainly land fragmentation issues and to transfer know-how. It was found that climate data are key drivers for crop cultivation and production in the island rainfed farming system. The study revealed that terrace soil quality could be improved through cultivation to support food safety and stall land degradation. In line with global studies this research suggest that cultivation of marginal terraced land is timely through a climate smart agriculture system as a holistic approach to improve land quality and serve as means to combat climate change impacts. The study also discusses land management and policy approaches to address the issue of agricultural land abandonment and the benefits gained through cultivation to the local community, economy and environment protection and sustainability.

Coevolution between Terraced Landscapes and Rural Communities: An Integrated Approach Using Expert-Based Assessment and Evaluation of Winegrowers’ Perceptions (Northwest Piedmont, Italy)

“…Therefore, the recent development of olive groves is linked with the past and allows productive terraces to be maintained. Sakellariou [68] highlighted the importance of recultivating terraced landscapes on the Aegean Island of Andros (Greece), taking into account future environmental and social challenges and preventing abandonment. In the case study area, other consequences of abandonment were mowed meadows and invasive shrubs and woodlands.…”

Mediterranean White Lupin Landraces as a Valuable Genetic Reserve for Breeding

“…In Mediterranean farming systems, white lupin is considered a winter crop and sowing takes place in autumn, in order for the crop to take advantage of the late winter rainfalls. Thus, sufficient seed filling is succeeded before the early dry spells that occur in May, which have been more frequent and severe in Mediterranean ecosystems, due to the climate change [24]. Early flowering is considered to be an effective stress escape mechanism, in that it promotes fulfillment of the plants biological cycle, prior to terminal drought stress [46,58].…”

“…White lupin's global commercial potential has incited the breeding interest to focus not only in yield boost, but also in expanding its cultivation to agroclimatic regions, other than the Mediterranean basin, as extreme climate-change-related phenomena push the cultivation of some crops northwards [22]. On top of that, restricted precipitation levels during spring and frequent dry spells, throughout the Mediterranean basin, as a consequence of climate change [23][24][25], have a detrimental impact on pollen fertility [26], pollinator-flower interactions [27,28], pod filling, and seed development, resulting in premature harvesting and yield losses [29,30]. Vernalization insensitivity and flowering time in white lupin are controlled by a highly complex multi-locus system [18,31].…”

The Affective Mediascapes of Chinese Island Abandonment

“…Similarly, island abandonments in southern Europe often involve localised rural landscapes on islands rather than total abandonments of islands; a case in point is the abandonment of olive plantations in east Lesvos, Greece (Zagaria et al, 2018). In another example, agricultural terraces were first abandoned and then re--cultivated in the Aegean island of Andros (Sakellariou et al, 2021). Furthermore, partial abandonments of land on islands often intertwine with other natural and social processes, such as colonisation in French Polynesia, forest dynamics on the island of Corsica, etc.…”