Project 1: Agro-ecological mapping of a locality

Project 1: Agro-ecological mapping of a locality

Agro-ecological analysis is an important tool for management of farming system at village level. Agro-ecosystem mapping can help improve the location specific recommendation, technology adoption and dissemination based on resource base and socio-economic status of the community. Overlays of land type enterprise and socio-economic parameters highlight interaction for specific resource allocation, in addition to facilitating agriculture based developmental agencies (like social forestry, community development department, etc,) and target groups for implementation of site-specific technology intervention.

Objective:
1. To take stock of resource base of the neighbourhood/village
2. To identify opportunity and constraints for resource base of the area
3. To plan/intervene different developmental programmes of the village in team sprit

Materials required:
1. Square data sheet for inventory documentation
2. Primary and secondary data sources from Agriculture offices of Block, Sub-division and district, Panchayat, NGOs, Farmers’ club etc.
3. Large scale base map of the area

Methodology:
1. Collection of base map
Revenue map or village map can be obtained from the district revenue departments/ panchayat office or can be downloaded from Google Earth website.


2. Map of topography and hydrology:
This map is prepared by eliciting every land type that they can distinguished and ascertaining spatial distribution can be a map of roads, homes, orchards and other land marks (temple, tank, etc.) Establishing land type boundaries requires considerable amount of walking around. Farmers can be requested to indicate flood and drainage direction and main water resources.

3. Map of enterprises
This map is prepared by eliciting from farmers what enterprises they conduct or allocate on each land type. Major enterprises are crops, animals, fish, orchards, social forestry, etc. Special attention should be given to agriculture and non-agricultural activities like dwellings, rocky or stony areas, steep land or barren areas, etc.
4. Map of social groups
This map is made by questioning farmers to name the castes or social group that live in the locality. Spatial distribution of houses can be drawn in the map.
5. Transect of Agro-ecological zones:
This is prepared from a composite section through overlays on land type. For each land type local name, soil type, crops trees, livestock, fish, specific opportunities and constraints should be listed from the information collected from the local inhabitants.


Relevance:
The project will help to gain insight on holistic interaction among the different segments viz., geomorphology, soils, hydrology, flora, fauna and the human population of the area for developing sustainable land use plan based on the existing agro-ecosystem. This knowledge can serve as a model for extrapolation in similar agro-ecosystems. Further, it will also educate on rational and group behavior and focus on constraints and opportunities of the study area.