A soil and water conservation technology consists of one or more of the following complementary measures (agronomic, vegetative, structural and management) that when used in the field would make a positive contribution to soil and water conservation (WOCAT 1998):
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agronomic: i.e. measures undertaken within the cropping area for primarily crop productionpurposes and include practices such as intercropping, contour cultivation, minimum tillage, mulching, manuring etc which are:
- are usually associated with annual crops;
- are repeated routinely each season or in a rotational sequence; - are of short duration and not permanent;
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- are not zoned; and - are independent of slope.
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vegetative : i.e. measures involving the deliberate planting of trees, shrubs, grasses etc, orretention of areas of natural vegetation (eg. reforestation, windbreaks, contour hedgerows, natural vegetative strips) which:
- involve the use of perennial grasses/pasture legumes, shrubs or trees; - are of long duration;
- often lead to a change in slope profile;
- are often zoned on the contour or at right angles to wind direction; and - are often spaced according to slope.
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structural: i.e. measures involving the construction of physical structures (e.g. graded banksor bunds, contour stone lines, level bench terraces, artificial waterways and drop structures) which:
- lead to a change in slope profile; - are of long duration or permanent;
- are carried out primarily to control runoff and erosion;
- require substantial inputs of labour or money when first installed; - are zoned on the contour; and
- are spaced according to slope.
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management: i.e. measures arising from deliberate managerial decisions taken with theintention of protecting land from erosion/improving production etc, (eg. land use changes, area closure, rotational grazing) which:
- involve a fundamental change in land use; - involve no agronomic and structural measures; - often result in improved vegetative cover; and - often reduce the intensity of use.
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combination: i.e. measures that combine two of more agronomic, vegetative, structural andmanagement measures (in conditions where one measure does not work effectively without the other), e.g:
- structural: an outward sloping terrace with
- vegetative: grass and trees planted on the riser with - agronomic: crops grown on contour soil ridges
Appropriate soil and water conservation technologies for ISM are those which offer for a given production situation an optimal solution for using the land for sustainable and productive agricultural purposes. Appropriate technologies are not necessarily “simple” technologies. However, in the context of many developing countries, the appropriate technologies will be ones which are not capital-intensive and which use local resources and the existing labour force in an optimal way.
It should be emphasized that before introducing a new technology it is necessary to check whether local soil and water conservation measures already exist and why and how farmers apply these indigenous technologies. If such technologies exist and continue to be applied by farmers, then, providing they have not been introduced and maintained by legal force and state
authority, they can be considered successful and on investigation will be found to provide the adopters with tangible benefits. Understanding the reasons why farmers use such technologies, i.e. the production and conservation benefits they get from them, is the key to the successful introduction of any “new” technology, which must at least match and preferably improve on the benefits to be obtained from the existing ones.
By May 1998 some 113 soil and water conservation technologies had already been entered into the WOCAT database2.
It is thus impractical to include, in these guidelines, detailed specifications on the range of soil and water conservation technologies that could be investigated as part of an ISM FFS. However there exists a growing number of technical publications (published at the international, regional or national levels) that provide technical guidelines on alternative soil and water conservation and integrated soil management practices (see appendix 2 for a list of some of these). These should be consulted by those responsible for the preparation of the curricula for individual ISM FFS as reference sources when preparing locally appropriate FFS guidelines.
Normally, farmers recognize the occurrence of erosion processes in their fields. Crucial for the farmer’s decision to take action against erosion is their judgement on importance of the resulting
damage. Some criteria for the selection (see also Box 3) of soil and water conservation technologies by farmers are the following (van Keer et al. 1996):
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The required labour input should be low.•
The technology should provide short-term benefits.•
The technology should be easy to implement, to maintain and to change.•
There should be no (or minimal) competition for area, light, moisture and nutrients between the soil and water conservation technology and the crop.BOX 3: List of criteria for screening alternative soil and water conservation technologies
Feasibility undr given socio-economic circumstances:
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Does the technology correspond withfarmers’ skills?
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Are input and produce markets available?•
Do the farmers have sufficient resources?Correspondence with farmers’ goals and preferences:
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Is the technology compatible with thecropping pattern and cropping calendar?
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Does the technology conflict with farmers’preferences?
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Are there interactions between crop andlivestock to be considered?
Feasibility under given natural conditions:
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Expected production as compared to presentsituation?
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Expected stability of production?•
Expected production risks?Ecological viability:
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Expected effects on the natural environment?•
Expected effects on the long-termproductivity?
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Expected effects on diversity of agro-ecosystems? Economic viability:
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Profitability as compared to present situation?•
Expected effects on produce markets?Further Criteria (such as cultural suitability, etc.) (Source: Werner 1993)
2 Database of the World Overview of Conservation Approaches and Technologies (WOCAT) programme of the World Association of Soil and Water Conservation coordinated by the Centre for development and Environment (CDE) of the University of Berne Switzerland.
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The selection of technologies depends also on the predominant farming system. In principal there are three main groups of farming systems practices by small-scale farmers in the tropics: tree based, animal-based and crop-based farming systems (see Figure 2). Most ISM farmer field schools will be focused on improving crop-based farming systems, although appropriate ISM FFS curricula could be developed for the other two systems.
FIGURE 2