I am writing a paper now and would love to bounce some ideas off people with experience with indigenous or other low-input agriculture in marginal landscapes. In particular I'm interested in farming areas with very little or no soil development or very rocky, but also areas that are very dry, or are very low fertility.
I can give a few orientations and experiences gained on marginal lands in Pakistan/Balochistan, Syria, Mali and Ethiopia. 1) Stone-mulching (putting flat stones on to the stony land) contributed to water-harvesting by accumulation of dew and quick generation of basic fauna and flora-life, which triggered soil-development. At the same time it reduced the soil-temperature and evaporation. 2) Constructing stone-bunds (30-100 cm high) along contourlines (0-slope) contributed to soil- and water-collection which again promoted crop-growth. The agro-ecological projects in West-Africa very much used such stone-bunds to generate and stabilize soil-development combined with rain-water-harvesting and increasing yields. 3. The indigenious people have traditional knowledge / skills which should be identified by intense and trustful communication. 4. The use and spreading of manure from freely grazing animals (sheep, goat, cattle, camels, etc..; it. contains some 1-2,000 seeds per kg from the natural habitat) on selected lands can quickly contribute to a diverse vegetation. 5. In Ethiopia and Mali esp. I observed that strict fencing of marginal, stony or sandy lands and the prevention of any impact of man and animal can within 2-4 years re-establish a wonderful vegetation, which then can be cautiously maintained, exploited, further diversified and become astonishingly productive. 5. Never to forget: air contains some 78 % nitrogen-fertilizer, which can be gained free-of-charge by leguminous crops. Thus: any mobilization of barren, marginal, young soils should keep in mind this essential element of the biological soil-fertility-strategy. 6. Soil-additives: These are various products / materials available in many rural areas and should be included flexibly in the soil-development like: a) manure from animals, e.g. from small- and big scale poultry, piggery, cattle-units; b) crop-residues from agro-processing (fruit-peals, juice-production residues); c) mulch (e.g. straw, husks); d) compost; d) favorable minerals, stone-meals, lime-stone meal; e) industrial crop-waste (from saw-mills {eg. dust, barks}, sugarcane-waste, juice-pressing residues, etc.) f) bone-meal, horn-meal from abattoirs, local butchers; g) ash from kitchen-stoves and other places (e.g. charcoal-kilns); h) many others.
HI Bernard. Thank you for the response. It's really amazing how similar these techniques are to the ones I am looking at in Hawaii and Polynesia, especially numbers 1, 2, 3, and 6 in your response. I am very interested if you have any good references, particularly on the use of rock mulch or the stone-bunds (numbers one and two).
Noa, I have worked in these fields normally in the development-cooperation, less rarely in research-contexts; a) rock-mulch / stone-mulching: Arab Centre for the Studies of Arid Soils and Dry Lands, ACSAD Damascus (this belongs to the Arab League of States, not Syria); search-engine results in Tigray-Ethiopia; Permaculture networks; b) stone-bunds: many research works and practical applications in the "Programme agro-ecologique" West-Africa (esp. Mali, Burkina-Faso) by German Dev.cooperation; many applied research works and books; c) trickle-irrigation: I forgot to add in first communication the use of trickle-irrigation in Balochistan/Pakistan, which resulted into vere fine new production of barren stony soils; the fact that Ethiopia Gov. has promoted trickle = drip-irrigation for stony Tigray seems to fit into the logic; Tigray also has a very rigid large-scale establishment of stone-terraces and kept free from grazing animals;
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