Grasslands of the World.pdf - Disasters and Conflicts - UNEP

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Plate 12.13
Oat seed production in Nepal .
Grasslands of the world
of Pakistan, India and, to a lesser degree, Nepal to supplement crop residues
in the feeding of vast numbers of stall-fed cattle and buffaloes: Trifolium
alexandrinum and oats (Plate 12.13) are major winter crops , and coarse cereals
predominate in summer .
SOCIAL AND ECONOMIC FACTORS
Often the problems of grasslands and their users are more socio-economic
than technical. Better management and improved livelihoods can only
be attained if the legal, social and economic problems associated with
pastoralism, especially traditional herding , are dealt with. “Training herders”
used to be recommended in many projects, but it is futile to try to transfer
technical ideas, probably developed elsewhere, when the herders have no
security of tenure , the techniques have not been convincingly tested locally
and poverty and population pressure mean that herders will not take extra
risks.
Tenure
Secure tenure of land or grazing rights is essential if stock-raisers and
pastoralists are to have secure livelihoods and can invest in and manage
grassland in a sustainable fashion. Where grassland production systems
are purely commercial (as in the studies on the commercial sector in South
Africa , Patagonia , the Campos and Central North America) the land is held
in either freehold or long-term leasehold. Commercial stock raisers can,
therefore, invest in infrastructure, notably water and fencing – a major use of
J.M. SUTTIE