Terrace Farming

10 Key excerpts on "Terrace Farming"

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  Mountain Geography

  Physical and Human Dimensions

  • Martin F. Price, Alton C. Byers, Donald A. Friend, Thomas Kohler, Larry W. Price, Martin F. Price, Alton C. Byers, Donald A. Friend, Thomas Kohler, Larry W. Price(Authors)
  • 2013(Publication Date)
  • University of California Press

    (Publisher)

  310 AGRICULTURAL SETTLEMENT AND LAND USE to minimize erosion and efficiently decant water along slopes. They increase soil fertility with animal fertilizers and mulch. The problem of waterlogging is particularly acute in clay soils with limited permeability, such as those in the highlands of Ethiopia and Sudan. In these situations, farmers add gravel to improve soil texture and infiltration capacity, employ contour plowing, and block small chan-nels to reduce the chance of slope failure. Permanent crop-ping and conservation techniques like these represent an advanced stage of land use, and may have evolved from shifting cultivation once the population became too great to support itself through this method. Unlike shifting cultivation, terraced farming is increas-ing in the developing world in response to exponential population growth. Each year, farmers excavate ever-narrowing terraces higher up the mountainsides of Nepal, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, and elsewhere. The human excavation coupled with deforestation was thought to increase the cata-strophic floods in the Granges–Brahmaputra Delta, and by extrapolation, in low-lying areas of the Mekong, Ayerwaddy, and Salween Rivers (Ives and Messerli 1989). This debate is discussed in more detail below under “Agroforestry.” Terracing is becoming more evident outside the tropics in midlatitude wine-producing regions, where escalating land rents justify the extraordinary labor costs. In contrast, most Andean and Southern European peoples abandoned terracing long ago, and the absence of human tending now results in landslides and gully erosion. FIGURE 11.9 Plowing rice terraces in the Hoang Lien Mountains, northwest Vietnam. (Photo by S. F. Cunha.) FIGURE 11.10 Rice terraces and vil-lage, Dudh Kosi watershed, Nepal. (Photo by S. F. Cunha.) AGRICULTURAL SETTLEMENT AND LAND USE 311 Cash Crop and Plantation Agriculture An increasing number of sedentary tropical highland farmers supplement subsistence with one or more cash crops.

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  Landscape and Land Use in Postglacial Greece

  • Paul Halstead, Charles Frederick, Paul Halstead, Charles Frederick(Authors)
  • 2000(Publication Date)
  • Sheffield Academic Press

    (Publisher)

  The approach is large-ly theoretical, but grounded upon previous empirical results where applicable. Basic Considerations Nomenclature Agricultural terraces are step-like, generally slope or contour parallel platforms that are constructed in order to permit cultivation of slopes with minimal soil erosion. These man-made or anthropogenic landforms generally consist of a vertical or near vertical wall or bank, known as a riser, and a flat or nearly so surface that lies up-slope and behind the riser which is known as the tread (see Fig. 6.1 for an illustration of the components of a basic slope Figure 6.1 Terrace components discussed in the text. Cultivation surface Post-abandonment fill (sheetwash) Tread fill Riser fill Deconstructing Agricultural Terraces 81 terrace). Risers may be of masonry or earthen, and the treads vary in slope from flat to gen-tly sloping. There is a tremendous literature on methods of soil conservation, and the read-er is referred to a number of texts which dis-cuss the details of slope terracing (e.g. Hudson 1971; Morgan 1986). Terraces are generally constructed in order to facilitate the management of soil, water, crops or microclimate, although the construc-tion of a terrace clearly influences all of these factors. Owing to their multi-functional nature there is an extensive range of descrip-tive terms for a variety of features that, as Hudson (1992:153) observes, fall into the gen-eral category of 'cross-slope barriers 7 . These features range from simple earthen (or conser-vation) banks to formal masonry walls and benches. Terraces may be classified by their geomor-phic occurrence, function, morphology, and construction method. For instance, Donkin (1979) recognized three kinds of terraces, according to their geomorphic occurrence: (1) cross-channel; (2) contour; and (3) valley floor.

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  Footprints in the Soil

  People and Ideas in Soil History

  • Benno P Warkentin(Author)
  • 2006(Publication Date)
  • Elsevier Science

    (Publisher)

  The close attention to variation in soil, topography, and hydrol-ogy characteristic of many indigenous people in farming their terraced fields embodies the intentions of precision agriculture today. The record of indigenous terrace agriculture past and present is a potentially valuable resource for efforts in sustainable agriculture (Pawluk et al., 1992; Sandor et al., this volume). The importance of practices such as terracing is well-recognized in agricultural devel-opment, but the appropriate application of terracing technologies in concert with indigenous systems and farmer-based decision-making is still emerging (e.g., Mountjoy and Gliessman, 1988; Varisco, 1991; Zurayk, 1994; Brookfield and Padoch, 1994; Beach and Dunning, 1995; Hudson, 1995; Tabor, 1995; Reij et al., 1996; Mazzacuto and Niemeijer, 1997; Niemeijer, 1998; Llerena et al., 2004). Conclusions There is clearly a need for more pédologie studies of terrace agriculture that will add scientific knowledge about the soils and geomorphology of this venerable agricul-tural practice. Although there are several geographical and archaeological studies of agricultural terraces, relatively few studies consider terraced soils, and quantitative studies of the morphological, physical, biological, and chemical properties of these important anthropedogenic soils are rare. Some detailed work on biochemical soil processes in wet-field terraces and the micromorphology of lynchet soils has been done, but the world's terraced soils remain understudied. Documenting knowledge of terracing and soils among traditional cultures is at a critical point because many cultures are losing their agricultural heritage during assimilation into the modern Ancient Agricultural Terraces and Soils 523 agricultural world. Ancient agricultural terraces, their landscapes, soils, and farm-ers represent a library from which to learn about the history of soil use, including both successes and failures.

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  Environmental Geomorphology and Landscape Conservation

  Binghamton Geomorphology Symposium 1

  • Donald R. Coates(Author)
  • 2020(Publication Date)
  • Routledge

    (Publisher)

  The instructions given herein for the selection and design of terrace systems are based upon the results of surveys, observation, and a study of terraced fields in the best-terraced sections in this country and it is believed that if they are followed carefully a great increase in the efficiency of terrace systems will result and that much better opportunity will be afforded to observe the results with a view to further improving the practice of terracing. At the same time a close study of local conditions–particularly of soil—should be made which no doubt will afford more definite information for improving further the design of a terrace system adapted to a particular locality.

  Since the primary purpose of terracing is to hold the soil of the farm in place and thereby both maintain its fertility and render possible an increase of fertility by proper farming methods, all of the benefits, such as greater yields and land values, which result from the preservation and increased fertility of the soil may be attributed direct to the practice of terracing. In short, the terracing of farm lands saves the soils the most substantial and valuable asset of the country.

  〇

  1 Bulletin 17, North Carolina Geological and Economic Survey, p. 21.

  Note .—This bulletin treats of terracing as a means of preventing erosion of hillside land. It describes the different types of terraces and points out the applicability of each to the various kinds of soil and topography. It discusses the principles of terrace design. While the investigations upon which the recommendations are based were made in the Southern States, the information is applicable generally to any State in the humid section.

  71775°—Bull. 512—17——1

  2 For a more extended discussion of the translocation of soils, see U. S. Dept. Agr. Bui. 180, by R. O. E. Davis.

  3 Soil Report N. 3, Illinois Agricultural Experiment Station, p.16.

  4

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  Soil Erosion Issues in Agriculture

  • Danilo Godone, Silvia Stanchi, Danilo Godone, Silvia Stanchi(Authors)
  • 2011(Publication Date)
  • IntechOpen

    (Publisher)

  Terracing is also commonly used in agriculture in Northern and Southern America, Asia (e.g. Chinese Loess Plateau, Thailand, India etc.) and in developing countries in arid environment in Africa, i.e. Ethiopia, Rwanda, Tanzania and others (e.g. Dabney et al., 1999; Fu et al., 2003; Nyssen et al., 2000; Ramos et al., 2007; Sang-Arun et al., 2006; Tenge et al. 2005). Terraces are usually used to cultivate, manually or with mechanization application, different plants – from grains to grapes and various fruit trees e.g. apples, avocado, mango, loquat, litchi and others (Zuazo et al., 2005). The main purpose of terracing application was to improve the usefulness of steep slope and to increase its agricultural potential. This function is realized by creating the level surfaces according to contour lines of transformed slope (Cots-Folch et al., 2006). The level, bench platform allows to spread the surface runoff water, decreases its speed and thus allows more time for water infiltration into soil profile. Terraces are usually reported as a successful soil erosion control manner in regions endangered by soil erosion by combinations of steep slopes, climatic conditions and erodible soils. But in some cases this effectiveness is limited, especially with combination of sparse vegetation (Zuazo et al., 2005). They are also, in some cases, found to be expensive to construct and maintain (Ramos et al., 2007). The main, worldwide known types of terraces are: various bench terraces, back-sloping bench terraces, stone-wall terraces and Fanya juu terraces (e.g. Tenge et al., 2005). Bench terraces (Fig. 1) usually consist of a series of level or nearly level platforms constructed along the contour lines of terraced slope (e.g. Ramos et al., 2007; Tenge et al., 2005.) Platforms are separated by embankments known as risers.

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  Human Landscapes in Classical Antiquity

  Environment and Culture

  • John Salmon, Graham Shipley, John Salmon, Graham Shipley(Authors)
  • 2013(Publication Date)
  • Routledge

    (Publisher)

  sustinendos could refer to holding soil in place. This is not a very enlightening reference.

  Building a terrace

  So why and how are terraces built, and what alternatives might have been used in antiquity? The main aims of terracing are: (1) to do something with the big rocks in the soil (similar to Columella, quoted above), and (2) to slow down run-off, which means (a) that water stays in the same place longer, and thus penetrates to deeper levels where it will benefit both trees and (to a lesser extent) arable crops and is less likely to be lost through evaporation, and (b) that soil erosion is reduced.

  In the modern period agricultural terraces have been constructed for growing both trees and arable crops, often simultaneously. They are built by individual households, frequently those with an abundance of adult male labour (not surprisingly, terrace-building is considered men's work). Normally the work is done in the summer, the agricultural slack season in the present (and past) peasant farming regime. Although the soil is dry and hard at this time of year, it is lighter in weight. A line of rocks is placed along the hillside at what will be the front of the finished terrace, normally following the contour of the hill. The earth is then dug out behind, and ramped up behind, the line of stones. Obviously any unwanted trees and bushes are also removed, and sizeable ones may be made into charcoal as the work goes along (thus slowing down the work of terrace-building, but producing charcoal for cash sale). When the ramp has reached the top of the first line of stones, another course is added on top of the first course and the digging and ramp-building operations continue further back into the hill, creating an increasingly greater area of level space behind the growing terrace wall. The process continues until the desired (or maximum feasible) width is reached. At this point a line of stones is laid out for a new terrace wall, behind and above the first one, and the whole process is repeated.

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  Sustainable Land Management in Asia

  Introducing the Landscape Approach

  • William Critchley, Frank Radstake(Authors)
  • 2017(Publication Date)
  • Asian Development Bank

    (Publisher)

  Critchley et al. 2001 ; WOCAT 2007).

  The ancient Banaue Rice Terraces in the Philippines have become a site of agro-ecotourism.

  Traditional stone-faced bench terraces for rainfed crop production are a common site in India’s Himalayan foothills.

  Terraces are a clear example of a conservation technology evolving independently on different continents. Their ubiquitous occurrence dispels the myth that sustainable land management practices always have to be taught from outside: many (though not all) of the best practices have been devised by innovative farmers throughout the world, and built without technical support or financial incentives. While bench terrace construction was a common feature of conservation programs last century, with the exception of massive programs in the PRC (see WOCAT 2007; PRC-GEF and LADA 2008; and World Bank 2010 for an extraordinary achievement on the Loess plateau), the current emphasis has turned toward low-cost contour vegetative barriers. Thus, terrace construction on steep slopes is being increasingly consigned to history and ecotourism because of costs and, in some places, increasingly stringent legislation regarding cultivation of unstable steep slopes.

  The best known and most widespread form of terraces in Asia are bench terraces. These can be defined as terraces having a bed (the planting area) with a gradient of 3 degrees or less in any direction (otherwise, they are better described as “forward-sloping” or “back-sloping” terraces), and a bed width of usually 10 meters or less (Critchley et al. 2001 ). They are generally continuous down a hillside, with the top of a given terrace riser elevated slightly above the bed of the terrace upslope. The terrace riser, or terrace wall, may be made of stone (almost invariably so, where loose stone is available), or earth. Earth risers are often protected by grass, especially fodder grass, which can be cut for stall-fed cattle or goats, thus making productive use of the banks (risers) separating cropping strips. Conversely, unprotected earth risers, being steep and exposed, can constitute a significant source of sediment flowing out of the landscape themselves (Critchley et al. 2001

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  Farm Land Erosion

  in Temperate Plains Environments and Hills

  • S. Wicherek(Author)
  • 2012(Publication Date)
  • Elsevier Science

    (Publisher)

  The walls which were built to stabelize the soil and to gain ground-water recharge collapsed and were rebuild several times during the centuries according to human pressure. Reasons for recent abandonment of agriculture and maintenance on terraced slopes are economic alternatives. Since the 60 s until today massive migration from agriculture to industry (Athens) and tourism reduced the cultivation of the mountainous areas due to lack of labour force. Farmers left their terraced fields to shepherds and transhumance, and that leads to 431 overgrazing and burning. Comparison with correlations in Yemen show interesting similarities (7-8). Figure 1. Location of Naxos. 1.2 Area and environment On Naxos Island agricultural terraces were constructed from sea level up to the highest mountains (800-1000 m NN). Steep slopes are common (15°-35°). Terraces are a characteristic element of the environment. Overuse as pasture and fire cause a general terrace destruction and thereby severe soil erosion on an irreversible scale. Cultivation and maintenance occurs today only in the vicinity of the small villages. Main type of terraces is a parallel level bench terrace (stepped terrace), i.e. the stonewall terrace and scarp terrace which is reinforced with vegetation (earthen terrace). As an archaeologist Rackham (6, with Moody) supports the experience, that historic earthen terraces are unusual. Mean terrace height is 2 m. The Prygana vegetation covers most of the abandoned lands only 30 to 40 % in parts and is characterised as a 30 to 100 cm high dwarfshrub-steppe (9, p. 101). Poterium spinosum and Thymus capitatus are typical representatives. Wood or Maquis covers only some small areas and are highly endangered due to burning. Burned areas remain nearly without vegetation for 2 years in minimum. Herbs, grasses and small sprouts of shrubs which survive fire are pioneer plants.

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  Once Beneath The Forest

  Prehistoric Terracing In The Rio Bec Region Of The Maya Lowlands

  • Bl Turner Ii(Author)
  • 2019(Publication Date)
  • Routledge

    (Publisher)

  5Río Bec Slope and Maya Agriculture: Interpretations and Perspectives

  Frequency/Intensity of Río Bec Terrace Agriculture

  The vestiges of terraced hillsides throughout the Río Bec region are evidence that ancient farmers altered the surface geometry of slopes for some purpose. It is proposed that the immediate functions of the terraces were to manipulate a number of mechanical and geochemical processes associated with the impact on soils of continuous cultivation or of systems in which time in crop exceeded the time in fallow. Presumably, the use of “fallow-frequent” methods of cultivation would not exacerbate the physical processes on soils to the point of necessitating terrace use, and farmers would have been reluctant to incur the cost of construction if the benefits were not either increased output or sustained output in the face of environmental change.

  Several problems are related to this line of reasoning. First, environmental impacts on slope cultivation in the area are not precisely known. As attested by the previous discussion, evidence from other areas of the Maya lowlands with comparable habitats is sparse. That which is available seems to support the arguments concerning cropping impact on soil loss, soil nutrient loss, and soil moisture problems. Ideally experimental cultivation/impact data from Río Bec slopes are needed to provide precise evidence. These data, however, would only establish the parameters of the variables involved and the possible levels of cultivation that would have necessitated terracing in the past. The levels of output or frequency of cultivation actually achieved would remain speculative.

  The second problem is composed of two related parts--the establishment of relationships between (1) agrotechnologies, and cultivation frequency and output, and/or (2) agricultural inputs and outputs. Both relationships are related to the nature of farming behavior and the appropriate explanatory mix of general tendencies with site specific variables. Here the prehistorian must rely on comparative evidence which can only provide relative answers or provide the parameters in which the use of the agrotechnology is expected. Nevertheless, these approaches provide the best means of providing interpretations of the Río Bec terraces and most other agricultural relics.1

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  Agroforestry

  Systems And Practices

  • Puri, Sunil Pankaj Panwar, Puri, Sunil & Pankaj Panwar(Authors)
  • 2021(Publication Date)
  • NEW INDIA PUBLISHING AGENCY (NIPA)

    (Publisher)

  The food and cash production has been observed to be the most essential components in four types of SALT models. INTRODUCTION Soil is the result of the gradual weathering of rocks, and minerals. Soil formation is a slow process, it takes place at the rate of 2.5 centimeters per century. Topsoil is rich and fertile because of its organic matter content. Plants - 609 -Agroforestry for Sustainability — Soil and Water Conservation Strategy SATYANANDA PATRA 1 AND CALVIN FOX 2 1 Center for Drought Management, Orissa University of Agriculture and Technology, Bhubaneswar, Orissa 2 Asian Rural Life Development Foundation (India) Raipada, Kalinga, Phulbani, Orissa 37 610 Agroforestry and animals die, decay, disintegrate, and are incorporated in the soil, making the soil fertile and capable of supporting the growth of food crops. Soil erosion has been well recognized as direct cause of declining soil fertility and land productivity. Many technologies have been developed and promoted to prevent soil and water conservation, of which terracing has been advocated as the main soil conservation approach for sloping agricultural lands. Bench terraces can greatly reduce erosion, increase infiltration, and make the land more easily managed. Many traditional agricultural systems have developed extremely effective terraces that ensure the long-term stability of the land. However, terrace promoting as the panacea to all erosion problems on sloping agricultural land may be questionable. There are many reasons why this is not so. Integrated watershed management is another mountain stabilizing technique. However, due to various reasons, the problem of soil erosion has been getting worse in the region. Soil erosion and resultant soil fertility decline have threatened the food security of the subsistence farming in the region because food crops production on sloping lands leads to a serious and often drastic decline in the productive potential of the land.

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