Hello,everyone. We are Wood Pecker. We examined slash-and-burn farming.
These days,the number of forests in the world is decresing. Slash-and-burn farming is one of the causes. Desertifitication and global warming are advancing bacause of slash-and-burn farming.
I'll talk about the situation of siash-and-burn farming at Luang Phabang as one example. Look at this graph. Since 1990, the ratio of slush-and-burn farming is getting higher by about 1% every year. Slash-and-burn requires huge areas of land, but there is a limitation to the size of the land. So farmers make use of one area frequently by giving only a short fallow term. The rest for slash-and-burn farming needs more than ten years but according to this graph, 68% of the land used for slash-and-burn farming has only less-than-five-years rest. If the rest for slash-and-burn farming is too short, the land will be infertile, and at last it will be dasert. Now, about 8% to 13% of one area is burned down for the purpose of agriculture.
What are the solutions to this problem? We thought about three solutions.
First, there is an agricutural method practiced in Honduras. Its name is ''alley cropping.'' In this method, trees are planted in lines. And a type of Fabaceae(in japanese マメ科) named Inga is grown between the trees. In "alley cropping", Ingas grow more quickly. Fabaceae supply nitrogen. Nitrogen is one of three major fertilizers in the soil. Ingas that have grown taller than a human's height protect the soil from direct sunlight,and provide suitable shade. So it's hard for weeds to grow. But it is not easy for Honduras' farmers to accept this method. Because it's very hard for them to change slash-and burn farming that has been continuing for a long time. Slash-and-burn farming improved the enviroment of areas long ago. If farmers burn forests, bacteria in soils are killed. And ash that is produced by burning trees become nutriment and make the soil fertile.However, the problem is this method needs a lot of space. In the past, slash-and-burn farming had enough fallow terms (3-5years for cultivating and 10-20 years for lying fallow). But now they cannot have long fallow terms, because if they don't cultivate lands for more than 10 years, they cannot meet the demands of consumers. The pace of slash-and-burn farming has been getting faster, especially after the Industrial Revolution. In the areas where slash-and-burn farming is conducted, dramatic agricultural revolution has not happened. People have farmed the traditional way. Therefore, they havemet the demands of consumers by speeding up the pace of slash-and-burn farming. However, as you know, high-speed slssh-and-burn farming makes lands infertile.
Next, as the second solution, we should buy crops marked with the International Fairtrade Certification Mark, IFCM. Do you know about Fairtrade? It means buying goods at a fair price from developing countries. How can it solve the problem? Dishonest dealers buy crops at a surprisingly inexpensive price from farmers in developing countries. Fairtrade keeps disonest dealers from buying crops in this way. However, this doesn't give much benefit to developed countries. Whether it is conducted or not relies on developed countries.
Last, the final solution we thought of is developping effective fertilizer that will grow plants faster to give farmers longer fallow terms to prevent land from becoming infertile. The development of such a fertilizer requires scientific thinking, so now is the time when we, the students at Mathematics＆Communication Course, should study much harder to become experts in the future. Let's go for it.
Hello,everyone. We are Wood Pecker. We examined slash-and-burn farming.
These days,the number of forests in the world is decresing. Slash-and-burn farming is one of the causes. Desertifitication and global warming are advancing bacause of slash-and-burn farming.
I'll talk about the situation of siash-and-burn farming at Luang Phabang as one example. Look at this graph. Since 1990, the ratio of slush-and-burn farming is getting higher by about 1% every year. Slash-and-burn requires huge areas of land, but there is a limitation to the size of the land. So farmers make use of one area frequently by giving only a short fallow term. The rest for slash-and-burn farming needs more than ten years but according to this graph, 68% of the land used for slash-and-burn farming has only less-than-five-years rest. If the rest for slash-and-burn farming is too short, the land will be infertile, and at last it will be dasert. Now, about 8% to 13% of one area is burned down for the purpose of agriculture.
What are the solutions to this problem? We thought about three solutions.
First, there is an agricutural method practiced in Honduras. Its name is ''alley cropping.'' In this method, trees are planted in lines. And a type of Fabaceae(in japanese マメ科) named Inga is grown between the trees. In "alley cropping", Ingas grow more quickly. Fabaceae supply nitrogen. Nitrogen is one of three major fertilizers in the soil. Ingas that have grown taller than a human's height protect the soil from direct sunlight,and provide suitable shade. So it's hard for weeds to grow. But it is not easy for Honduras' farmers to accept this method. Because it's very hard for them to change slash-and burn farming that has been continuing for a long time. Slash-and-burn farming improved the enviroment of areas long ago. If farmers burn forests, bacteria in soils are killed. And ash that is produced by burning trees become nutriment and make the soil fertile.However, the problem is this method needs a lot of space. In the past, slash-and-burn farming had enough fallow terms (3-5years for cultivating and 10-20 years for lying fallow). But now they cannot have long fallow terms, because if they don't cultivate lands for more than 10 years, they cannot meet the demands of consumers. The pace of slash-and-burn farming has been getting faster, especially after the Industrial Revolution. In the areas where slash-and-burn farming is conducted, dramatic agricultural revolution has not happened. People have farmed the traditional way. Therefore, they havemet the demands of consumers by speeding up the pace of slash-and-burn farming. However, as you know, high-speed slssh-and-burn farming makes lands infertile.
Next, as the second solution, we should buy crops marked with the International Fairtrade Certification Mark, IFCM. Do you know about Fairtrade? It means buying goods at a fair price from developing countries. How can it solve the problem? Dishonest dealers buy crops at a surprisingly inexpensive price from farmers in developing countries. Fairtrade keeps disonest dealers from buying crops in this way. However, this doesn't give much benefit to developed countries. Whether it is conducted or not relies on developed countries.
Last, the final solution we thought of is developping effective fertilizer that will grow plants faster to give farmers longer fallow terms to prevent land from becoming infertile. The development of such a fertilizer requires scientific thinking, so now is the time when we, the students at Mathematics＆Communication Course, should study much harder to become experts in the future. Let's go for it.
Thank you for listening.