Maintenance Of Agrobiodiversity Research Articles

Animals, environment and sustainability: Global warming reducing and inducing attributes of the farm animals

Animals, environment and sustainability are related with each other. The intricate soil-plant-animal relationship is vital for the very ecological integrity of the biosphere. Animal diversity, both inter- and intra-species, has multiple socio-economic attributes. In an agroecosystem with uncultivated land, cultivated land, livestock and households as the integral components, livestock play crucial role in transferring nutrients from ecologically more sustainable ecosystem (forest/ rangeland/ grassland) to ecologically vulnerable one (cultivated land), and in the recycling of nutrients in the cultivated lands. Draught animal power (DAP) is a key source for realizing sustainability in traditional agricultural systems which is ensured by their role in enhancing ecological processes—cropping diversification, agro-biodiversity maintenance, and soil fertility management. Farm animals also play negative role leading to environmental degradation through overgrazing and carbon emissions. Grazing animals significantly affect an ecosystem in triple ways, viz. herbivory, physical effects, and deposition. Overgrazing alters community structure as well as ecosystem functioning, including primary productivity and it has triggering effects on an ecosystem. Farm animals are key agents as well as sufferers of the on-going climate change. Their role in land degradation, water pollution, biodiversity erosion and release of GHGs contributes to exacerbate global warming.

Agricultural Biodiversity Maintenance in a Coastal Socio-Ecological System: the Pearl Lagoon Basin, Nicaragua

Globalization processes, such as market pressures, tend to encourage farmers to reduce agricultural (or agro-) biodiversity. Yet, what is known about the drivers of agrobiodiversity erosion largely comes from research from communities in which farming is the principle natural resource-based livelihood. Focusing on Caribbean Nicaragua’s Pearl Lagoon Basin following the construction of the first regional road, we used a mixed methods approach to understand how the complex livelihood dynamics inherent in coastal socio-ecological systems—where households rely upon both terrestrial and aquatic resources—affect farmers’ decisions to maintain agrobiodiversity. Our analyses reveal atypical spatial patterns of agrobiodiversity maintenance relative to road access: the farming systems of households most proximal to the road are significantly more agrobiodiverse than those maintained by household in distant communities. This pattern is in part explained by local livelihood dynamics. Market access associated with road development encouraged the depletion of the lagoon fishery. To buffer their food security, households’ near to the road are focusing efforts on their historically biodiverse subsistence agricultural systems. These findings suggest that conservation efforts targeting coastal socio-ecological systems must account for the ways in which the complexity of natural resource-based livelihoods in these systems affect households’ responses to a changing world.

Diversity and trophic structure of insects associated with grains of three maize landraces in San Agustín Loxicha, Oaxaca, Mexico

AbstractDiversity and trophic structure of grain insect communities were examined in Olotillo, Nal‐Tel and Comiteco maize landraces cultivated within a milpa agroecosystem by Zapotec ethnic groups in Mexico. Higher insect diversity was expected in Olotillo, whose cultivation comprises a wide variety of agroecosystems, and low insect abundance in Nal‐Tel with small grains and thick testa. Forty Olotillo cobs were collected at low, medium and high elevations, and 40 each of Nal‐Tel at low elevation and Comiteco at high elevation. Cobs were monitored for 30 days under controlled laboratory conditions until all insects emerged. Thickness of testa of 400 grains from each landrace was measured. Community composition and trophic structure were described and standard diversity indices were estimated. A total of 9,708 insects, corresponding to five orders, 24 families and 36 species, were recorded, with six species not previously reported in this region. Insect guilds were composed of 70% phytophages, 22% parasitoids and 8% predators. Species richness was S = 27, 16 and 8 in Olotillo, Comiteco and Nal‐Tel, respectively. Nal‐Tel and Olotillo had the highest diversity index values (H′ = 1.32 and 1.2, respectively) and no significant differences; Comiteco had the lowest value (H′ = 0.65) and differed significantly from the other landraces. Comiteco and Olotillo, which have large grains and thin testa, showed higher insect abundance than Nal‐Tel, which has small grains and thick testa and showed lower abundance. Results support our hypotheses and highlight the role of traditional crop management in insect agrobiodiversity maintenance and conservation.

Assessing the Impacts of Agrobiodiversity Maintenance on Food Security Among Farming Households in Sri Lanka’s Dry Zone

Farmers’ maintenance of agrobiodiversity is fundamental to global food security, particularly in a world increasingly affected by climate change. Biodiversity helps to buffer agroecosystems from stresses like climatic variability, and the crop genetic diversity conserved with biodiverse agroecosystems is critical for plant breeding both locally and globally. Yet, despite these benefits, few studies have directly assessed the implications of household–level agrobiodiversity maintenance on household food security. Drawing on survey data collected in Sri Lanka’s Hambantota District, we evaluated the plant diversity maintained by small–scale farming households in both homegardens and crop fields and determined the relationships between this diversity and their households’ food security. We also considered how a suite of additional demographic, household, community, and farm characteristics relate to both the plant diversity maintained by a household and their food security. Similar to previous studies, the age of the agricultural decision-maker and the age and size of households’ homegardens positively correlated with the overall species richness of farming systems. Older homegardens were also identified to be more evenly distributed in their species abundance, and market–oriented households had significantly higher species richness but lower Shannon Indices. Most notably, household socioeconomic status and material wealth were important to both agrobiodiversity maintenance and household food security, while no significant relationships between species richness and food security measures were detected. These findings suggest that effort aiming to increase the food security of small–scale farming households in Sri Lanka, and elsewhere, should target those farming households with a paucity of socioeconomic assets, as these households lack both agroecological and economic resources to overcome shocks, such as those associated with climate change.

Less Palatable, Still Valuable: Taste, Crop Agrobiodiversity, and Culinary Heritage

People across the world eat many things that they readily admit are not particularly tasty. Taking into consideration that taste and palatability are culturally conditioned, this special issue explores the relationship between taste and value by focusing upon crops that are perceived to be socioculturally important even as they are characterized as bland, less delicious, and even “bad.” The articles in this issue pay particular attention to the importance of contributing factors to consuming and valuing the less delicious including agrobiodiversity maintenance, healthfulness or well-being, symbolism, ritual use, and culinary heritage. They suggest ways of incorporating the “less delicious” into the safeguarding of agrobiodiversity and culinary heritage and the promotion of healthful foodways. This introduction ties the themes of taste and value together across time and space to contextualize the articles that follow.

The political ecology of 'ethnic' agricultural biodiversity maintenance in Atlantic Nicaragua

Correlations between farmer ethnic identity and the agrobiodiversity they maintain have been identified globally. This has been maintained even as small-scale farmers are increasingly connected to extra-local political economic systems, which are cited as the driver of global agrobiodiversity erosion. Yet, how ethnicity influences the maintenance of biodiverse farming systems is poorly understood. Employing a political ecology framework that integrated qualitative, demographic, and agroecological methods in Caribbean Nicaragua's Pearl Lagoon Basin, this research revealed patterns indicating that farmers who identify with the area's indigenous (Miskito) and afro-descendant (Creole and Garífuna) 'minority' groups tend to maintain more diverse farms than nearby farmers who identify as mestizo, particularly those who are recent migrants to the region. In contrast to previous studies, however, the most connected farmers in the Basin tend to have the highest levels of agrobiodiversity within their farming systems. Qualitative and regression analyses reveal that ethnic patterns in the maintenance of agrobiodiversity are explained in part by the historical farming practices that characterize land use in the Basin and the agroecological knowledge that farmers develop over a lifetime farming in this socio-ecological context. Further, by acknowledging the plastic nature of ethnic identity, this research highlights the importance of ethnic-based land rights in the Nicaragua's South Caribbean Coast Autonomous Region as a critical factor that directly and indirectly influences the ethnic identities of farmers in the Pearl Lagoon Basin and their abilities to participate in agricultural development projects whose extension activities promote agrobiodiversity conservation.Key Words: Agrobiodiversity, ethnicity, land use and land use change, development, Nicaragua, Pearl Lagoon Basin

Agroforestry Practices Promote Biodiversity and Natural Resource Diversity in Atlantic Nicaragua.

Tropical forest conversion to pasture, which drives greenhouse gas emissions, soil degradation, and biodiversity loss, remains a pressing socio-ecological challenge. This problem has spurred increased interest in the potential of small-scale agroforestry systems to couple sustainable agriculture with biodiversity conservation, particularly in rapidly developing areas of the tropics. In addition to providing natural resources (i.e. food, medicine, lumber), agroforestry systems have the potential to maintain higher levels of biodiversity and greater biomass than lower diversity crop or pasture systems. Greater plant diversity may also enhance soil quality, further supporting agricultural productivity in nutrient-limited tropical systems. Yet, the nature of these relationships remains equivocal. To better understand how different land use strategies impact ecosystem services, we characterized the relationships between plant diversity (including species richness, phylogenetic diversity, and natural resource diversity), and soil quality within pasture, agroforests, and secondary forests, three common land use types maintained by small-scale farmers in the Pearl Lagoon Basin, Nicaragua. The area is undergoing accelerated globalization following the 2007 completion of the region’s first major road; a change which is expected to increase forest conversion for agriculture. However, farmer agrobiodiversity maintenance in the Basin was previously found to be positively correlated with affiliation to local agricultural NGOs through the maintenance of agroforestry systems, despite these farmers residing in the communities closest to the new road, highlighting the potential for maintaining diverse agroforestry agricultural strategies despite heightened globalization pressures. We found that agroforestry sites tended to have higher surface soil %C, %N, and pH relative to neighboring to secondary forest, while maintaining comparable plant diversity. In contrast, pasture reduced species richness, phylogenetic diversity, and natural resource diversity. No significant relationships were found between plant diversity and the soil properties assessed; however higher species richness and phylodiversity was positively correlated with natural resource diversity. These finding suggest that small, diversified agroforestry systems may be a viable strategy for promoting both social and ecological functions in eastern Nicaragua and other rapidly developing areas of the tropics.

The Cooked is the Kept: Factors Shaping the Maintenance of Agro-biodiversity in the Andes

This study examines farmers’ agro-biodiversity decision-making through an Andean case study, and expands upon earlier approaches in two ways. First, it incorporates cultural variables into an econometric analytic framework encompassing the influence of demographic, farm physical and market factors on agro-biodiversity. Second, it encompasses a suite of different richness measures of inter- as well as intraspecific agro-biodiversity. Data are drawn from interviews with the heads of 89 farm households in Cotacachi, Ecuador. ANOVA and poisson regressions are used to analyze the relations between explanatory variables and agro-biodiversity measures. Results show that culture and subsistence play key roles in fostering diversity maintenance; those who strongly identify with local Kichwa cultural traditions and those whose production is mainly subsistence-oriented grow the most diverse fields. The findings indicate that initiatives supporting cultural revitalization and agriculture oriented at home consumption will likely enhance in situ diversity maintenance.

AGROBIODIVERSIDADE E OS SERVIÇOS AMBIENTAIS: PERSPECTIVAS PARA O MANEJO ECOLÓGICO DOS AGROECOSSISTEMAS NO ESTADO DO PARÁ

RESUMO: A agrobiodiversidade, ou diversidade agrícola, constitui uma parte importante da biodiversidade e engloba todos os elementos que interagem na produção agrícola, sendo um componente essencial dos sistemas agrícolas sustentáveis. Desta forma, com este trabalho objetivou-se analisar as perspectivas de manejo sustentável dos solos e das pragas nos agroecossistemas paraenses, por meio da manutenção da agrobiodiversidade nas atividades produtivas. Utilizaram-se dados dos 143 municípios paraenses, oriundos do Censo Agropecuário de 2006, disponibilizados pelo Instituto Brasileiro de Geografia e Estatística (IBGE) e da Produção Anual dos Municípios (PAM), referente ao mesmo ano. Utilizou-se a análise fatorial, importante técnica de análise estatística multivariada, pela qual foram estimados escores fatoriais, dos quais foram estimados os índices utilizados na análise. Para o cálculo do IDA (Índice de Desempenho Agrícola) foram utilizadas 17 variáveis e no IDP (Índice de Desempenho Pecuário) foram utilizadas cinco ariáveis, todas referentes aos 143 municípios paraenses. Na busca por sistemas agrícolas sustentáveis no estado do Pará, de baixo uso de insumos e energeticamente eficientes, uma estratégia é restaurar a diversidade da paisagem agropecuária dentro e no entorno do estabelecimento agrícola, nos quais a diversidade pode ser melhorada no tempo, o que pode ser alcançado por meio da rotação de culturas por exemplo, e, no espaço, pode-se otimizar a forma de cultivos de cobertura, adotar policulturas, sistemas agrossilvipastoris, cercas vivas, conservação de fragmentos de florestas, corredores ecológicos e matas ciliares, dentre outros. PALAVRAS-CHAVE: agricultura familiar, agropecuária, sustentabilidade.

Sustainable Management Recommendations to Reduce the Loss of Agricultural Biodiversity in the Mountain Regions of NE Slovakia

With well-preserved nature and a geographical location at the border of the West Carpathian and the East Carpathian biogeographical regions, the Poloniny National Park (NP) ranks among the most valuable areas for biodiversity in Slovakia. The territory is a typical region with mountain agriculture (12% of the study area), where grasslands dominate in an agricultural landscape. Grasslands became the basis of traditional farming many years ago, when extensive agriculture was mainly focused on hay production and grazing, representing the lifestyle of the local people. This kind of sensitive human management contributed to the maintenance of valuable grassland communities and their rich biodiversity. In particular, the mountain poloniny meadows are characterized by large numbers of rare and threatened East Carpathian species. Intensification of agriculture from the 1970s and its decline after the massive political and socioeconomic changes of 1989 have caused substantial damage to species-rich grasslands in the region. Implementation of the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) is now providing greater financial support to restart agricultural activities in the Poloniny National Park. Nonetheless, there is still concern about maintenance of the biodiversity of mountain grassland communities, where access is limited, and which require specific extensive management. This paper aims to identify the driving forces of agrobiodiversity change and the implications for habitats and species, and to predict possible future trends in the region. Emerging from the assessment of these trends, several recommendations are made regarding appropriate management measures for the maintenance of agrobiodiversity together with sustainable development in Poloniny National Park.

Assessing Cultural and Ecological Variation in Ethnobiological Research: The Importance of Gender

Contending that a significant portion of current ethnobiological research continues to overlook cultural variation in traditional ecological knowledge (TEK) and practice, this paper explores the potential impacts of gender-imbalanced research on data collection, hypothesis testing, and the formulation and application of ethnobiological inventories and theories. A multidisciplinary review of over 220 studies addresses commonly held stereotypes underlying gender-imbalanced field research and demonstrates the need for more inclusive, finely-tuned studies which disaggregate indigenous knowledge and practice by gender. The paper outlines factors underlying gender-based spatial and temporal variation in ecosystem exposure and traditional ecological knowledge in rural societies worldwide, and discusses how these factors contribute to gender differences in wild food harvesting, biodiversity and agrobiodiversity maintenance, natural resource management, and the transmission and conservation of sacred and secular customs. The review concludes with suggestions for designing and implementing more inclusive research.

ASSESSING CULTURAL AND ECOLOGICAL VARIATION IN ETHNOBIOLOGICAL RESEARCH: THE IMPORTANCE OF GENDER

Contending that a significant portion of current ethnobiological research continues to overlook cultural variation in traditional ecological knowledge (TEK) and practice, this paper explores the potential impacts of gender-imbalanced research on data collection, hypothesis testing, and the formulation and application of ethnobiological inventories and theories. A multidisciplinary review of over 220 studies addresses commonly held stereotypes underlying gender-imbalanced field research and demonstrates the need for more inclusive, finely-tuned studies which disaggregate indigenous knowledge and practice by gender. The paper outlines factors underlying gender-based spatial and temporal variation in ecosystem exposure and traditional ecological knowledge in rural societies worldwide, and discusses how these factors contribute to gender differences in wild food harvesting, biodiversity and agrobiodiversity maintenance, natural resource management, and the transmission and conservation of sacred and secular customs. The review concludes with suggestions for designing and implementing more inclusive research.