624
Bradfield Hall
Dpt. of Crop and
Soil Sciences
Cornell Universtiy
Ithaca, NY 14853
phone: (607) 255-1712
FAX : (607) 255-2644
e-mail: ecf3@cornell.edu |
 |
BS
(Hons) Forestry 1982
University of Aberdeen,
Scotland
Ph.D. Soil Science 1991
North Carolina State
University
Growing
populations in the tropics
need access to land
for food, fiber and
improved livelihoods.
As most of the arable
land is already occupied,
landless people have
little option but to
crop marginal lands
and often end up having
to clear primary forests
to survive. Although
traditional shifting
cultivation systems
sustained large numbers
of people because farmers
were able to use long
fallow periods for previously
cropped land, current
demographic, economic,
and political conditions
in most of the tropics
are leading to a highly
unsustainable form of
slash and burn agriculture
that rapidly degrades
the natural resource
base.
My
current research focuses
on collaborative and
interdisciplinary approaches
with researchers and
farmers to develop and
test appropriate cropping
systems in the context
of farming landscapes
in the Brazilian Amazon
and Madagascar.
Funded
by a grant from the
Cornell Agroforestry
Working Group (CAWG)
and the Distance Learning
Program of the Cornell
International Institute
of Food, Agriculture
and Development (CIIFAD).
|
