Agricultural Decline Research Articles

Anthropogenic impact in the Maya Lowlands of Petén, Guatemala, during the last 5500 years

ABSTRACTTrace and rare earth elements from a sediment core from Lake Petén Itzá (Guatemala) depict the geochemical dynamics affecting the lake from ∼5500 a BP to the present. This timing encompasses the Preclassic (4000–1700 a BP) and Classic Periods (1700−1000 a BP) when thriving Maya societies extensively cleared land for agriculture. We demonstrate that this land use occurred during times of increased precipitation, where both processes resulted in increased erosion. Rare earth element ratios depict high precipitation rates between 3000 and 1000 a BP, correlating with an increase in allochthonous silicate input and low organic carbon in the ‘Maya Clay’ stratigraphic section, where this layer is ascribed to intensive anthropogenic land use. Cesium anomalies provide additional evidence for runoff due to high rainfalls and amplified by anthropogenic impacts. The Petén Itzá core contains anomalous spikes of arsenic and mercury, and these peaks correspond to documented volcanic eruptions and therefore are probably natural. The geochemical composition of sediments and palynological records indicate re‐growth of the forest after ∼900 a BP. This increased forest vegetation coincides with the timing of the decline in Maya agriculture.

ЭКОЛОГО-КУЛЬТУРНЫЕ КОНФЛИКТЫ ИНТЕРЕСОВ В ДОЛИНЕ РЕКИ УНЖИ (КОСТРОМСКАЯ ОБЛАСТЬ), "Известия Российской академии наук. Серия географическая"

Four long-established environmental and cultural phenomena and a new one are characterized in the article. These phenomena represent some recurring patterns of activity or behavior of people, significantly altering the course of natural processes. They are generated by stable combinations of environmental conflicts inherent certain forms of nature management and economic activities such as land use, forest use, water use, waste management and others. Their transformative eff on the landscapes of theUnzhaRivervalley is shown on concrete examples. They illustrate the consequences of the barbaric forest use, reckless industrialization and decline of agriculture. The effect of these phenomena is extended to many territories of the Near North. It is typical for the nature management inRussiafor many years. The most longstanding phenomenon is a predatory forest use and its corollary, the shallowing of rivers. Phenomenon of antienvironmental industrialization acts also for a long time. The main conflicts that shape these phenomena are contradictions between the increase in material well-being of people and the violation of their health as a result of deterioration of the ecological situation. More youthful phenomenon of the destruction and running wild of the traditional rural landscape is conditioned by not so much environmental, how socioeconomic conflicts. A new phenomenon is formed as a consequence of the explicit conflict of environmental and cultural interests of two groups of population – decreasing indigenous peasant population and increasing dachas.

The Last Hundred Years of Land Use History in the Southern Part of Valdai Hills (European Russia): Reconstruction by Pollen and Historical Data

Abstract The last one hundred years of land use history in the southern part of Valdai Hills (European Russia) were reconstructed on the base of high resolution pollen data from the peat monolith taken from the Central Forest State Reserve supplementing with historical records derived from maps of the General Land Survey of the 18th and 19th centuries and satellite images. According to the created age model provided by dating using radio-nuclides 210Pb and 137Cs, pollen data of the peat monolith allow us to reconstruct vegetation dynamics during the last one hundred years with high time resolution. The obtained data showed that, despite the location of the studied peatland in the center of the forest area and rather far away from possible croplands and hayfields, the pollen values of plants – anthropogenic indicators (Secale sereale, Centaurea cyanus, Plantago, Rumex, etc.) and micro-charcoal concentration are relatively high in the period since the beginning of the 20th century to the 1970s, especially in the peat horizon formed in the 1950s. In the late 1970s – the early 1980s when the pollen values of cereals gradually diminished in assemblages, the quantity of pollen of other anthropogenic indicators were also significantly reduced, which reflects the overall processes of the agriculture decline in the forest zone of the former USSR.

Vulnerability of Farm Households to Impacts of the Abaca Bunchy Top Disease: A Case in Leyte, Philippines

The abaca bunchy top disease (ABTD) has destroyed thousands of hectares of abaca farms, leading to the decline in agriculture and economic production of farmers and their households. This paper frames the widespread disease incidence as a disaster and analyzes the factors that made farm households in Barangay Pinamonoan, an abaca-growing community, vulnerable to the disease and its impacts. It grounds its analysis on the pressure and release (PAR) and access models by Blaikie et al (1994) and the sustainable livelihoods framework by Scoones (1998, 2009). From these, an analytical framework was developed to illustrate the complexity of the relationships of the different factors contributing to farm households’ vulnerability to a widespread crop disease. The reliance of farm households on abaca production was influenced by the high global demand of abaca fiber. This global demand made abaca an important export commodity; hence, government policies and programs were focused on increasing its production and less on ensuring that the livelihoods of farm households were secure. While abaca production is profitable, sole reliance on this could prove disastrous in the event of a hazard. Access to resources determined how farm households absorbed the shock and recovered from it. Households who had significant assets were able to shift to other crops or enterprises. Households with access to people with resources and who could provide assistance were also more likely to cope. The most affected in the village were the households who, even before the disease, had limited resources, both in terms of material assets and social support networks.

Feminisation of Rural Work and Young Women’s Dis/empowerment: A Case Study of Mountain Villages in the Western Black Sea Region of Turkey

In this paper, we examine the process of feminisation of rural work in a case study of women’s employment at a seafood-processing factory in Western Black Sea Turkey. We explore the significance of women’s nonfarm employment to their household economy and how intra-household relations are affected when women participate in paid work. In order to understand the household characteristics and dynamics in relation to the work status of female household members, mixed methods were used for data collection – semi-structured interviews with 218 women and in-depth interviews with 27 women. The data indicate the significance of women’s paid work to rural household economy and also how the paid work has transformed the father-daughter relationship in particular. Recent rural transformation in the context of neoliberal agricultural policy, agricultural decline, and out-migration increased women’s workload. Today, rural household heavily depends on unmarried daughter’s labour regardless of her work status. Daughter’s participation in paid work however makes her labour visible and considerably undermines the authority of father who had already lost control over son’s labour. Yet we contend that daughter’s labour may be liberated from a traditional form of patriarchy; her participation into labour market results in an integration into not only market economy but also a modern form of patriarchy.

Feminisation of Rural Work and Young Women’s Dis/empowerment: A Case Study of Mountain Villages in the Western Black Sea Region of Turkey

In this paper, we examine the process of feminisation of rural work in a case study of women’s employment at a seafood-processing factory in Western Black Sea Turkey. We explore the significance of women’s nonfarm employment to their household economy and how intra-household relations are affected when women participate in paid work. In order to understand the household characteristics and dynamics in relation to the work status of female household members, mixed methods were used for data collection – semi-structured interviews with 218 women and in-depth interviews with 27 women. The data indicate the significance of women’s paid work to rural household economy and also how the paid work has transformed the father-daughter relationship in particular. Recent rural transformation in the context of neoliberal agricultural policy, agricultural decline, and out-migration increased women’s workload. Today, rural household heavily depends on unmarried daughter’s labour regardless of her work status. Daughter’s participation in paid work however makes her labour visible and considerably undermines the authority of father who had already lost control over son’s labour. Yet we contend that daughter’s labour may be liberated from a traditional form of patriarchy; her participation into labour market results in an integration into not only market economy but also a modern form of patriarchy.

Conservation agriculture improves yield and reduces weeding activity in sandy soils of Cambodia

The years of intensive tillage in Cambodia have caused significant decline in agriculture’s natural resources that could threaten its future of agricultural production and sustainability. Conventional tillage could cause rapid loss of soil organic matter, leading to a high potential for soil degradation and decline of environmental quality. Hence, a better and comprehensive process-based understanding of differential effects of tillage systems and crop management on crop yield is critically needed. A study was conducted in 10 farmer’s fields to evaluate the effect of conservation agriculture and conventional tillage on yield of selected crops and weeding activity in two villages of Siem Reap, Cambodia. The experiment was laid out following a 2 × 2 factorial treatment combination in randomized complete block design. Each treatment was replicated five times. Each farmer’s field was divided into four plots and was randomly assigned with production management and irrigation treatments, respectively. We demonstrated that our results supported the overall premises of conservation agriculture. Average yields of selected crops were significantly (≤ 0.001) improved in plots with conservation agriculture (17.1 ± 6.3 to 89.3 ± 40.2 Mg ha−1) compared with conventional tillage (18.8 ± 6.4 to 63.8 ± 27.7 Mg ha−1). Our results showed that manual weeding in all cropping seasons was significantly reduced by about 35% in conservation agriculture (169 ± 23 to 125 ± 18 man-day ha−1), which can be attributed to existing cover crops and surface mulch. Overall, our results suggest that in smallholder commercial household farms, adoption of conservation agriculture had a profitable production management system, which could save natural resources, improve yield, and reduce labor. We proved for the first time that in Cambodian smallholder commercial household farms, adoption of conservation agriculture saves natural resources, improves yield, and reduces labor. Additional studies are encouraged to further test the conservation agriculture system for a longer period of time, with repeated cropping sequences.

The Transformation of Bangladesh's Agriculture

This paper analyses the evolution of the role of the agricultural sector in Bangladesh in recent decades in the context of similar roles performed by the sector both in the historical and contemporary cases of development. It demonstrates that the quality of economic growth, in terms of both egalitarianism and efficiency, has been strongly reflected in the type of agricultural evolution experienced. The paper argues that in one respect, namely bringing about a rapid decline in agriculture’s share of GDP despite decent agricultural growth, Bangladesh has achieved significant success; but it has failed to bring about a corresponding decline in the proportion of the labour force employed in, or eking out a living from agriculture. The result has been a widening in the disparity of living standard between those deriving livelihood from agriculture and those deriving livelihood from non-agricultural activities. The paper explores the issue with the help of the Labour Force Survey data, which unambiguously point to a failure in bringing about the so-called Lewis transition – the beginning of an absolute decline in employment in agriculture but shows that, even after taking into account the alternative findings of Mahabub Hossain’s research based on microeconomic data, it cannot be argued that the possible decline in employment in agriculture has been sufficiently rapid to warrant a decline in disparity between agricultural and non-agricultural living standards. The paper concludes by outlining the needed reform and public action that would contribute to a more desirable pattern of agricultural transformation.

Changes in grassland management and plant diversity in a marginal region of the Carpathian Mts. in 1999–2015

The political change from socialism to democracy in countries of Central and Eastern Europe at the end of the 20th century induced broad changes in agriculture mostly due to land ownership changes and strong reduction of subsidies to agriculture. This resulted in agricultural decline, including grassland abandonment, which influenced grassland biodiversity and conservation. Between 1999 and 2015 we studied the grasslands in the area depopulated in the early 1980's in the Poloniny National Park (NE Slovakia, Carpathian Mts.). The aim of the study was to examine influence of environmental factors and grassland management driven by the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) to plant community structure and taxonomical diversity. We identified altitude and soil properties as the main environmental factors: altitude determines climate gradient and probably also management intensity gradient and soil properties express soil fertility via A-horizon depth. We identified remarkable increase of proportion of managed grasslands from only 8% in 1999 to 40% in 2012–2015; other 7% of sampled grasslands were recently restored and prepared for future management. The average species richness in grasslands managed in 2012–2015 increased from 47.5 species per record in 1999 to 54.2 species in 2012–2015, the increase was found statistically significant. In 2012–2015, we observed statistically significant difference in the average species richness between managed (54.2) and abandoned grasslands (46.3). The agricultural subsidies of the CAP drive the grassland management in the study area. Therefore, we conclude that CAP enabled grassland biodiversity maintenance in significant part of the Poloniny National Park following start of its application in 2004 and above provided figures can be considered as indicators of the CAP effectiveness in our study area. However, the conservation of mountain meadows remains a challenge because of their poor accessibility.

HISTORICAL ANALYSIS OF THE DYNAMICS OF AGRICULTURE IN THE FOREST ZONE OF THE EAST EUROPEAN PLAIN

The paper deals with the history of the agricultural development of the forest zone of the East European Plain basing on the geoecological concept of agricultural landscape. A number of stages of agricultural development are described including the period of non-plow agriculture, the period of plow agriculture before the Turmoil, the period of agricultural development after the Turmoil, and agricultural development in the 20th century. The conclusion is done about the regularity of the decline in agriculture in the forest zone of the East European Plain to the end of the 20th century.

No "Rural Bowl of Milk": Demographic Agrarianism and Unsustainability in Pierre

No "Rural Bowl of Milk":Demographic Agrarianism and Unsustainability in Pierre Abby L. Goode (bio) In the summer of 1850, Herman Melville volunteered to ghost-write an agricultural report that would turn heads. A favor to his less-educated cousin Robert, chair of the Agricultural Committee in Berkshire County, Massachusetts, Melville's little-known report is an experimental georgic, a pastiche of early American farm writing. Echoing the mythic, utopian vision of J. Hector St. John de Crèvecoeur's Letters from an American Farmer (1782), he lauds Berkshire farmers' "efforts to…increase the quantity of…food which nourished our great progenitors in the Garden of Eden."1 He celebrates the county's fertility, its "various kinds of fruit," and its "numerous, extensive and well cultivated fields of Corn," portraying an "exuberant" landscape rich in foodstuffs, ever-improving with the labor of farmer-citizens.2 Drawing on agrarian ideals of small farming and democratic citizenship, Melville imagines a timeless, unadulterated utopia in the heart of New England. Melville's agricultural report displays a lineage between American agrarianism and the notion of sustainability. It mingles idyllic, rural imagery with emerging concerns about "exhaustion of the soil" and "drain[s] upon the land."3 Descriptions of the landscape's beauty and productivity appear alongside endorsements of composting and soil enrichment—of "saving every ingredient…which renovates exhausted lands, and returns to the earth those particles which have been drawn from it…enabling nature to reinvest herself."4 Envisioning a renewal of agricultural resources, Melville's report presents sustainability, well before the term officially appears, in a Crèvecoeurian context of utopian agrarianism. In so doing, it calls attention to an unexamined American literary genealogy of sustainability. Scholars currently understand sustainability as a global and contemporary [End Page 27] concept, officially defined in the UN's 1987 Brundtland Report as development that "meets the needs of the present generation without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs."5 Yet as Melville's report suggests, sustainability emerges in part from the mythic ideal of agrarian utopia: a New World fantasy of demographic growth and agricultural abundance rooted in Jeffersonian agrarian principles of democratic farming and land-owning. Henry Nash Smith, Leo Marx, and Annette Kolodny have analyzed versions of this ideal in American literary history, using phrases such as "the Garden of the World," "virgin continent" and "provider of sustenance."6 Imagining a utopia of renewable resources that "meet[] the needs" of present and future generations, Melville's report gestures towards the integral role of this agrarian ideal and, more broadly, American literature in the development of sustainability discourses—a possible explanation for why the UN Brundtland Report reads as so oddly Jeffersonian.7 While Melville's report promotes agrarian principles and farming practices that we today associate with sustainability, his novel Pierre (1852), published the following year, inverts this agrarian ideal, depicting an unsustainable population through images of racial and sexual degeneracy.8 In an 1852 letter to Sophia Hawthorne, Melville described his then-forthcoming novel with a fitting agricultural metaphor: "The next chalice I shall commend, will be a rural bowl of milk."9 But rather than directly capture this small farming scene, Pierre portrays its very opposites, the two realms that Crèvecoeur and Thomas Jefferson condemn as wasteful and unproductive: an aristocratic estate and a densely-packed city, both of which are home to a dwindling and largely starving population, with no "rural bowl of milk" to sustain it. This inversion uncovers the racial and reproductive connotations of agrarian rhetoric more broadly. In the novel, the estate's diminishing agricultural fertility and the city's overpopulation emerge through interrelated images of racial mottling, sexual excess, and sterility. Portraying demographic and agricultural decline, Pierre articulates an unexamined reproductive subtext of the agrarian ideal: the idea that sexual disorder and racial intermingling enfeeble the fertility, vigor, and agricultural productivity of the American population. Set in New York City and the Hudson Valley in the 1840s, Pierre dramatizes the fears of mid-century advocates of agrarianism—land reformers, labor radicals, and nativists who promoted the agrarian ideal as an alternative to what they saw as an increasingly unsustainable society...

МЕНЕДЖМЕНТ РЕГУЛЮВАННЯ ТА ЯКОСТІ КОНКУРЕНТОСПРОМОЖНОСТІ НА ПІДПРИЄМСТВАХ АПК

In the article problems of managing regulation and quality of enterprises competitiveness of agro-industrial complex (АIC) on internal and external markets are considered. Agriculture, food and processing industry remain uncompetitive and potentially unprotected on different levels of a legislative framework. Focus on enhancing current budgets income of all levels is destructive and contradictory it leads to the decline of agriculture. It is proposed to revise the legislative framework of taxation of subjects of the agrarian sphere, which requires improvement. It will allow corresponding to international standards. In the article recommendations the use of several external market segments for domestic goods exportation are provided. These recommendations will improve the positions of competitive products.

Foreign Direct Investment and Sectoral Performance in Tanzania

Abstract Although it may seem natural to argue that Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) can bridge the investment gap in developing countries’ economy, which in turn foster economic growth, this paper shows that the effect of FDI vary greatly across sectors. In fact, there is a lack of systematic evidence on the actual impact of FDI on the host country. An empirical analysis using time series data spanning from 1970 to 2015 and applying Error Correction Mechanism, suggests that FDI exerts a negative effect on agriculture value added. Unsurprisingly, FDI tends to have a positive effect on manufacturing, construction and transport, storage and communication sectors. Evidence from the mining sector is not clear despite the fact that the sector constitutes a substantial proportion of FDI inflows. The unexpected negative causal relationship between FDI inflows and agricultural sector in Tanzania could be because of the low level of FDI in the sector relative to other sectors. However, it is possible for FDI to be contributing to the GDP through manufacturing, construction and transport, storage and communication sectors and yet not increasing the welfare of the people in the country. Agriculture sector, which constitutes more than 70 percent of the total labour force, contributes, on average, less than 30 percent, in total GDP. Understandably, FDI in the agricultural sector can improve the welfare in the country than FDI in mining and manufacturing sectors. Given the importance of the subject, it is surprising to find that very little effort has been devoted to quantifying the sources of agricultural decline. Key words: FDI; Sectoral composition; Agricultural sector; Mining sector and Manufacturing sector JEL: F23; F36; F43

Sustainability Organic Agriculture and Livestock Production with Respect to European Union in Eastern Anatolia and East Black Sea Regions

The majority of farm households in Turkey and especially the Eastern Anatolia are still based on low-input semi subsistence agriculture and livestock production. Despite a slow decline in recent years, agriculture and livestock production remains a major employer in Turkey and it is a significant contributor to the country’s gross domestic product, GDP. Whist Turkey is one of the EU candidate countries, is self sufficient in food production and Turkish agriculture is poorly structured inefficient, with farming in the Eastern Anatolia being mainly subsistence farming. Yet, these traditional rural structures combined with poor access to low level of education and low level of off-farm unemployment problem makes the situation more complicated and unsustainable. The best way to promote sustainability, better and higher production of Eastern Anatolian and rural Turkey is to invest in the local people, villages through improved, continuing and effective agricultural and livestock programs in particular. Investment in human capital especially in the rural areas leads to more employment opportunities through entrepreneurship and innovation in organic agriculture and livestock production. A holistic approach to developing and improving supply chains could unlock the potential for sophisticated, state-of-the-art organic agriculture and livestock producers and businesses in the region to become EU and global players. Eastern Anatolian livestock producers and the farmers have the ambitions to take part in future progress because the region is naturally organic not by design but default. It is for sure that present potential of the region has not been fully determined and utilized. EU has greatly benefited from previous enlargements economically, politically and socially. When European Union (EU) and Turkish Government relations considered and accession of Turkey to EU would be the logical consequence of the previous accessions. The screening on chapter 11 (Agriculture and rural development) is one of the important criteria and Turkey is working on to meet these benchmarks.

Community: a powerful label? Connecting wind energy to rural Ireland

Much of the research on the social sustainability of renewable technologies has focused on local acceptance issues, community benefits from exogenous developments, and matters related to the planning and development process. Grassroots-initiated wind energy schemes as a form of rural enterprise have received less attention, especially in the Irish context. Using a case study approach, this paper analyses the challenges and opportunities faced in progressing community wind energy projects in rural Ireland. Such an analysis is especially relevant given Ireland’s commitment to developing a fair and sustainable society as advocated in its Sustainable Development Framework. With the decline of agriculture and considerable outmigration from rural areas, wind energy represents an opportunity to revitalize rural economies. More generally, as opposition to wind turbines and associated infrastructure is common in Ireland, it is clear that the relevant authorities must engage local stakeholders more meaningfully in the planning and development process. In this vein, community energy initiatives have the potential to boost rural economies, enhance acceptance, and develop knowledge networks at the local level. Drawing lessons from a community wind energy case study, it is argued that community projects can be nurtured in Ireland by (i) engaging communities, especially weak stakeholders, in both agenda setting and the planning and development process for individual projects, and (ii) ensuring that technical and financial support is available to communities, while (iii) being careful to apply the ‘community’ label only to initiatives that can meet the expectations of such a project.

Decline of Cultivators and Growth of Agricultural Labourers in India from 2001 to 2011

According to Census data, the proportion of working to the total population in India grew from 39.1 per cent in 2001 to 39.8 per cent in 2011. The working population comprises four categories: cultivators (C.L.),1 agricultural labourers (A.L.),2 household industry workers (H.H.) 3 and other workers (O.W.).4 The decade of 2001–11 has seen a decline in the number of cultivators and high increase in the number of agricultural labourers. This is disturbing the development for India. For the first time since independence, agricultural labourers have outnumbered cultivators. There are many reasons for this development such as decreasing average size of operational holdings, farming becoming infeasible, increasing agricultural wages, rampant selling of agricultural land and shift of employment from the agricultural to non-agricultural sector (Figure 3). The decade of 2001–11 also witnessed three drought years. This article explains these reasons in detail. Cultivators are decreasing and such decline in agriculture is replaced by increase in agricultural labourers. There has been a definite marginalization of agrarian interest in the national policy and reforms are certainly needed. This article tries to study the pattern of growth of cultivators and agricultural labourers for the states having population of more than 25 million as per Census 2011. There is a marginal increase in the number of household industry workers but high increase in the number of other workers.

An Assessment of Sectoral Dynamics and Employment Shift in Indian and Chinese Economy

This study has analysed structural transformation and inter-sectoral relationships of the Indian and the Chinese economy. Variation in employment dynamics across the sectors and growth instability is also examined by taking data from the World Development Indicators (WDI, 2015) of the World Bank. The study has revealed that there is a gradual decline in agriculture in both the countries. Both the economies are now concentrating at service sectors. China is fully exploiting its industrial sector potential while India has been lagging behind in this sector. Johansen’s cointegration approach revealed the existence of one cointegration relationship among all the three sectors, namely, agricultural, industrial and services, at 5 per cent level of significance for both the countries. A passive employment shift has been seen from agriculture to non-agriculture sector in India. Occupational transformation in China is faster than India. Policy makers should focus on job generation, especially in services and labour intensive manufacturing sector in India. China should try to create jobs in industrial and services sector because agriculture sector has been sharply declining and is still carrying huge load of employment.

Cover crops to increase soil microbial diversity and mitigate decline in perennial agriculture. A review

Commercial perennial agriculture is prone to declining productivity due to negative plant-soil feedback. An alternative to costly and environmentally harmful conventional treatment such as soil fumigation could be to manipulate soil microbial diversity through careful selection and management of cover crop mixtures. Although cover crops are already used in these systems for other reasons, their capacity to influence soil biota is unexploited. Here, we examine the role of plant diversity and identity on plant-soil feedbacks in the context of perennial agriculture. We identify key microorganisms involved in these feedbacks and explore plant-based strategies for mitigating decline of perennial crop plants. We conclude that (1) increasing plant diversity increases soil microbial diversity, minimizing the proliferation of soil-borne pathogens; (2) populations of beneficial microbes can be increased by increasing plant functional group richness, e.g., legumes, C4 grasses, C3 grasses, and non-leguminous forbs; (3) brassicas suppress fungal pathogens and promote disease-suppressive bacteria; (4) native plants may further promote beneficial soil microbiota; and (5) frequent tillage, herbicide use, and copper fungicides can harm populations of beneficial microbes and, in some cases, contribute to greater crop decline. Non-crop vegetation management is a viable and cost-effective means of minimizing crop decline in perennial monocultures but is in need of more direct experimental investigation in perennial agroecosystems.

Analyzing Landscape Trends on Agriculture, Introduced Exotic Grasslands and Riparian Ecosystems in Arid Regions of Mexico

Riparian Zones are considered biodiversity and ecosystem services hotspots. In arid environments, these ecosystems represent key habitats, since water availability makes them unique in terms of fauna, flora and ecological processes. Simple yet powerful remote sensing techniques were used to assess how spatial and temporal land cover dynamics, and water depth reflect distribution of key land cover types in riparian areas. Our study area includes the San Miguel and Zanjon rivers in Northwest Mexico. We used a supervised classification and regression tree (CART) algorithm to produce thematic classifications (with accuracies higher than 78%) for 1993, 2002 and 2011 using Landsat TM scenes. Our results suggest a decline in agriculture (32.5% area decrease) and cultivated grasslands (21.1% area decrease) from 1993 to 2011 in the study area. We found constant fluctuation between adjacent land cover classes and riparian habitat. We also found that water depth restricts Riparian Vegetation distribution but not agricultural lands or induced grasslands. Using remote sensing combined with spatial analysis, we were able to reach a better understanding of how riparian habitats are being modified in arid environments and how they have changed through time.

Mountain Agriculture for Global Markets: The Case of Greenhouse Floriculture in Ecuador

Mountain agriculture has been conceptualized in terms of altitudinal zones, verticality, and agroecosystems, but an alternative framework is that of adaptive dynamics, conceptualizing farming in terms of choice between options based on optimizing returns in different frameworks of rational decision making in different production zones. In this framework, production zones are not defined solely in terms of altitude but also in terms of soil, slope, and access to irrigation. A recent option in the irrigated production zone has been greenhouse floriculture, which has become one of the most globally competitive agricultural exports in equatorial mountains. In Ecuador, greenhouse floriculture expanded in the 1990s partly in response to favorable trade agreements but also due to diffusion of technologies from multiple sources and local entrepreneurship. Interviews with various actors and fieldwork provide details on greenhouse adaptive strategies and suggest that this agroindustrial activity has proven unusually resilient to changes in global trade patterns and changes in climate. It has provided an option for employment that has stemmed outmigration and encouraged some immigration of labor. At the same time, there are concerns regarding impacts on water resources and regarding pesticide impacts. Excessively static or ecosystemicist conceptions of mountain environments and agricultural strategies fail to anticipate the full range of possibilities for development in the diverse production zones of high-altitude regions. These possibilities also help to contest assertions about the inevitable decline of mountain agriculture in the face of modernization and globalization.