Household Land Use Research Articles

Impact of tree planting on household well-being: evidence from the central highlands of Vietnam

Household land use decisions in the tropics have a wide range of outcomes and impacts on economic development, environmental conservation, and social development. This study seeks to contribute to this debate by examining the effects of tree planting on poverty alleviation and welfare improvement in Vietnam. We employ a combination of multinomial endogenous treatment effect and propensity score matching, using survey data collected from 239 households in 11 communes in Vietnam’s Central Highlands region. We find that households engaged in tree planting can increase their income and alleviate poverty compared to non-engaging households. Specifically, long-term cashew plantations provide early harvests and have proven to be a preferred crop for households dealing with immediate livelihood needs. However, short-term acacia timber crops contribute insignificantly to poverty reduction and may be more suitable for households with greater financial resources. The policy implication underscores the importance of interventions tailored to support impoverished households with urgent livelihood needs. Prioritizing immediate necessities is crucial before households can invest in long-term tree planting.

Maize price variability, land use change, and forest loss: evidence from Ghana

This paper documents the relationship between maize price variability and forest loss in Ghana. Using the fixed effects regression technique while controlling for weather variables and accounting for spatial dependence, the study finds that an increase in maize price variability is associated with an increase in forest loss. Drawing on nationally-representative panel household survey data, the analysis further reveals that an increase in maize price variability contributes to forest loss through changes in household land use decisions. The finding indicates that an increase in maize price variability in the previous year positively correlates with a household’s total cultivated farm size. This increase in cropped area is primarily due to a rise in the household cultivated area of cocoa – an export crop with a guaranteed price set annually by the government. The study highlights an important linkage between agricultural price stabilization policies and environmental externalities.

Mixed impacts of protected areas and a cash crop boom on human well‐being in North‐Eastern Madagascar

Abstract Tropical forest frontier areas support the well‐being of local populations in myriad ways. Not only do they provide the material basis for people's livelihoods, they also sustain socio‐cultural foundations through relational values. They host some of the most biodiverse ecosystems and largest carbon stocks on the planet, and are thus a focus of global conservation efforts. They are also a prime location for the production of many global agricultural commodities. These dynamics—often intertwined—may trap local populations between powerful interests, with the potential to affect their well‐being. We conducted 100 structured interviews in four biodiversity‐rich landscapes of north‐eastern Madagascar to investigate how multi‐dimensional human well‐being is affected by the recent establishment of protected areas and surge in cash crop prices. We asked households about their satisfaction—and changes in satisfaction—with locally relevant well‐being components, mapping their answers through Nussbaum's Central Capabilities approach. We also investigated the cultural significance of key natural resources beyond the material benefits they provide. All issues were explored along four variables: site, main source of rice, gender and household land use portfolio. Our findings are as follows: first, human capabilities are interconnected and mutually interdependent, with relational values linking many of them. Second, subjective accounts of well‐being are influenced by cognitive biases, such as treadmill effects, adaptive preferences and recency bias. Third, while households perceived a positive influence of protected areas, those most reliant on forest land and products held a more negative view of conservation interventions. And fourth, while households more engaged in commercial agriculture may be benefitting economically from the recent increase in cash crop prices, these very dynamics might be leading to trade‐offs between capabilities. This is most notably so for the Bodily Health capability (e.g. greater spending on housing) and Affiliation and Bodily Integrity (i.e. worsening social relations and security). These insights highlight the importance of addressing the multiple dimensions of well‐being when assessing the impacts of conservation and economic dynamics in forest frontier populations. Particular attention should be paid to the relational values ascribed to the natural resources the communities rely on. Read the free Plain Language Summary for this article on the Journal blog.

A Review of Small Farmer Land Use and Deforestation in Tropical Forest Frontiers: Implications for Conservation and Sustainable Livelihoods

Forest conversion for agriculture is the most expansive signature of human occupation on the Earth’s surface. This paper develops a conceptual model of factors underlying frontier agricultural expansion—the predominant driver of deforestation worldwide—from the perspective of small farm households—the majority of farmers globally. The framework consists of four causal rubrics: demographic, socioeconomic, political–economic, and ecological. Following this approach, the article explores the current state of knowledge on tropical deforestation in tropical agricultural frontiers with a focus on Latin America, the region of greatest deforestation worldwide during recent decades. Neo-Malthusian arguments notwithstanding, in many tropical nations, deforestation has proceeded unabated in recent years despite declining rural populations. However, evidence from the global-to-household scale suggests that population size and composition are also related to farm forest conversion. Existing particularist or behaviorialist theories sometimes fail to capture key geographical and temporal dimensions, yet studies support the notion that certain cultural, individual, and household characteristics are crucial determinants of forest clearing. Conversely, while institutional arguments sometimes fail to emphasize that the ultimate land use change agents are local resource users, their livelihood decisions are shaped and constrained by policies governing economic subsidies, and market and infrastructure development. Further, although ecological change is usually modeled as an outcome in the deforestation literature, increasingly acute climate change and natural farm endowments form a dynamic tabula rasa on which household land use decisions are enabled. To more fully comprehend frontier forest conversion and to enhance protection and conservation while promoting vital local livelihoods, future research may fruitfully investigate the interaction of demographic, social, political, economic, and ecological factors across spatial scales and academic disciplines.

The Contribution of Sugarcane Partnership for the Livelihood Structure and the Development of Rural Areas in Lampung Province of Indonesia

Sugarcane is a mainstay commodity crop as raw materials for sugar. Therefore, increasing domestic production through partnerships is an effort to suppress the high value of imports. The purposes of this study are to identify the farmer’s household land use, to analyze the income structure and livelihood strategies, and then to conduct an economic dependency analysis on the sugarcane industry in relation to rural area development. The research method used a survey approach of 131 households and interviews with the head of village and the heads of farmer groups. For data analysis, descriptive statistics and analysis of farm income were used. The results show that farmers use land for sugarcane partnership with a choice of Kerjasama Operasional (KSO) or operational cooperation, the Independence (Mandiri), and Hutan Tanaman Industri (HTI) or industrial forest plantation partnership. The sources of livelihood structure of farmers are from non-sugarcane agriculture, sugarcane farming, Non-Timber Forest Products (HHNK), and non-farm. Engaging in sugarcane partnership is a new livelihood strategy for the rural communities surrounding the plantations with benefits that are affected by the area of owned land. While farmers who do not own land, they earn a living by becoming plantation laborers. Farmer involvement in sugarcane partnership contributes to the household income, the existence of uneven welfare, and the emergence of household economic dependence on sugarcane plantations. The sugarcane partnership is a source of income and an engine of rural economic growth; however, the realization of sustainable rural development has not yet emerged.

A confluence of communities: households and land use at the junction of the Upper Usumacinta and Lacantún Rivers, Chiapas, Mexico

ABSTRACT Constructed landscapes are composed of diverse communities, representing different social strata and perspectives of a place. In turn, the risks associated with inhabiting unpredictable environments are disproportionately felt across urban and rural landscapes. The mitigation and management of risks often fall on farming and smallholder communities, influencing decentralized strategies. These themes are explored in an archaeological context surrounding the confluence of the Upper Usumacinta and Lacantún Rivers in the neotropical Maya lowlands of Chiapas, Mexico. LiDAR data collected recently with the GatorEye unoccupied aerial vehicle (UAV) and NASA’s GLiHT system have aided in the mapping of the archaeological urban centre of Benemérito de las Américas, Primera Sección and the surrounding landscape. These data have revealed coupled settlement with land management, in the form of wetland fields, reservoirs, and riverways, emphasizing the interconnectivity of household practice and land use in the region.

Деятельность местных органов управления по реализации Столыпинской аграрной реформы на территории Беларуси (1906–1914 гг.)

Introduction. The preparation and implementation of the Stolypin agrarian reform attracted the attention of researchers of the 20th – 21st centuries. However, the interaction of the entire system of already existing and new local government institutions in implementing the reform in Belarus has not become a subject of a special study. The purpose of the article is to prove the interaction of local government institutions within the implementation of the Stolypin agrarian reform in 1906–1914 in the territory of Belarus. Methodology. The sources of the article were legislative acts, as well as the information founded in the archival and published documents. The general scientific and specific historical methods were used there as well as the principles of objectivity, historicism, the value approach. Results. In the early 20th century, a system of local government institutions on the implementation of the government agrarian policy was formed in the Empire. It included land (zemstvo) captains, their district (uyezd) congresses and provincial (guberniya) agencies (prisutstviya). The implementation of the Stolypin agrarian reform required the creation of new institutions – land management commissions. The absence of zemstvo and noble election in the territory of Belarus caused the peculiarities of the formation of the commission staff. Land captains and members of land management commissions carried out explanatory work among the population about the benefits of the transition to farms (khutors) and cuts of lands (otrubs). Based on the information collected by land captains, land management commissions drew up land management plans for the next year, distributed and carried out the work. District congresses and provincial agencies approved land certificates. Conclusion. The success of the reform depended on the coordinated work and cooperation of all elements of the local government system, the prevalence of household land use. The explanatory work carried out by land captains and members of land management commissions, the promotion of sale of banking lands, allotment of land units to ownership and the transition to new household forms received support of the population. All those facts ensured the success of the implementation of the Stolypin reform in the territory of Belarus.

Land use impacts on parasitic infection: a cross-sectional epidemiological study on the role of irrigated agriculture in schistosome infection in a dammed landscape

BackgroundWater resources development promotes agricultural expansion and food security. But are these benefits offset by increased infectious disease risk? Dam construction on the Senegal River in 1986 was followed by agricultural expansion and increased transmission of human schistosomes. Yet the mechanisms linking these two processes at the individual and household levels remain unclear. We investigated the association between household land use and schistosome infection in children.MethodsWe analyzed cross-sectional household survey data (n = 655) collected in 16 rural villages in August 2016 across demographic, socio-economic and land use dimensions, which were matched to Schistosoma haematobium (n = 1232) and S. mansoni (n = 1222) infection data collected from school-aged children. Mixed effects regression determined the relationship between irrigated area and schistosome infection presence and intensity.ResultsControlling for socio-economic and demographic risk factors, irrigated area cultivated by a household was associated with an increase in the presence of S. haematobium infection (odds ratio [OR] = 1.14; 95% confidence interval [95% CI]: 1.03–1.28) but not S. mansoni infection (OR = 1.02; 95% CI: 0.93–1.11). Associations between infection intensity and irrigated area were positive but imprecise (S. haematobium: rate ratio [RR] = 1.05; 95% CI: 0.98–1.13, S. mansoni: RR = 1.09; 95% CI: 0.89–1.32).ConclusionsHousehold engagement in irrigated agriculture increases individual risk of S. haematobium but not S. mansoni infection. Increased contact with irrigated landscapes likely drives exposure, with greater impacts on households relying on agricultural livelihoods.

Effects of payment for ecosystem services and agricultural subsidy programs on rural household land use decisions in China: Synergy or trade-off?

While agri-environmental policies that target different problems are often simultaneously implemented at the same place, little attention has been paid to the interactions of the policies, either in policy design or evaluation. The goal of this study is to understand the potential interactions (synergies or trade-offs) between an agricultural subsidy program and two payments for ecosystem services (PES) programs, namely the Conversion of Cropland to Forest Program (CCFP) and the Ecological Welfare Forest Program (EWFP), and their effects on household land use decisions. Data collected from 481 rural households in Anhui, China are used for the exploration. The Sustainable Livelihoods Framework is used to identify factors that may affect household land use decisions, i.e., whether to expand, stabilize, or shrink the cropland area, and further to identify whether to abandon or rent out land if the shrinkage decision is made. The results show that: (1) most rural households (58%) in the study area reduce cultivated land, and mostly via cropland abandonment, while only 16% of the interviewed households expand land area; (2) the most important factors determining cropland expansion include farm tools and transportation equipment, while the number of parcels and financial support are the dominant factors that stimulate households to adopt abandoning over renting-out decisions when deciding to shrink cropland; (3) EWFP payment has a significant direct impact on cropland management, while no significant influences are observed from the other two programs; (4) there exist complex trade-offs among the three government programs with similar or conflicting aims, which highlights the need to take policy interactions into account when designing new agri-environmental policies.

The impact of rural laborer migration and household structure on household land use arrangements in mountainous areas of Sichuan Province, China

Rural household land arrangements under different household divisions of labor were investigated in Sichuan Province, a typical mountainous area of Western China. Survey data were used to construct multinomial logistic regression models of the relationships between the attributes of land plots, farmers' households, and land arrangement behaviors. In this study, (1) a total of 1839 land plots available to 240 farmers were sampled. Among these, 79.61%, 15.88% and 4.51% were cultivated, transferred or abandoned, respectively. (2) There are significant correlations between farming household structure and migration income, as well as land arrangement behaviors. Specifically, the more laborers (Labor) there are, the higher the ratios of farming laborers (Agriculture) and part-time laborers to laborers (Pluriactivity), greater numbers of elderly individuals aged 64 + engaged in household agricultural production (Old), the greater the possibility that farmers would choose family farming. The higher the ratio of migrant labor income to total household income (Ratio), the greater the possibility that farmers would choose land transfer or land abandonment. The higher the ratio of non-agricultural laborers to the laborers (Non-agriculture), the greater the possibility that farmers would choose land transfer. This study furthers our understanding of rural household land arrangement behaviors in mountainous areas in the context of China's unique land rights system and high rates of labor migration.

Methodology to calculate the carbon footprint of household land use in the urban planning stage

The growing concerns of climate change require implementing measures to quantify, to monitor and to minimize greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. Nonetheless, most of the measures available are not easy to define or execute because they rely on current emissions and have a corrective character. To address this issue, a methodology to characterize GHG emissions that allows implementing preventive measures is proposed in this paper. The methodology is related to household urban planning procedures and considers urban infrastructures to characterize GHG emissions and to execute preventive measures based on sustainability design criteria. The methodology has been tested by applying it to a set of medium-sized municipalities with average GHG emissions from 6,822.32 kgCO2eq/year to 5,913.79 kgCO2eq/year for every residential unit. The results indicate that the greatest pollutant source is transport, especially in the issuance of street network design, followed by gas and electricity consumption. The average undevelopable land area required for the complete GHG emissions capture amounts to 3.42m2 of undevelopable land for every m2 of urbanizable land and 9.02m2 of undevelopable land for every m2 of built land.

A tale of two villages: An investigation of conservation-driven land tenure reform in a Cambodian Protection Forest

In this paper, we present an analysis of the change in household land use following a conservation-driven process of indigenous land titling reform in a Cambodian protected area. In each of the two study villages, we investigated how household land use had changed and the extent of compliance with both legal boundaries of titled areas and community regulations created to govern land use within these areas. A comparison of current household land holdings in each village with those at the start of the tenure reform process indicated a significant increase in household land holdings. Changing land use practices were also revealed, as households shift away from traditional subsistence based land use towards more commercialised agriculture. Household compliance was observed to be strongly correlated with total land holdings and participation in the tenure reform process, with compliance levels significantly higher in the village that had experienced lower levels of external land grabbing and immigration. Similarly, understanding and perceptions of the tenure reform process was found to differ dramatically between the two study villages. The importance of supporting local resource management institutions created through tenure reform, particularly in the face of strong external drivers of change, and of engaging with immigrant households are highlighted as key to the continuing effectiveness of participatory land use planning approaches.

Trans-boundary infrastructure, access connectivity, and household land use in a tri-national frontier in the Southwestern Amazon

The land science literature has consistently documented the importance of infrastructure for land use. Less attention has gone to land use around national borders receiving trans-boundary infrastructure upgrades for cross-border integration. We take up the case of the Inter-Oceanic Highway, a trans-boundary road being paved in the tri-national ‘MAP’ frontier of the southwestern Amazon. We draw on a tri-national survey of households in rural communities across the MAP frontier to evaluate the effects of access connectivity on land use. At the time of fieldwork, paving was complete in Acre/Brazil, underway in Madre de Dios/Peru, and planned in Pando/Bolivia. This permits a tri-national comparative analysis. The results confirm different effects of access connectivity on land use by paving status; further, they also document cross-border processes stemming from trans-boundary infrastructure that affect land use. The findings call for more attention to the impacts of regional integration initiatives on landscapes.

Growing buildings in corn fields: Urban expansion and the persistence of maize in the Toluca Metropolitan Area, Mexico

Urban growth continues to rise globally, especially in and around small cities and peri-urban areas of the developing world. In Mexico, a culture of maize production still exists alongside rapid urban and industrial growth, which exemplifies a hybridized urban-rural landscape. This paper discusses a study of household land-use and livelihood strategies in the Toluca Metropolitan Area, west of Mexico City, a traditional maize-growing region that has experienced rapid urban growth. Logistic regression combined with ethnographic data illustrate that maize is being abandoned to some extent as producers age and non-farm income sources surge. At the same time, some maize still persists for tradition and security as non-farm income is often volatile. Our results reflect a persistence of maize in peri-urban areas of central Mexico, which should not be ignored by policy and planning.

Climate Change and Land Use Change of Rural Households in The Red River Delta, Vietnam

Climate change (CC) and its impacts on the socio-economy and the development of communities has become an issue causing very special concern. The rise in global temperatures, in sea levels, extreme weather phenomena, and salinization have occurred more and more and have directly influenced the livelihoods of rural households in the Red River Delta – one of the two regions projected to suffer strongly from climate change in Vietnam. For farming households in this region, the major and traditional livelihoods are based on main production materials as agricultural land, or aquacultural water surface Changes in the land use of rural households in the Red River Delta during recent times was influenced strongly by the Renovation policy in agriculture as well as the process of industrialization and modernization in the country. Climate change over the past 5 years (2005-2011) has started influencing household land use with the concrete manifestations being the reduction of the area cultivated and the changing of the purpose of land use.

How Human Household Size Affects the Habitat of Black-and-White Snub-Nosed Monkeys (Rhinopithecus bieti) in Hongla Snow Mountain Nature Reserve in Tibet, China

Human impacts on the environment at local or regional scales largely depend on intrinsic characteristics of the population, such as household size, household number, and human population growth. These demographic factors can vary considerably among ethnic groups sharing similar ecological landscapes, yet the role of traditional cultural practices in shaping local environmental impacts is not well known for many parts of the world. We here quantify land-cover changes and their relation to the habitat of the endangered Rhinopithecus bieti in Tibet, in 2 areas populated by different ethnic groups (polyandrous Tibetans and monogamous Naxi) from 1986 to 2006. Results indicate that habitat of the monkey decreased greatly within our study area over the 20-yr period. Polyandrous and monogamous ethnic communities differed in household size, household number, population growth, and per capita and per household land use. The practice of polyandry by ethnic Tibetan appears to have reduced per capita resource consumption by reducing the growth of overall household number and increasing household size, which can mitigate the negative effects of higher human density and population growth on the environment. Ethnic Tibetan may also reduce land impacts by adhering to Buddhist customs and alternative, more sustainable means of livelihood. Accordingly, the protection of traditional cultural resources, such as polyandry and Buddhist beliefs, could be an effective way to aid biodiversity and environmental conservation efforts in this key ecosystem.

THE ROLE OF TRIP GENERATION MODELS IN SUSTAINABLE TRANSPORTATION PLANNING IN SOUTH-EAST EUROPE / KELIONIŲ PLĖTROS MODELIŲ VAIDMUO PLANUOJANT DARNŲ TRANSPORTĄ PIETRYČIŲ EUROPOJE / РОЛЬ МОДЕЛЕЙ РАЗВИТИЯ ПЕРЕВОЗОК ПРИ ПЛАНИРОВАНИИ УСТОЙЧИВОГО РАЗВИТИЯ ТРАНСПОРТА В ЮГО-ВОСТОЧНОЙ ЕВРОПЕ

The idea, representing a fundamental starting point in this article, is to confirm that the models for demand forecasting, in terms of planning urban development, gave the results of the forecasted period. In other words, the available models continue to be a valid theoretical basis to be used for planning the sustainable development of the cities. The presentation of model development in the cities of South-East Europe shows that the matter of city sustain-ability has always represented the focus of attention and has been the subject since the early ‘50s till the present day. Modelling trip generation in transportation studies in the cities of the former Yugoslavia has been taken as the basis for this paper, because it reflects all the stages modelling went through. Such situation was strongly influenced by foreign experience, especially that gained by Anglo-Saxons. Introducing procedures for analytical modelling that relate household socio-economic and land use characteristics to the intensity of land use represented the pioneering step in procedures for integral land use, activity intensity and transportation demand planning. In the cities of South-East Europe, all known methods of trip generation modelling were applied in transportation planning practice. Recently, Serbian researchers have acknowledged that the process of balancing demand for mobility resulting from the purpose, activity intensity and supply to the transportation system (infrastructure and services) terminates in forming the ‘fields of improved accessibility’ (i.e. the parts of the urban area more influenced by investments). The process of forming them causes ‘pressure’ to increase activity intensity (appearance is known as induced construction) that ends in inducing new demand. In this context, there are efforts to integrate trip generation models into ones of spatial distribution taking into consideration the above described conditions and creating the basis for balanced and sustainable development of the cities. Santrauka Pirminė ir pagrindinė šio straipsnio mintis—patvirtinimas, kad modeliai, numatantys paklausą miesto plėtros planavimo požiūriu, pateikė prognozuojamo periodo rezultatus, t. y. siūlomi modeliai ir toliau išlieka vertingu teoriniu pagrindu planuojant darniąją miestų plėtrą. Vystymo modelių, naudojamų Pietryčių Europos miestuose, pristatymas rodo, kad miestų darnos klausimas visada buvo dėmesio centre nuo 1950-ųjų iki šios dienos. Pietryčių Europos miestuose vežimams planuoti buvo taikomi visi žinomi kelionių modeliavimo būdai. Pastaruoju metu Serbijos mokslininkai atskleidė, kad mobilumo paklausos balansavimas, atsirandantis dėl transportavimo sistemos paskirties, veiklos intensyvumo ir pasiūlos (infrastruktūra ir paslaugos), apsiriboja formuodamas „geresnio prieinamumo sritis”, t. y. labiau investuojama į mieste esančias teritorijas. Visa tai sudaro sąlygas „spaudimui” padidinti veiklos intensyvumą ir skatina naują paklausą. Šiame kontekste reikia pastangų integruoti kelionių plėtros modelius į erdvinį pasiskirstymą, atsižvelgiant į pirmiau išdėstytas sąlygas ir sukuriant pagrindą subalansuotam ir darniam miestų vystymui. Резюме Основной целью публикации было подтвердить, что модели, определяющие спрос при развитии городов в контексте планирования, представляют результаты прогнозируемого периода. Таким образом, они и в дальнейшем остаются важной теоретической основой при планировании устойчивого развития городов. Обзор моделей, используемых в юго-восточной Европе для развития городов, показал, что вопрос устойчивого развития городов был и остается в центре внимания с 50-х годов прошлого столетия до наших дней. Для планирования перевозок (транспортирования) в городах юго-восточной Европы использовались почти все известные способы их моделирования. В настоящее время сербские ученые установили, что баланс спроса на мобильность, возникающий из-за назначения транспортной системы, интенсивности деятельности и спроса (инфраструктура и спрос), ограничивается формированием «областей лучшего подхода», т. е. основной поток инвестиций направляется на развитие отдельных частей территорий города. Это в свою очередь создает условия для интенсификации деятельности и поощряет новый спрос. В данном контексте нужны усилия для интеграции моделей развития перевозок (транспортирования) в пространственное распределение, создавая основу для сбалансированного и устойчивого развития городов.

Arable Land Productivity and Its Elastic Loss on the Basis of Farm Household Land Use Behavior

Research on grain production capacity in China mostly put emphasis on rigid loss, and neglects elastic loss of grain productivity, especially that from the perspective of farm household land use behavior. At first, the paper elaborates, at different regional scales and temporal levels, the hierarchy of farm household land use and grain production capacity, and the impacts of farm household land use on the elastic loss of grain production capacity. Then, the research progresses in farm household land use, cultivated land intensive use and farmland productivity. We put forward a research framework of grain productivity on the basis of farm household land use and discuss the related study contents and methods. The study on the process, state, and mechanism of farm household land use behavior is the important basis for grain production capacity elastic loss evaluation. We need to explore the spatial and temporal changes of cultivated land intensive use of farm households and the impacts of the difference in intensity on farmland productivity, to analyze the intensity and the difference of elastic loss of grain production capacity at different spatial and temporal scales, and to set up the model of farm household land use-crop growth-the effects on grain production capacity. The researches include the following five aspects: (1) to analyze the mechanism of household land use, (2) to establish a farm household land use decision-making model, (3) to discuss the difference in household land use, (4) to probe into the impacts of farm household land use on grain productivity, (5) to study the change of arable land intensive use and its effects on grain production capacity. Moreover, we need to apply multidisciplinary methods to study on the elastic loss of grain production capacity, such as traditional study method in combination with remote sense information identification, GIS and spatial orientation, and we also need to make some advances in data collection.

Differentiation and concordance in smallholder land use strategies in southern Mexico's conservation frontier

Forest cover transitions in the developing tropics are conditioned by agricultural change. The expansion, intensification, and diversification of agricultural land uses are tied to regional economic/environmental regimes and decisions of local farming households. Land change science and agrarian systems research share an interest in the drivers of household strategies, land use impacts, and typologies of those land uses/drivers. This study derives a typology of farming households in southern Mexico based on emergent patterns in their land use combinations and analyzes their household and policy drivers. The results reveal broadly diversified household land use portfolios as well as three emergent clusters of farmstead production orientation: (i) extensive subsistence-oriented conservationists, (ii), dual extensive-intensive farmers, and (iii) nonextensive diversified land users. Household membership in these clusters is uneven and strongly related to tenancy, land endowments, wage labor, and policy subsidies. Although most households are following a nonextensive agricultural strategy incorporating off-farm incomes, the likelihood of a regional forest transition remains debatable because of the disproportionate deforestation impacts of the less common strategies. Conservation development policies in the region need to accommodate diverse smallholder farming rationales, increase off-farm opportunities, and target sustainable development with the assistance of community conservation leaders.

The Impacts of Household Land Use and Socio Economic Factors on the Soil Fertility of Smallholder Farms in the Highlands of Kenya

Raising agricultural productivity in smallholder agriculture in sub-Saharan Africa requires an understanding of if and how farm household land use and socioeconomic factors affect soil fertility. Market access, population growth, socio economic characteristics and agro ecological zones have been proposed as important drivers of land use intensity and, consequently, soil fertility. We used diffuse reflectance infrared spectroscopy to measure soil fertility, and multivariate and exogenous switching regression statistical approaches to determine if soil fertility in the smallholder farms of the highlands of Kenya is associated by region, land use categories (cash crop, food crop, fodder and pastures), and selected household socio economic factors (household income, number of adults, farm size and number of cattle). Over 2000 fields on 236 farms were sampled in Embu (eastern Kenya highlands, primarily Andosols) and Madzuu (western Kenya highlands, primarily Ferrasols). Soil fertility variables, including total soil carbon (SC), total nitrogen (TN), pH, available Olsen phosphorous (P), extractable potassium(K), calcium (Ca), and magnesium (Mg), effective cation exchange capacity (ECEC) and texture, were measured using conventional laboratory techniques on 15% of the sampled soils. From these analyses, SC, TN, P and K were all greater in Embu compared to Madzuu soils. Soil fertility variables were significantly higher in pastures compared to other land uses in Madzuu, but were comparable with other land uses in Embu. This soil data was then used to calibrate soil reflectance results in order to predict soil fertility variables for all soil samples. Principle component analysis (PCA) of soil fertility variables developed from the spectroscopy data for each soil sample indicated similarities among sites in the three most important eigenvectors: the first (soil nutrient) vector had high positive loadings for K, Ca, Mg, ECEC and pH; the second (soil organic matter, SOM) vector had high positive loadings for soil organic carbon and total nitrogen; and the third (soil texture) vector had high positive loadings for clay plus silt. However, in Embu, P was associated with the soil organic matter vector while in Madzuu it was associated with the soil nutrient vector. In comparison to pasture all other land uses were associated with lower values of soil nutrient and SOM components in Madzuu, while in Embu, these other land uses were associated with higher values of the SOM component. Number of cattle per farm had no association with any of the three soil fertility components at either site. In Embu, farm income and adult population were both positively related to SOM. In Madzuu, farm size was positively associated with SOM but negatively associated with soil nutrients. More than twice as much P fertilizer is applied on average in Embu compared to Madzuu (27 vs. 11 kg ha-1 season-1). Our study supports the link between poverty dynamics and soil degradation in smallholder agriculture; wealthier households in the eastern Kenya highlands are able to invest in soil fertility management while the poorer households in western Kenya are mining nutrients in soils.