Conservation farming on steep lands - USAid

Soil taxonomy
and stees lands
Thomas E. Calhoun, R. W. Arnold,
Maurice J. Mausbach, anld Bobby T. Birdwell
Soil classification is a means of ordering our knowledge of soils. For
example, one classification scheme rnay catalogue soil properties that relate
to the characteristics and conditiorls of soils as they occur in natural landscapes.
Another scheme may group soils by perceived processes of soil
formation. Soil classification can help to communicte knowledge from
one place to another. There is a need to predict what may happen as steep
lands are used. Soil classification systems can serve that need.
Researchers are currently looking for ways to compress the knowledge
from centuries of trial and error in agriculture on steep lands into an accelerated,
one-generation program for today's developing world. How can
it be done? We contend it can be accomplished through agrotechnology
transfer.
Planning agricultural land use
C
111 the process of de\reloping agricultural systems, the major difficulty
if not in developing a1tc:rnatives but in predicting the outcome associated
with alternative actions. The whole system needs to be understood in order
to evaluate changes in any single component of the system. Such an
approach brings together existing knowledge of the production system,
identifies the major components and processes and their interactions, and
seeks to identify the bottlenecks to improve:d performance (I).
Historically, the inability to establish satisfactory <strong>farming</strong> systems on
some land has bee11 due, in part, to the domination of the people in one
area by those elsewhere; on other land it has been due to people attempting
to force a pattern of use on new land that is not suited to them (4).
In deciding the patterns of use on new land, system simulation is an
effective process. A useful concept is that farms should not be established on
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