Poverty is pervasive in the Swat Valley in northwestern Pakistan, and most people survive by farming small landholdings. However, many supplement their meager subsistence earnings by collecting and selling plant mater...Poverty is pervasive in the Swat Valley in northwestern Pakistan, and most people survive by farming small landholdings. However, many supplement their meager subsistence earnings by collecting and selling plant material for use in herbal medicine. This material is wild-harvested, but collectors seem not to fully appreciate the potential value of the plant material they collect nor the longterm impact their collection has on local plant populations. A model project supported by the International Food Policy Research Institute(IFPRI)persuaded small-scale farmers in four different villages to use some of their land for cultivating traditionally wild-harvested species of medicinal and aromatic plants(MAPs) with high market value. The farmers were provided seeds or rhizomes of five MAPs and asked to monitor their germination and growth on 25 m2 plots during a 12 month period. At the end of the study, growth and yield data from the four localities were compared and economic analyses conducted to determine the profitability of the species based on yields, prevailing market prices, and costs of production. Five of the cultivated species were subsequently marketed and their value evaluated:Sesamum indicum, Linum usitatissimum, Ocimum basilicum, Nigella sativa and Viola pilosa. The MAPs V. pilosa and O. basilicum were the most profitable,whereas Nigella sativa was the least profitable because of its low germination rate. The net income from all but Nigella was higher than that would have been earned by planting the same area with the predominant cereals or tomatoes. In addition to demonstrating the feasibility and financial benefits of cultivating MAPs as a cash crop, this model study identified a number of additional steps that would increase the benefits of MAPs cultivation in this area.A combination of specialized education, market infrastructure development and a small loans program would enable farmers to increase their agricultural income without damaging the area's plant diversity.展开更多
Global climate change during the twentieth century had a significant impact on the glaciers that resulted in creation of new lakes and expansion of existing ones, and ultimately an increase in the number of glacial la...Global climate change during the twentieth century had a significant impact on the glaciers that resulted in creation of new lakes and expansion of existing ones, and ultimately an increase in the number of glacial lake outburst floods(GLOFs) in the Himalayan region. This study reports variation of the end-moraine dammed lakes in the high altitude Hindukush-Karakoram-Himalaya(HKH) region of Pakistan to evaluate future floods hazard under changing climate in this region. An integrated temporal remote sensing and Geographic information system(GIS) based approach using satellite images of Landsat-7 and 8 was adopted to detect 482 endmoraine dammed lakes out of which 339 lakes(>0.02 km2) were selected for temporal change analysis during the 2001-2013 period. The findings of the study revealed a net expansion in the end-moraine dammed lakes area in the Karakoram(about 7.7%) and in the Himalayas(4.6%), while there was a net shrinkage of about 1.5% in the lakes area in the Hindukush range during this period. The percentage increase in the lakes' area was highest above 4500 m asl in the Hindukush, within 3500-4000 m asl in the Himalayas and below 3500 m asl in the Karakoram range. The overall positive change in the lakes' area appears to prevail in various altitudinal ranges of the region. The heterogeneous areal changes in the endmoraine dammed lakes might be attributed to different climate regimes and glacial hydrodynamics in the three HKH ranges. A periodic monitoring of the glacial lakes and their associated glaciers is essential for developing effective hazard assessment and risk reduction strategies for this high altitude Himalayan region.展开更多
基金USAID and the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) for their financial supportsupported by USAID, IFPRI
文摘Poverty is pervasive in the Swat Valley in northwestern Pakistan, and most people survive by farming small landholdings. However, many supplement their meager subsistence earnings by collecting and selling plant material for use in herbal medicine. This material is wild-harvested, but collectors seem not to fully appreciate the potential value of the plant material they collect nor the longterm impact their collection has on local plant populations. A model project supported by the International Food Policy Research Institute(IFPRI)persuaded small-scale farmers in four different villages to use some of their land for cultivating traditionally wild-harvested species of medicinal and aromatic plants(MAPs) with high market value. The farmers were provided seeds or rhizomes of five MAPs and asked to monitor their germination and growth on 25 m2 plots during a 12 month period. At the end of the study, growth and yield data from the four localities were compared and economic analyses conducted to determine the profitability of the species based on yields, prevailing market prices, and costs of production. Five of the cultivated species were subsequently marketed and their value evaluated:Sesamum indicum, Linum usitatissimum, Ocimum basilicum, Nigella sativa and Viola pilosa. The MAPs V. pilosa and O. basilicum were the most profitable,whereas Nigella sativa was the least profitable because of its low germination rate. The net income from all but Nigella was higher than that would have been earned by planting the same area with the predominant cereals or tomatoes. In addition to demonstrating the feasibility and financial benefits of cultivating MAPs as a cash crop, this model study identified a number of additional steps that would increase the benefits of MAPs cultivation in this area.A combination of specialized education, market infrastructure development and a small loans program would enable farmers to increase their agricultural income without damaging the area's plant diversity.
基金support of International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development (ICIMOD) and Pakistan Meteorlogical Department (PMD) for undertaking this study
文摘Global climate change during the twentieth century had a significant impact on the glaciers that resulted in creation of new lakes and expansion of existing ones, and ultimately an increase in the number of glacial lake outburst floods(GLOFs) in the Himalayan region. This study reports variation of the end-moraine dammed lakes in the high altitude Hindukush-Karakoram-Himalaya(HKH) region of Pakistan to evaluate future floods hazard under changing climate in this region. An integrated temporal remote sensing and Geographic information system(GIS) based approach using satellite images of Landsat-7 and 8 was adopted to detect 482 endmoraine dammed lakes out of which 339 lakes(>0.02 km2) were selected for temporal change analysis during the 2001-2013 period. The findings of the study revealed a net expansion in the end-moraine dammed lakes area in the Karakoram(about 7.7%) and in the Himalayas(4.6%), while there was a net shrinkage of about 1.5% in the lakes area in the Hindukush range during this period. The percentage increase in the lakes' area was highest above 4500 m asl in the Hindukush, within 3500-4000 m asl in the Himalayas and below 3500 m asl in the Karakoram range. The overall positive change in the lakes' area appears to prevail in various altitudinal ranges of the region. The heterogeneous areal changes in the endmoraine dammed lakes might be attributed to different climate regimes and glacial hydrodynamics in the three HKH ranges. A periodic monitoring of the glacial lakes and their associated glaciers is essential for developing effective hazard assessment and risk reduction strategies for this high altitude Himalayan region.
