Geoscience Reference
In-Depth Information
Young staff members urgently need training, as experienced soil scientists are
getting to or are past retirement age. Myanmar needs technical and financial
assistance in this particular field. To increase awareness and participation of private
sector in promoting sustainable agriculture, the government has initiated a number
of activities, through farmers' meeting, pamphlets, radio broadcast, television, and
field days. But much more needs to be done and help from the donor community
including NGOs, will be needed over the next 10-15 years.
10
Conclusions
Land degradation has been a severe threat to sustainable agriculture and forest
development for 50 years. Land degradation due to wind and water erosion,
salinization and alkalinization is of particular concern. According to the current land
utilization, about 11 million ha or 16 % of the total land area is under cultivation.
Since a total of about 18 million ha is estimated as suitable for agricultural
purposes, some 7 Mha of new land can be brought under crop cultivation and
livestock farming. In bringing new land under agricultural use, it is important that
scientific techniques for land evaluation and land-use planning are used to ensure
the suitability and optimum use of land. In agricultural planning, land evaluation
sets up a link between the basic survey of resources and the making of decisions on
land use. As part of the land-use planning process, the Land Resources Information
System is vital to ensure that environmentally valuable lands are not encroached
upon and that adverse environmental impacts can be avoided.
To ensure conservation of the resource base, effective programs should be
designed to address the following constraints in agriculture:
Low productivity due to agro-climatic conditions;
Low productivity due to water shortage;
Low productivity due to soil degradation, irrigation-induced water-logging and
salinity in the dry zone.
A number of agricultural research stations and centers are presently carrying out
research on plant varieties, cropping patterns, irrigation techniques, water storage
techniques and soil analysis. The programs and activities of these centers should
be reviewed to ascertain their effectiveness and to assist in the formulation of new
programs that can address key productivity constraints
References and Further Reading
Beernaert FR (1999) Land evaluation, soil survey and soil conservation FAO, Rome 87 p
Carucci VFP (1999) Soil conservation and water harvesting. Consultant's report MYA/93/004.
FAO, Rome
Search WWH ::




Custom Search