There remains alot unknown about karst and best to interact with geologist or geology data, perhaps also hydrologist.  Lidar was not available with I worked in karst Missouri, but local karst issues in SC with sinkhole terrain do show up on Lidar where it has developed.  Dr. Tom Alley back in Missouri did fluoresent dye studies that showed water moving from one hydrologic watershed into another river system.  Without actually knowing recharge zones, agriculture that carefully uses fertilizers and pesticides seems appropriate, avoiding where possible.  Looking for and recognizing land subsidence indicators would help avoid these areas and refrain from actions that contribute to hydrologic overloading or disturbance of these areas to avoid altering groundwater or karst recharge systems, or contributing to sinkhole development.  Karst waters can be among the most highly productive aquatic systems, and the nutrients available for agriculture may be good.  But it would not be appropriate to prescribe severe limitations to all karst circumstances, and that is why a geologist and possibly a hydrologist would probably be good contacts to help with your evaluation.

Hydroponics or protected cultivation could be the options.

In Ireland, the Burren is a karst landscape which is dominated by beef farming whereby farmers practice transhumance. Contrary to usual practice elsewhere, cattle are brought up to the limestone hills during winter to graze and brought back down into the lowlands during summer. The limestone provides warm and dry substrate (low risk of foot-rot) for cattle in winter compared to the waterlogged lowlands. You can find out more from the BurrenLife programme. Hope this is of use to you.

http://burrenprogramme.com/

Hi Eileen,

Thank you for your answer but i think it is not applicable to tropical regions. Sorry for not specifying.

Regards,

Wilbert

The karst region has a limestone geology which is highly suspectibleto chemical weathering and very prone to serious erosion,also,the soil has high Ca and Mg contents with high soil pH.The farming practice to employ must be the one that covers the soil throughout the year, hence,overgrazing and massive land clearing should be avoided .Besides,there is need to determine the soil catena of the area and identify different topographic positions suitable for pasture/rangeland,agroforestry,mixed farming,crop farming,and fadama agriculture[ hydromorphic soils] .Excessive use of salty irrigation water and basic alkaline fertilisers should be avoided to prevent destruction of soil equilbrium and occurence of saline soils.In addition,i suggest  that there is a need to carry out land capability studies to identify the different uses of the karst region agriculture, forestry, wild life, tourism rangeland .

My suggestion would be to use both hydroponic systems and protected cultivation which will avoid many limitations provided that water would not be a great limitation, and as Moyin indicated, pasture/rangeland and mixed farming methods. Both pasture/rangelands would catch up overtime and the soil reclamation will take place. That would pave the way for adopting other crop-based farming with specific location and condition tolerant species.  Forestry with a combination of leguminous and non-leguminous tree species would also be a sustainable approach to bring the land back to productive status.