Indigenous Fallow Management on Yap Island

Abstract

On Yap Island, indigenous management of the fallow in shifting agriculture has resulted in the development of site-stable taro patch and tree garden agroforestry systems. These systems are relatively sustainable and supportive of household economies , with some surplus for local market sales. however, a broad range of crops whose harvest is complementary to those produced in the agroforestry plots are still produced by shifting systems of agricultures in wild lands outside of villages. These are used to produced surpluses for special occasions. Althought traditional techniques for intensification of these shifting systems have been developed, and are still remembered, current practices tend to be more extensive, and forest are being depleted. These traditional technologies need to be re-replied to make the shifting agriculture systems of Yap Island more sustainable and this process could be enhanced by the integration of modern scientific technologies.

Citation

Falanruw, Marjorie; Ruegorong, Francis. 2002. Indigenous Fallow Management on Yap Island. In: Proceedings of the Regional workshop on Indigenous Strategies for Intensification of Shifting Cultivation in Asia-Pacific [CD-ROM]. Ottawa, Canada: International Development Research Center: 7.