Traditional Land Use

1. Traditional Land Use The Principles and Practices of Sustained Survival in the Past

2. The Scope of this Section

3. The Two Principles • The first is that the traditional farmer always tries to maximize the productivity of labor (since nobody wants to work harder than they need). • The second is that the farmer has to evolve a strategy to cope with the known risks, as passed down through traditional knowledge, and has to have a system that can cope with risk—not just average.

4. Coping with Risk • Risk can come from climatic extremes like floods or droughts • It can come via insects, such as the locust, that can devour the crop • It can come through diseases that attack crops or animals • Or it can affect the capacity of the farmer to work (e.g. Malaria)

5. Coping Strategies • Farmers, over time, have developed a range of techniques to help them cope with the inherent risk in the natural ecosystem that they have modified for cultivation.

6. Some Basic Constraints

7. What is the Significance of Agriculture? Adaptation of Nature But also allows the growth of cities and civilization This changes with Population Density Farmer now more vulnerable and tied to the land

8. What do the Various Early Systems Have in Common?

9. Common Factors (cont.) But this diminishes as agricultural methods advance and Population Density increases. The importance of Tradition

10. Characteristics of Traditional Agriculture Characteristics of Traditional Agriculture We call this the “Poor But Efficient” Hypothesis • Within the limitations of the technology of the time, the system is extremely efficient in terms of returns to labor. In fact, without introducing capital, it is usually impossible to modify a traditional system so it becomes more productive in combining land and labor.

11. Characteristics of Traditional Agriculture 2 • The farmer’s planning horizon is necessarily short because of his inability to store products for long, to insulate himself from the immediate effect of the natural environment, or hedge against disaster. • The factor uppermost in the farmer’s mind is the BAD year, not the average one, and his strategy will reflect that.

12. Characteristics of Traditional Agriculture 3 • The farmer tries to spread his risk over a diversity of crops and other options, just as Nature does. • Modern farming concentrates the risk into a monoculture, just as Nature never does. • Farmer’s first focus is the food-security of the immediate family.

13. Characteristics of Traditional Agriculture 4 • Societies at this level tend to be Conservative, and this term is much misunderstood. • If you learn by hard knocks, and long experience, how to cope with risk, change threatens that security unless it can be shown to improve the situation. You stick with what works, and if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.

14. Characteristics of Traditional Agriculture 5 • The role of Tradition is seriously misinterpreted. • Tradition is the way of passing on the rules of what works, including holding together the social unit of production or defense (the family, the tribe etc). • It is a dependent variable not an independent one.

15. Conclusion • The systems are both rational and efficient in the context of the technology of the time • They generally evolved under low population density and slow growth. • The social organization of the community has very much to do with maintaining the stability of the system.

16. And next… • We will look at some examples of these principles in action and see how the systems embody the principles of sound land management and sustainability. • It is one of the reasons traditional societies are very hesitant about change, whereas we expect change.