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Estimating the Consequences of Fire Exclusion for Food Crop Production, Soil Fertility, and Fallow Recovery in Shifting Cultivation Landscapes in the Humid Tropics

In the Congo Basin, smallholder farmers practice slash-and-burn shifting cultivation. Yet, deliberate burning might no longer be sustainable under reduced fallow scenarios. We synthesized data from the Forest Margins Benchmark Area (FMBA), comprising 1.54 million hectares (ha), in southern Cameroon...

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Autores principales: Norgrove, Lindsey, Hauser, Stefan
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Springer US 2014
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4342523/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25537156
http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s00267-014-0431-7
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author Norgrove, Lindsey
Hauser, Stefan
author_facet Norgrove, Lindsey
Hauser, Stefan
author_sort Norgrove, Lindsey
collection PubMed
description In the Congo Basin, smallholder farmers practice slash-and-burn shifting cultivation. Yet, deliberate burning might no longer be sustainable under reduced fallow scenarios. We synthesized data from the Forest Margins Benchmark Area (FMBA), comprising 1.54 million hectares (ha), in southern Cameroon and assessed the impact of fire exclusion on yield, labor inputs, soil fertility, ecosystem carbon stocks, and fallow recovery indicators in two common field types (plantain and maize) under both current and reduced fallow scenarios. While we could not distinguish between impacts of standard farmer burning practice and fire exclusion treatments for the current fallow scenario, we concluded that fire exclusion would lead to higher yields, higher ecosystem carbon stocks as well as potentially faster fallow recovery under the reduced fallow scenario. While its implementation would increase labor requirements, we estimated increased revenues of 421 and 388 US$ ha(−1) for plantain and maize, respectively. Applied to the FMBA, and assuming a 6-year reduced fallow scenario, fire exclusion in plantain fields would potentially retain 240,464 Mg more ecosystem carbon, comprising topsoil carbon plus tree biomass carbon, than standard farmer practice. Results demonstrate a potential “win–win scenario” where yield benefits, albeit modest, and conservation benefits can be obtained simultaneously. This could be considered as a transitional phase towards higher input use and thus higher yielding systems.
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spelling pubmed-43425232015-03-04 Estimating the Consequences of Fire Exclusion for Food Crop Production, Soil Fertility, and Fallow Recovery in Shifting Cultivation Landscapes in the Humid Tropics Norgrove, Lindsey Hauser, Stefan Environ Manage Article In the Congo Basin, smallholder farmers practice slash-and-burn shifting cultivation. Yet, deliberate burning might no longer be sustainable under reduced fallow scenarios. We synthesized data from the Forest Margins Benchmark Area (FMBA), comprising 1.54 million hectares (ha), in southern Cameroon and assessed the impact of fire exclusion on yield, labor inputs, soil fertility, ecosystem carbon stocks, and fallow recovery indicators in two common field types (plantain and maize) under both current and reduced fallow scenarios. While we could not distinguish between impacts of standard farmer burning practice and fire exclusion treatments for the current fallow scenario, we concluded that fire exclusion would lead to higher yields, higher ecosystem carbon stocks as well as potentially faster fallow recovery under the reduced fallow scenario. While its implementation would increase labor requirements, we estimated increased revenues of 421 and 388 US$ ha(−1) for plantain and maize, respectively. Applied to the FMBA, and assuming a 6-year reduced fallow scenario, fire exclusion in plantain fields would potentially retain 240,464 Mg more ecosystem carbon, comprising topsoil carbon plus tree biomass carbon, than standard farmer practice. Results demonstrate a potential “win–win scenario” where yield benefits, albeit modest, and conservation benefits can be obtained simultaneously. This could be considered as a transitional phase towards higher input use and thus higher yielding systems. Springer US 2014-12-24 2015 /pmc/articles/PMC4342523/ /pubmed/25537156 http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s00267-014-0431-7 Text en © The Author(s) 2014 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ Open AccessThis article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License which permits any use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author(s) and the source are credited.
spellingShingle Article
Norgrove, Lindsey
Hauser, Stefan
Estimating the Consequences of Fire Exclusion for Food Crop Production, Soil Fertility, and Fallow Recovery in Shifting Cultivation Landscapes in the Humid Tropics
title Estimating the Consequences of Fire Exclusion for Food Crop Production, Soil Fertility, and Fallow Recovery in Shifting Cultivation Landscapes in the Humid Tropics
title_full Estimating the Consequences of Fire Exclusion for Food Crop Production, Soil Fertility, and Fallow Recovery in Shifting Cultivation Landscapes in the Humid Tropics
title_fullStr Estimating the Consequences of Fire Exclusion for Food Crop Production, Soil Fertility, and Fallow Recovery in Shifting Cultivation Landscapes in the Humid Tropics
title_full_unstemmed Estimating the Consequences of Fire Exclusion for Food Crop Production, Soil Fertility, and Fallow Recovery in Shifting Cultivation Landscapes in the Humid Tropics
title_short Estimating the Consequences of Fire Exclusion for Food Crop Production, Soil Fertility, and Fallow Recovery in Shifting Cultivation Landscapes in the Humid Tropics
title_sort estimating the consequences of fire exclusion for food crop production, soil fertility, and fallow recovery in shifting cultivation landscapes in the humid tropics
topic Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4342523/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25537156
http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s00267-014-0431-7
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