The traditional cultivation system of small-scale agriculturalists in the Eastern Amazon region is characterized by slash-and-burn agriculture. Although the production of these systems is satisfactory in the first year of cultivation due to improved availability of nutrients from the ash of burned biomass, losses of nutrients occur during the burning. Moreover, the increasing demand for plantation areas imposed by demographic pressure has led to a reduction in fallow periods with negative impacts on the productive potential of the system. Modified technologies such as the slash-and-mulch system developed as part of the SHIFT-project (Studies on Human Impact on Forests and Floodplains in the Tropics) represents an alternative for small-scale farmers. However, adoption of the technology will depend crucially on the profitability of the system for small-scale farmers. Moreover, there is an imperative need to assess the external economic benefits and costs of slash-and-mulch agriculture in comparison with the shifting cultivation system in order to understand the full benefits of slash-and-mulch agriculture as a sustainable alternative.

This sub-project forms part of the project "Small-scale agriculturalists in the Amazon: Interactions between ecosystem and socioeconomic system in the use and protection of tropical forests." The project aims at evaluating the socioeconomic prospects for and effects of sustainable technology alternatives to traditional shifting-cultivation agriculture in the Northeastern Brazilian Amazon. The specific objectives for the study are: (1) Identify external costs and benefits of the slash and mulch agriculture, including the environmental effects and the local market effects in comparison with the slash-and-burn system, and (2) assess those external costs and benefits, using the social cost benefit analysis as a tool.

in Germany:
arisbe.mendoza@uni-bonn.de

out of Germany:
arisbemendoza@yahoo.com

Specialisation / Discipline

*Research Fellow at the Department of Management and Conservation of Natural Tropical Resources at the University of Yucatan, X'tmatkuil, Yucatan, Mexico from 1998-2000

*Research assistant at the Department of Management and Conservation of Natural Tropical Resources at the University of Yucatan, X'tmatkuil, Yucatan, Mexico from 1995-1998

Mendoza-Escalante, Arisbe (2000). 'Mensuration of environmental values and changes in the individual well-being: The use of the Marshallian demand'. Boletín de Economía Hoy, No. 34 Año VI, Marzo-Abril del 2000. Facultad de Economía, Universidad Autónoma de Yucatán.

Castillo y Dzul, Angel; Vidal Manzanilla, Juan; Aguilar Cordero, Wilian y Mendoza-Escalante, Arisbe (2000). 'Practical Manual of Vermicompost'. Department of Management and Conservation of Natural Tropical Resources at the University of Yucatan.

Mendoza-Escalante, Arisbe (1999). 'The economic causes of deforestation in terms of land use change for Yucatan Peninsula: case study area'. (Dissertation to obtain the grade of MSc in Environmental Economics and Environmental Management at the University of York, UK).

Mendoza-Escalante, Arisbe; Kelly, Thomas and Jiménez-Osornio, Juan (1997). 'Economic evaluation of farming and manure systems on the association of maize and legume (Mucuna deeringianum and Canavalia ensiformis): an alternative to slash and burn system in the community of Sahcabá, Yucatán, México'. Journal 'Management of Natural Resources', Rockefeller Foundation.

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