家庭农业知识平台

Managing Aso Grasslands for Sustainable Agriculture

The Aso Grasslands are located in Aso region of Kumamoto Prefecture, which situates in the middle of the Kyushu Island in Japan. Aso region spreads around active volcanic craters and huge caldera. The Aso volcano has one of the world’s largest caldera stretching 18 km from east to west and 25 km from north to south. This caldera area is designated as Aso-Kuju National Park and is also a part of the Japanese Geoparks Networks. Even though the volcanic soil and geographic conditions are not suitable for cultivation, local people have, for generations, adapted themselves to this challenging environment. They have made improvements to the volcanic soil of the cold uplands and started cultivation by creating paddies and dry fields for farming, and also grasslands for pastures for grazing and mowing. Thus today, we have a variety of agriculture flourishing in this area, such as rice farming, outdoor vegetable horticulture, greenhouse horticulture, stockbreeding and so on. The beautiful grasslands extending around the caldera were not only formed by natural disruptions such as eruptions and floods but also maintained by humans, whom have engaged in agricultural activities here for centuries; such as burning, grazing and mowing. These continuous agricultural activities have resulted in the vast “semi-natural” grasslands, and have promoted the spread of various kinds of rare grassland plants. In utilizing the grasslands, the biodiversity and the rural landscapes of Aso have been preserved, and sustainable agriculture has been undertaken. In the current Aso region, 70,000 people live inside and outside the caldera, following the traditions of the local agriculture, farming methods, and rural culture. These grasslands, managed by each community, are used for grazing cows and horses, and the grasses serve as their primary feed or the matting for their stables. The composted manure is then used in the fields for paddy and dry field farming. The remarkable feature of Aso region lies in this dynamic system of sustainable agriculture through cyclical grassland use and its management system.

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发布者: Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO)
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组 织: Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO)
其他组织: Globally Important Agricultural Heritage Systems (GIAHS)
年份: 2013
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国家: Japan
地理范围: 亚洲及太平洋
类别: 政策简报/文件
内容语言: English
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