Barley-based farming systems of the Mediterranean [Hordeum vulgare]
1993
Jones, M. (ICARDA, Aleppo (Syria))
Barley is the predominant crop in the dry arable areas of Syria, variously as green pasture, grain, straw, stubble and dry forage, a major component of the feed in cash-earning small-ruminant production enterprises. This system appears to have evolved quite recently from more subsistence-oriented mixed farming and from transhumant and nomadic pastoralism, in response to increasing population pressure, to a decline and deterioration in the natural grazing land and to an increasing urban market for animal products. The extent to which similar systems exist in analogous environments elsewhere in the Mediterranean region is reviewed, and the future prospects for such systems are discussed. The urban demand seems likely to increase profitability and therefore intensify the pressure on an already fragile environment. The scope for increased productivity, both through research-led agricultural development in the dry areas and better-planned integration with higher-rainfall and irrigated farming systems, is considerable; but this increase will be sustainable only if implementation and long-term management takes serious account of the need for land and pasture conservation
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