Managing tropical catchments

Tropical agriculture faces many problems in its tasks of providing both protein and income to people in regions of erratic rainfall, high erosion and often unsuitable terrain and poor soils. Sustainable methods of agriculture require an understanding of the basic ecological processes, as well as the sociological context in which different forms of agriculture are practiced.

Developing integrated and sustainable management in tropical areas requires understanding in a range of disciplines; soil fertility, erosion and sediment yield, river and lake management, the nature of tropical ecosystems, the economics of subsistence farming and the socio-economic dynamics of regional modelling, through to remote sensing and GIS planning.