英文摘要 |
This project is an integral component of the main project, Building A Sustainable Rural Livelihood in Highland Northern Thailand: Chinese Diasporas and Their Cultural Adaptation. This study evaluates the impacts of different types of hill farming practices on soil productivity and agroecological status; hopefully this will lead to improvements in sustainable crop production on slope land in the future. The sites studied are located in the village of Banmai in Chaiprakarn District, Chiang Mai Province, northern Thailand. A brief historical narrative describes the Yunnan Chinese diaspora that settled in this region in 1960s after retreating from the Burmese side of the Golden Triangle and their conversion from drug producers and traffickers to hill farmers. Their familiarity with hill farming before settling in Thailand contributed significantly to their selection and construction of hill farms. To further assess the impact of their farming systems on soil sustainability, we identified five patterns of land use: (1) tangerine groves, Citrus reliculate; (2) litchi groves, Litchi chinensis Sonn; (3) mango orchards, Mangifera indica Linn.; (4) maize fields, Zea mays; and (5) secondary forest (mainly bamboo, Arundinaria gigantean, and mixed deciduous trees). In each of these sites field measurements and soil samples were taken for laboratory analysis. The soil samples were conducted at fixed depths over a period time for comparative purposes. |