Where s my land?
Land degradation seems a very straightforward harmful process of fertile soil and nutrients being washed or blown away. Yet, ask farmers about it and you will get a variety of answers. Some will tell you that it has become difficult to get the same harvests as in past years, others that the walking distance to find fuel wood has increased and others will explain that rocks and boulders started to emerge in their fields. In field assessment of land degradation, the authors promote a different way of working to tackle land degradation. They explain that countless technologies to fight erosion have been applied in the past and have disappeared again. Not that they weren t working, but probably because the way they worked had no relation to the way degradation was perceived by the farming community. Understanding the farmers interaction with he land and determining the indicators for land degradation, provides possibilities to distinguish different perceptions of erosion, deforestation, siltation and measure the severity of the overall degradation. Thus, appropriate action can be taken. The handbook is practical, offers forms, tables to asses and measure land degradation and how to interpret the results. A useful book for fieldworkers in agricultural development and for students and staff in agricultural education. This publication and the NUTMON toolbox (see elsewhere in this publication section) are in fact complimentary, but read this one first. Handbook for the field assessment of land degradation By M A Stocking & N Murnaghan, Earthscan, 2001. 184 pp. ISBN 1853838314 GBP 25 Euro 40.20 Earthscan Publications Ltd 120 Pentonville Road, London, N1 9JN, UK Fax: +44 20 72 78 11 42 Email: earthinfo@earthscan.co.uk
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| Format: | News Item biblioteca |
| Language: | English |
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Technical Centre for Agricultural and Rural Cooperation
2002
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| Online Access: | https://hdl.handle.net/10568/47587 https://hdl.handle.net/10568/99602 |
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