The role of Amazonian anthropogenic soils in shifting cultivation: learning from farmers’ rationales

Abstract

. 2016. The role of Amazonian anthropogenic soils in shifting cultivation: learning from farmers' rationales. Ecology and Society 21 (1) ABSTRACT. We evaluated farmers' rationales to understand their decision making in relation to the use of fertile anthropogenic soils, i.e., Amazonian dark earths (ADE), and for dealing with changes in shifting cultivation in Central Amazonia. We analyzed qualitative information from 196 interviews with farmers in 21 riverine villages along the Madeira River. In order to decide about crop management options to attain their livelihood objectives, farmers rely on an integrated and dynamic understanding of their biophysical and social environment. Farmers associate fallow development with higher crop yields and lower weed pressure, but ADE is always associated with high yields and high weeding requirements. Amazonian dark earths are also seen as an opportunity to grow different crops and/or grow crops in more intensified management systems. However, farmers often maintain simultaneously intensive swiddens on ADE and extensive swiddens on nonanthropogenic soils. Farmers acknowledge numerous changes in their socioeconomic environment that affect their shifting cultivation systems, particularly their growing interaction with market economies and the incorporation of modern agricultural practices. Farmers considered that shifting cultivation systems on ADE tend to be more prone to changes leading to intensification, and we identified cases, e.g., swiddens used for watermelon cultivation, in which market demand led to overintensification and resulted in ADE degradation. This shows that increasing intensification can be a potential threat to ADE and can undermine the importance of these soils for agricultural production, for the conservation of agrobiodiversity, and for local livelihoods. Given that farmers have an integrated knowledge of their context and respond to socioeconomic and agro-ecological changes in their environment, we argue that understanding farmers' knowledge and rationales is crucial to identify sustainable pathways for the future of ADE and of smallholder agriculture in Amazonia.

The land-use dynamics of potato agrobiodiversity in the highlands of central Peru: a case study of spatial-temporal management across farming landscapes

“…With twice as many children and one third the total potato cropping area compared to Pasco, the only options that households have in this landscape involve shortened fallows and expanded cultivation at increasingly high altitudes [56, 67]. Adaptations become a necessity in contexts where land scarcity, the need for cash income from agriculture, and increased market orientation drive smallholder land use decisions [27, 68].…”

Sustainable productive intensification for family farming in developing tropical countries

“…The use of external inputs is small and family labor predominates. Each aspect of these systems is adjusted according to the characteristics of the family (Kovacic; Viteri Salazar, 2017) and of its resource base (Vosti;Witcover, 1996;Junqueira et al, 2016b).…”

“…Traditional farmers, including shifting cultivators, have managerial capacity, but use limited resource bases and are, therefore, sensitive to any restrictions on their activity (Junqueira et al, 2016b). The main obstacles to communication between farmers and scientists are due to differences in understanding the world.…”

“…Some of the demands of the poorest farmers are related to alternatives that favor the intensification of traditional systems without increasing the demand for inputs, such as use of native microorganisms, management of fires, organic residues and fallow periods (Miltner;Coomes, 2015;Junqueira et al, 2016b).…”

“…Many rural communities use their own pedological classification systems. Their understanding can improve communication with the farmer and increase the efficiency of soil mapping (Balcázar et al, 1998;Junqueira et al, 2016b). This will allow the adoption of innovations that increase productivity, diversify sources of income and improve diet (Hernández-Hernández et al, 2011), such as crop rotation and intercropping, including agroforestry.…”