Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
•
Calibration and validation of the extended LISEM model for the conditions met
in the Sichuan province, China.
•
Integrated farm and watershed management process to optimize land use and soil
and water conservation measures via an iterative use of the validated model and
participation of all actors involved in the watershed.
2) Can you identify disciplinary and multi-disciplinary activities?
The experiences of large-scale participatory watershed development programs in
Asia and elsewhere have shown clear and positive economic, environmental and
social effects. Economic impacts include increased demand for rural labour, as well
as substantial increases in crop and livestock production and diversity. Among the
environmental impacts are reduced land degradation (e.g., erosion, salinity, water-
logging, etc.) and increased surface and groundwater supplies for domestic and
agricultural uses impacts. Social impacts include increased capacity and cohesion of
local organizations and communities and the transformation of inflexible bureaucracies
into more people-centred learning organizations. Physically-based erosion models
can be used to evaluate the combined effect of different conservation measures and
changes in land use on soil erosion at the catchment level. Most of the nutrient
and erosion studies in China have been mainly limited to field scale experiments and
descriptions. The main focus of the EroChinut project was to develop a new metho-
dology to improve land and water management on farm and watershed level in the
current socio-economic situation by integrated use of participatory and soil erosion
and nutrient modelling techniques. The major goal of the participatory work was to
develop a methodology to combine participatory approaches with the use of the
adapted model and derive acceptable solutions to reduce soil, water and nutrient
losses in the area under consideration. The determination of the management con-
straints was done with a participatory rural appraisal, with special attention to soil,
water and soil fertility management. This included labour, financial situation,
knowledge level and off farm factors, which influence the decision-making processes
of the farm households. Stakeholder Analysis techniques were identified and assisted in
understanding relationships between key stakeholders and other interest groups. In
this way a complete picture of all actors in a watershed was accomplished, which
formed the boundary conditions for the decision-making processes. With this infor-
mation, different land use scenarios were developed.
D) General project outputs
1) What are the scientific contributions of the project (to RDSA methodology or
more general scientific contributions)?
The major output of the project is the exchange of knowledge, methodology and
expertise between the different partners. This close co-operation stimulated the input
of each partner, reflecting in the scientific valuable results and the socio-economic
guidelines in how to achieve this result. Other outputs are:
Search WWH ::
Custom Search