| Nothaphoebe umbelliflora | |
|---|---|
Scientific classification  | |
| Kingdom: | Plantae |
| Clade: | Tracheophytes |
| Clade: | Angiosperms |
| Clade: | Magnoliids |
| Order: | Laurales |
| Family: | Lauraceae |
| Genus: | Nothaphoebe |
| Species: | N. umbelliflora |
| Binomial name | |
| Nothaphoebe umbelliflora (Blume) Blume | |
Nothaphoebe umbelliflora is an evergreen tropical tree in the family Lauraceae. Its common name in English is the bong tree. It is also called the yang bong tree (Thai), or gemor.
The bong tree was described and named by Carl Ludwig von Blume in 1851. Blume spent much of his professional life studying the flora of the Dutch East Indies. [2]
The Latin binomial was created from Greek nothos, meaning false; phoebe, referring to the close resemblance to the genus Phoebe; and Latin umbellatus, referring to the tree's flowers that form an umbel, i.e., the flower stalks all arise from the same point. [3]
Its natural distribution includes Peninsular Malaysia, Thailand, Borneo, Sumatra, Bangka Island, Java, the Philippines, and Palawan. [4]
Its habitat is primary and secondary rainforests, including lowland and upland mixed dipterocarp and riparian evergreen forests, from sea level to 1200 meters elevation. [1]
Bark from the bong tree contains gum, a useful sticking agent, and aromatic oils. Pulverized bark is used to make incense sticks for temples in South and Southeast Asia. It is also an ingredient of mosquito coils and glue for carton and particleboard. When mixed with soil, the bark can be molded into statues and household items. [5]
The once-abundant bong tree is now on the endangered list in Laos. Farmers in the mountainous Samouay district have traditionally used the slash-and-burn method to clear forest for rice production, then moving on to new tracts of land when the soil is exhausted. For this reason, mature trees can no longer be found there. [5] When it is not being sustainably cultivated, the entire tree is cut down and then the bark is stripped off. [6]
In 2008, the Sustainable Natural Resource Management and Productivity Enhancement Project, funded by IFAD IFAD (International Fund for Agricultural Development), began a project to create commercial bong tree nurseries in the Samouay and Taoye districts, plant one-hectare plots of bong trees, and support sustainable land-use planning. The cultivation of bong has created an additional source of income for farmers and minimized carbon emissions from slash-and-burn land use. [5]
The project has helped farmers achieve better security through permanent land certificates and diversifying crops, so that they have a crop to sell as well as permanent homes, and are not dependent on subsistence farming alone. Cultivated bong trees, when farmers are properly harvesting the bark, can yield for up to 50 years. [7]
The wood is also used locally for house building. [8]
Bark is sun dried by the farmers and sold to factories. At the factory, the bark is ground up and mixed with sawdust and perfumed talc to make a mix called kobuac. Bamboo sticks are rolled in this compound and dried to produce the finished incense, or joss, sticks.[ citation needed ]
Laos is a country in and the only landlocked nation in mainland Southeast Asia, northeast of Thailand and west of Vietnam. It covers approximately 236,800 square kilometers in the center of the Southeast Asian peninsula and it is surrounded by Myanmar (Burma), Cambodia, the People's Republic of China, Thailand, and Vietnam.
Shifting cultivation is an agricultural system in which plots of land are cultivated temporarily, then abandoned while post-disturbance fallow vegetation is allowed to freely grow while the cultivator moves on to another plot. The period of cultivation is usually terminated when the soil shows signs of exhaustion or, more commonly, when the field is overrun by weeds. The period of time during which the field is cultivated is usually shorter than the period over which the land is allowed to regenerate by lying fallow.
Slash-and-burn agriculture is a farming method that involves the cutting and burning of plants in a forest or woodland to create a field called a swidden. The method begins by cutting down the trees and woody plants in an area. The downed vegetation, or "slash", is then left to dry, usually right before the rainiest part of the year. Then, the biomass is burned, resulting in a nutrient-rich layer of ash which makes the soil fertile, as well as temporarily eliminating weed and pest species. After about three to five years, the plot's productivity decreases due to depletion of nutrients along with weed and pest invasion, causing the farmers to abandon the field and move to a new area. The time it takes for a swidden to recover depends on the location and can be as little as five years to more than twenty years, after which the plot can be slashed and burned again, repeating the cycle. In Bangladesh and India, the practice is known as jhum or jhoom.
Subsistence agriculture occurs when farmers grow crops to meet the needs of themselves and their families on smallholdings. Subsistence agriculturalists target farm output for survival and for mostly local requirements, with little or no surplus. Planting decisions occur principally with an eye toward what the family will need during the coming year, and only secondarily toward market prices. Tony Waters, a professor of Sociology, defines "subsistence peasants" as "people who grow what they eat, build their own houses, and live without regularly making purchases in the marketplace".
The Akha are an ethnic group who live in small villages at higher elevations in the mountains of Thailand, Myanmar, Laos and Yunnan Province in China. They made their way from China into Southeast Asia during the early 20th century. Civil war in Burma and Laos resulted in an increased flow of Akha immigrants and there are now 80,000 people living in Thailand's northern provinces of Chiang Rai and Chiang Mai.
Agroforestry is a land use management system in which combinations of trees or shrubs are grown around or among crops or pastureland. Agroforestry combines agricultural and forestry technologies to create more diverse, productive, profitable, healthy, and sustainable land-use systems. There are many benefits to agroforestry such as increasing farm profitability. In addition, agroforestry helps to preserve and protect natural resources such as controlling soil erosions, creating habitat for the wildlife, and managing animal waste. Benefits also include increased biodiversity, improved soil structure and health, reduced erosion, and carbon sequestration.
Calocedrus decurrens, with the common names incense cedar and California incense cedar, is a species of coniferous tree native to western North America. It is the most widely known species in the genus, and is often simply called incense cedar without the regional qualifier.
Farmer-managed natural regeneration (FMNR) is a low-cost, sustainable land restoration technique used to combat poverty and hunger amongst poor subsistence farmers in developing countries by increasing food and timber production, and resilience to climate extremes. It involves the systematic regeneration and management of trees and shrubs from tree stumps, roots and seeds. FMNR was developed by the Australian agricultural economist Tony Rinaudo in the 1980s in West Africa. The background and development are described in Rinaudo's book The Forest Underground.
Forest farming is the cultivation of high-value specialty crops under a forest canopy that is intentionally modified or maintained to provide shade levels and habitat that favor growth and enhance production levels. Forest farming encompasses a range of cultivated systems from introducing plants into the understory of a timber stand to modifying forest stands to enhance the marketability and sustainable production of existing plants.
Agriculture employs the majority of Madagascar's population. Mainly involving smallholders, agriculture has seen different levels of state organisation, shifting from state control to a liberalized sector.
The southeast Asian country of Laos, with a landmass of 23.68 million hectares, has at least 5 million hectares of land suitable for cultivation. Seventeen percent of this land area is actually cultivated, less than 4 percent of the total area.
Ailanthus triphysa is a medium to tall evergreen rainforest tree in Asia and Australia. The wood may be used for matchwood and plywood. The tree is known as halmaddi in India, where its resin, also called halmaddi, may be used in incense. Inappropriate extraction methods were resulting in trees dying, so by the 1990s the Indian forestry department had banned extraction.
Thysanolaena is a genus of plants in the grass family, the only genus in the tribe Thysanolaeneae. Its only recognized species is Thysanolaena latifolia, native to Bangladesh, Bhutan, Cambodia, China, India, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, Nepal, New Guinea, Philippines, Sri Lanka, Taiwan, Thailand, and Vietnam. It is also naturalized in Mauritius, Seychelles, Gambia, Tanzania, Hawaii, California, the West Indies and Brazil. Tiger grass, Nepalese broom grass, broom grass, broom stick are common names for this plant, in Nepali amliso and jharu in Assamese. The flowers of this plant are used as cleaning tool or broom, which is known askuchcho in Nepali and jhadu in Hindi.
Indigenous horticulture is practised in various ways across all inhabited continents. Indigenous refers to the native peoples of a given area and horticulture is the practice of small-scale intercropping.
Costa Rican agriculture plays a profound part in the country's gross domestic product (GDP). It makes up about 6.5% of Costa Rica's GDP, and 14% of the labor force. Depending upon location and altitude, many regions differ in agricultural crops and techniques. The main exports include: bananas, pineapples, coffee, sugar, rice, vegetables, tropical fruits, ornamental plants, corn, potatoes and palm oil.
Farming systems in India are strategically utilized, according to the locations where they are most suitable. The farming systems that significantly contribute to the agriculture of India are subsistence farming, organic farming, industrial farming. Regions throughout India differ in types of farming they use; some are based on horticulture, ley farming, agroforestry, and many more. Due to India's geographical location, certain parts experience different climates, thus affecting each region's agricultural productivity differently. India is very dependent on its monsoon cycle for large crop yields. India's agriculture has an extensive background which goes back to at least 9 thousand years. In India, in the alluvial plains of the Indus River in Pakistan, the old cities of Mohenjo-Daro and Harappa experienced an apparent establishment of an organized farming urban culture. That society, known as the Harappan or Indus civilization, flourished until shortly after 4000 BP; it was much more comprehensive than those of Egypt or Babylonia and appeared earlier than analogous societies in northern China. Currently, the country holds the second position in agricultural production in the world. In 2007, agriculture and other industries made up more than 16% of India's GDP. Despite the steady decline in agriculture's contribution to the country's GDP, agriculture is the biggest industry in the country and plays a key role in the socio-economic growth of the country. India is the second-largest producer of wheat, rice, cotton, sugarcane, silk, groundnuts, and dozens more. It is also the second biggest harvester of vegetables and fruit, representing 8.6% and 10.9% of overall production, respectively. The major fruits produced by India are mangoes, papayas, sapota, and bananas. India also has the biggest number of livestock in the world, holding 281 million. In 2008, the country housed the second largest number of cattle in the world with 175 million.
Dipterocarpus turbinatus is a species of tree in the family Dipterocarpaceae native to north-eastern India and mainland Southeast Asia, and cultivated in surrounding regions. It is an important source of the wood known as keruing, and is often used in the plywood industry.
Carbon farming is a name for a variety of agricultural methods aimed at sequestering atmospheric carbon into the soil and in crop roots, wood and leaves. The aim of carbon farming is to increase the rate at which carbon is sequestered into soil and plant material with the goal of creating a net loss of carbon from the atmosphere. Increasing a soil's organic matter content can aid plant growth, increase total carbon content, improve soil water retention capacity and reduce fertilizer use. Carbon farming is one component of climate smart agriculture.
The Southwest Iberian Mediterranean sclerophyllous and mixed forests is a Mediterranean forests, woodlands, and scrub ecoregion in southwestern Europe. It occupies the southwestern Iberian Peninsula, encompassing coastal lowlands and mountains in portions of Portugal and Spain.
Machilus kurzii is a species of flowering plant in the laurel family (Lauraceae). It is native to mainland tropical Asia.
