Determining factors for the diversity of hulless barley agroecosystem in the himalaya region—A case study from Northwest Yunnan, China

Abstract

Traditional barley agroecosystem in the Himalaya region harbour a great diversity of hulless barley landraces. This diversity has been considered largely impacted by agro-ecozone factors as documents by former researches. Five case study sites were selected from Northwest Yunnan to represent five agro-ecozones: Tangman (hot and dry valley), Kena (hot and wet valley), Hongpo (alpine region), Napa (marshy wetland), and Xiangka (mild slopes in high plateau). A participatory rural appraisal was carried out to acquire data for 28 cultural, socio-economic, ecological and agricultural factors in these five sites from 2012 to 2014. Multiple correspondence analysis was conducted to evaluate the weight of the selected factors on the diversity of agroecosystems. Results showed that the diversity and percentage of hulless barley in the area was largely differentiated between the zones, and the differences principally originated from 5 factors, including Religious hulless barley use, Weight of fodder using, Chemical fertilizer, Crop varieties, and Seed exchange consumption. Cultural factors were the most influencing factors, followed by agricultural factors, natural factors and the last social factors. In the cultural factors, religious use hulless barley and seed exchange customs were very important. High elevation and farmers’ distance from cities were the most important factors fostering on-farm hulless barley landrace diversity. The conservation of agricultural biodiversity in traditional Tibetan agriculture ecosystem should be emphasized. Keywords: Hulless barley, NW Yunnan, Agro-ecozones