Best practices in sustainable land management

Planting of herbaceous plants (herbs and grasses) or trees are planted and grown along property boundaries to serve as windbreaks and as sources of fodder and fuel.

The purpose is to deal with the regular floods, which are a natural event and happen regularly. Trees are planted in lower catchment areas to stabilize the riverbank, ensure water quality in the river by retaining sediments from nearby fields, and to trap agricultural chemicals. The technology can be considered a revegetation measure and can be applied to several land use types.

Water-spreading weirs are structures made of natural stones and cement that span the entire width of a valley to spread floodwater over the adjacent land area. Over the last 12 years water-spreading weirs have been introduced and improved as a new rehabilitation technique for degraded dry valleys in Burkina Faso, Niger and Chad. In dry valleys where water flows to the rivers for only a few days a year, the weirs serve to distribute the incoming runoff over the valley floor and allow as much water as possible to infiltrate the soil. Depending on user preferences, the primary goal may be for 1) agricultural use, 2) silvo-pastoral use or 3) to replenish or increase water table levels.

Integrated gully treatment consisting of several simple practices including stone and wooden check dams, cut-off drains and reforestation in sediment traps. A combination of structural and vegetative measures was designed and implemented with the purpose of: (1) preventing affected areas from further degradation by safely discharging runoff from the surrounding area through the main gullies down to the valley; (2) gradually stabilising the land through the regeneration of vegetative cover; (3) reducing downstream damage through floods and siltation; (4) ensuring accessibility to the mountainous agricultural area during the rainy season.

The technology is a system of integrated runoff water and drainage management that allows cultivation in a swampy valley bottom. The system divides the land into raised beds which are separated by furrows, acting as drainage channels. The furrows can also distribute runoff water from upslope to the valley bottom if required. Crops can be grown on reclaimed land and concentrated runoff can be controlled. Through a flexible method of drainage/water harvesting, a suitable moisture conditions for growth can be established. Maintenance involves clearing inlets, channels and removing vegetation, using common household hand tools such as spades and hoes.

Fallowing is the practice of leaving land unseeded for a long time so that the soil regains its fertility. The technology helps the soil to increase nutrients, which will later be beneficial for production purposes in the following season(s).  Ploughing is carried out in the dry season and weeding takes place throughout. Note: For this SLM technology case, the SPI report on Sustainable Land Management and Climate Change refers to: Scatena, F.N., et al. 1996. Cropping and fallowing sequences of small farms in the “terra firme” landscape of the Brazilian Amazon: a case study from Santarem, Para. Ecological Economics, 29-40.

A Chagga home garden is a complex multi-cropping system evolved over several centuries through a gradual transformation of the natural forest. It integrates numerous multipurpose trees and shrubs with food crops and animals, without a specific spatial arrangement. However, vertically, the following 4 stories/canopies can be distinguished: (1) food crops; (2) coffee; (3) bananas; and (4) trees. This multilayer system maximizes the use of limited land in a highly populated area, making sustained production possible with a minimum of external inputs, minimises risk (less production failure, increased resistance against droughts and pests) and ensures at the same time environmental protection.

Multiple cropping is an agronomic practice of growing two or more crops on the same land simultaneously in a given growing season. The crops grown together are, however, harvested at different times. The purpose is to avoid risk (some crops are more resistant or escape the adverse conditions like drought, pest and disease) and to get variety of produce at a time. Annual crops are sown/planted every season. Biannual and perennial crops are planted and managed according to their seasonal calendar in which the crops grown to provide better production. Low fertility status, unpredictable and erratic rainfall, pest and diseases are some of the constraints limiting productivity.

The technology involves intercropping wheat in an existing apricot orchard by integrating different resources. Along the trees aligned on a contour, a three metre wide grass strip is left uncultivated to control runoff, and to protect the ground from splash erosion. Spacing between rows allows unhindered farm operations.

Use of a wide variety of plant species as cover crops in orchards and vineyards to provide permanent soil cover.