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.
Highlights
The construction of artificial terraces on slopes for cultivation, known as terrace farming or terracing, is considered the only anthropogenic designed landscape that has a relief-modifying impact on all landscape factors in an area, as they improve rainfall absorbency, reduce soil erosion, smooth extreme summer temperatures, and mitigate the risk of floods and forest fires [1]
Data collected from the meteorological stations were further used for the development of local weather forecast models, and in the cultivation operation plan for better utilization of natural resources
Agricultural terraces constitute a valuable element of the Mediterranean landscape, which can be used as an alternative strategy to mitigate climate change effects on areas of high desertification risk
Summary
The construction of artificial terraces on slopes for cultivation, known as terrace farming or terracing, is considered the only anthropogenic designed landscape that has a relief-modifying impact on all landscape factors in an area, as they improve rainfall absorbency, reduce soil erosion, smooth extreme summer temperatures, and mitigate the risk of floods and forest fires [1]. Cultivated terraces are a prominent feature of the Mediterranean agricultural landscape and the main cultivating system supporting primary production on the islands of the Aegean archipelago (Greece). Estimation of the provided ecosystem services in terraced slopes over non-terraced slopes, revealed the prominent role of terracing in erosion control, runoff reduction, biomass accumulation, soil water recharge and soil nutrient enhancement [7]. All of these are vital to support agriculture sustainability, rural development and more importantly to lessen the effects of climate change on marginal lands, such as terraces
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