The human population continues to grow, and along with it, there is also the need to produce food. Agriculture has been essential to humanity, though it also needs land in order to produce crops and vegetation, possibly threatening areas such as rainforests and wildlife. Even small-scale farming could have an effect on it.
Researchers from the Lund University in Sweden have studied the effects of small-scale agriculture in Southeast Asia, according to Science Daily. They were joined by 40 other researchers coming from Germany, Indonesia, Switzerland and New Zealand. The team is led by Now Yann Clough, a researcher from the Faculty of Science at Lund University.
The research focused on monoculture, or the investing on a single species of trees while clearing rainforest. Yann Clough has noted that while this method might give short-term gains to farmers, the rainforest biodiversity gets affected in the process. Carbon source for the forest is also lessened. There is also soil damage done when chemical fertilizers are used, as the soil loses nutrients such as nitrogen.
This is apart from the clearing that's done before the area could be used for farming. Small-scale farming has been seen to be environmental-friendly. The study, however, shows that it actually does much harm to tropical rainforests, as noted in the Lund University website.
Yann Clough said that changing how farmers approach agriculture will require a lot of work. This might also involve financial incentives for farmers who would have to learn how to properly do small-scale farming without affecting biodiversity balance. Governments need to also have political will in order to impose environmental-friendly small-scale agriculture.
For the study, Yann Clough and his team have interviewed 450 small-scale farmers. They have also measured data that included forest growth, soil fertility and carbon storage. The study has noted that many of the small-scale farmers have chosen to invest in either palm trees or rubber trees since these have the least financial risk.
