The study on the linkage of land use and resource utilization on oasis activity in Mauritania
2008
Zaitsu, Y.(Tokyo Univ. of Agriculture and Technology, Fuchu (Japan)) | Kobayashi, H. | Takagi, S.
In arid and semi-arid areas, the importance of sustainable resource management and use of local resources such as water, soil and biomass have been well recognized in principle, but rarely explored in practice. Through an investigation of agro-ecological resource use in an oasis in the arid area in western African country of Mauritania, this study identifies interdependencies between land use, agricultural activities and resource utilization, and their reliance on local resources in the study area. Building on these findings, the study proposes the methodology to evaluate sustainable agricultural development. Agricultural activities on the oasis are found to have been established on the organic linkages between crop production and livestock raising. In particular, feeds produced through daily activities in the oasis plays a very important role in livestock raising. Moreover, as the production of crops in the oasis depends completely on the manure of the livestock, it also turns out that oasis agriculture here would be extremely problematic in the absence of a strong linkage between cropping and animal husbandry. From the viewpoint of environment-friendly agricultural activities that are required for agricultural development in the future, the local resource cycle (material flow) is found to be an effective method to evaluate the sustainability of local agriculture.
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