The Changing Social Production and Consequences of Land Quality Variation in Rural Africa

土壤肥力固有的低和土地退化被视为改善半干旱非洲粮食安全和农村发展的主要障碍。土壤肥力参数在多个尺度上(田地、农场、村庄、流域、地区、区域)差异很大，这不仅是内在的，而且是因为非洲农民刻意的养分收获和转移战略。对土壤肥力管理的分析一直以养分平衡方法为主，这些方法通常强调没有无机肥料的持续生产是徒劳的，以及认为尽管肥力受到限制，耕作制度仍应长期持续的社会历史方法。这项研究项目将解决这两种方法的局限性。关于土地质量变化及其变化对土地社会作用的影响的政治生态研究将在两个不同的研究区域进行，这两个区域都被描述为严重土壤贫困的“终点”。一个案例研究将在尼日尔的法卡拉地区进行；另一个案例研究将在肯尼亚西部省进行。这将是一项关于土壤肥力变异的空间显性研究，它考虑了影响人类管理对土壤肥力变异的影响和反应的社会边界，并仔细考虑了空间和时间尺度的分析。研究人员将使用多种方法，包括地理信息系统、系统的定量和定性调查、民族志访谈、田间历史、土壤分析和参与观察，以探索土壤质量变化对以下方面的影响：(1)农民实施的农业战略；(2)不同社会群体对土地的估值方式；(3)农村家庭之间的土地转让和所有权分化。这项政治生态研究将比以往通常进行的更精细的空间和时间尺度上调查环境变化。通过记录不断变化的土地和肥力投资的社会空间分布，调查人员将评估标准“可持续性”评估的尺度敏感性，并在社区和家庭一级处理土地质量差异不断变化的社会作用。特别令人感兴趣的是，土地质量变化对村庄一级持续的社会分化的社会影响、土地冲突的性质、确保土地权的社会投资以及与土地转让(继承、贷款、质押等)有关的决定。通过认真研究土壤质量变化，将有助于对土地利用集约、土壤肥力转换、土地保有权等方面的研究有新的认识。它还将有助于重新思考土地质量在热带非洲农村发展中的作用。这项研究将促进边缘化社区参与推进与土地退化和贫困有关的科学研究议程，并将与与西非和东非决策者有密切联系的两个国际农业研究中心(尼日尔国际畜牧研究所和肯尼亚热带土壤生物学和肥力研究所)密切合作进行。定期的研讨会、陈述和反馈会议将向国际、国家(肯尼亚和尼日利亚)和北美的研究伙伴组织宣传研究成果。研究结果还将在项目结束时以适当的格式提交并与参与社区进行验证。科学论文将向美国和非洲的学术受众和自然资源管理政策制定者宣传研究成果，以提高正在进行的关于非洲农业土地退化和贫穷的讨论中的科学质量。

Inherently low soil fertility and land degradation are seen as major impediments for improving food security and rural development in semi-arid Africa. Soil fertility parameters vary significantly at multiple scales (field, farm, village, watershed, district, region), not only inherently but because of deliberate nutrient harvesting and transfer strategies by African farmers. Analyses of soil fertility management have been dominated by nutrient balance approaches, which generally highlight the futility of sustained production without inorganic fertilizers, and by social historical approaches that argue for the long-term persistence of cropping systems despite fertility constraints. This research project will address the limitations of both approaches. Political ecological research on land quality variation and its changing influence on the social role played by land as evidenced in social transfers, resource conflicts, and livelihood strategies will be conducted in two contrasting study areas that have each been described as "endpoints" of serious soil impoverishment. One case study will occur in the Fakara region of Niger; the other will be conducted in Western Province of Kenya. This will be a spatially explicit study of soil fertility variation that considers the social boundaries that affect human management's effects on and reaction to soil fertility variation, with careful consideration of spatial and temporal scales of analysis. The investigators will employ multiple methods, including GIS, systematic quantitative and qualitative surveys, ethnographic interviews, field histories, soil analyses, and participant observation to explore the implications of soil quality variation on (1) agricultural strategies practiced by farmers; (2) the ways in which different social groups value land; and (3) land transfers and ownership differentiation among rural households.This political ecological study will investigate environmental change at finer spatial and temporal scales than has commonly been performed previously. By documenting the changing sociospatial distribution of fields and fertility investments, the investigators will evaluate the scale sensitivity of standard "sustainability" assessments and address the changing social role of land quality variation at the level of the community and household. Of particular interest are the social implications of land quality variation for persistence of social differentiation at the village level, the nature of land conflicts, the social investments for securing rights to land, and decisions related to transfers of land (inheritance, loaning, pledging, etc.). By seriously engaging with soil quality variation, this study will contribute new understandings to the land-use intensification, soil-fertility transition, and land tenure literatures. It also will contribute to a rethinking of the role of land quality in rural development in tropical Africa. The study will promote the participation of marginalized communities in advancing the scientific research agenda relating to land degradation and poverty and will be conducted in close cooperation with two international agricultural research centers (the International Livestock Research Institute in Niger and the Tropical Soil Biology and Fertility Institute in Kenya) with strong connections to decision makers in West and East Africa. Periodic seminars, presentations, and feedback sessions will promote the research findings as they unfold to the international, national (Kenyan and Nigerien), and North American research partner organizations. Research results will also be presented and validated with the participating communities in appropriate formats at the end of the project. Scientific papers will promote the research findings to the academic audience and natural resource management policy makers in the United States and Africa in order to improve the quality of science in the on-going discussions of land degradation and poverty in African agriculture.