Rehabilitation of degraded grasslands in north Syria: Use of farmer participatory research to encourage the sowing of annual pasture legumes

A series of experiments on communally-owned grasslands in the barley-livest ock zone of north Syria were conducted to test the hypothesis that introduc tion of Mediterranean annual legumes will increase productivity. The experi ments were preceded by a survey to determine farmers' attitudes, describe t he farming systems and to select appropriate collaborators. The first exper iment examined the establishment of medics (Medicago spp.) and clovers (Tri folium spp.) distributed by hand, and monitored their effects on biomass an d seedbank size. Later experiments extended these results to other villages . The principles of farmer participation in research were used to overcome the constraints imposed by the communal ownership of land. The survey revealed that the average size of the 20 villages was 36 familie s and that each village owned 887 sheep and 790 ha land. All villages had a ccess to communally-owned grasslands, although their dependence on income f rom sheep varied greatly. These villages were subsequently divided into gro ups of high, intermediate and low potential. Of the 11 clovers sown in the first experiment, seed numbers of T. tomentos um, T. purpureum, T. haussknechtii, T. pilulare and T. resupinatum increase d over three years. By 1996, there were more than 3000 legume seeds m(-2) i n the seeded treatment compared with less than 2000 in the unseeded treatme nt (mainly the naturally-occurring Trigonella monspeliaca). The number of m edic and clover seedlings also increased significantly, while the number of Trigonella seedlings decreased significantly. Biomass production increased in the final two years and there was no response to added phosphorus. There were similar results in the later experiments. Seedbank size was grea ter in seeded treatments than in unseeded treatments, there were more seedl ings in the seeded treatments, and the most successful species were T. camp estre, T. tomentosum, T. speciosum and M. rigidula. The response in biomass was limited to the legume component, although total biomass increased in a t least one of the two years. The highest biomass produced was 1112 kg ha(- 1) and there was no response to added phosphorus. The results suggested that the on-station research previously conducted at ICARDA headquarters was applicable to communally-owned land, although impor tant modifications were needed. For example. at ICARDA phosphorus was neces sary to stimulate the growth of legumes; in contrast, it was necessary to s ow legumes at the four villages involved in these experiments. The results also suggested that the grasslands were common property, owned and controll ed by defined groups of farmers.