Agritourism and slow lines: hybrid practices for a landscape design model to support agriculture in mountain regions. Vermont as read from an Italian perspective

The recent pandemic has brought mountain areas back to the centre of many political and academic debates. Amid the increasing desertification of these areas, the need to protect the cultural and natural heritage has become an emergency. In this perspective, the growing social sensitivity towards mountain areas can contribute to a new landscape design model capable of being the driving force for sustainable development. A combination of agritourism and slow tourism can serve as an opportunity to support the rural economy of mountain areas. To explore this possibility, the case of Vermont (USA) is analysed by exploring some specific practices that lead to concrete reflections on new landscape synergies. In the light of the great debate underway, there are the premises beacause mountains returns to the center of citizens and politics choices, not to be appendages to cities but places rich in resources to be valued in all their authenticity. In this perspective, the growing social sensitivity towards mountain areas can contribute to tourism capable of being the driving force for low-impact development of territory. We are talking about a tourism that allows the tourist to appreciate landscape and cultural resources and the local communities to activate micro-economies that make it possible to stabilize the social roots in territories that have long been subject to depopulation. This means a tourism which, avoiding the romantic rhetoric of mountain places, proposes concrete actions that fall within a clear planning framework oriented towards resource-based development. The combination of mountain agriculture and slow tourism on the line (trails, paths and cycle paths) can be an opportunity not only to support the rural economy of the mountain areas, but also to provide a physical infrastructure for the territorial protection of the farm landscape. To explore this possibility, the case of the state of Vermont (USA) is analyzed, where it has been possible to make marginality a strong point. By comparing Vermont with some Italian mountainous regions and exploring some specific practices and their impact on the territory, it will be possible to identify some scenarios and perspectives useful for a common policy for supporting mountain agriculture.

SOLVING COMPLEX PROBLEMS OF OPERATIONAL PLANNING AND MANAGEMENT IN CONDITIONS OF MOUNTAIN AGRICULTURE IN AZERBAIJAN

The main directions of the economic and social development of the republic is the intensification of agricultural production. Irrigation is a powerful means of intensifying agricultural production in the context of its specialization. In areas of insufficient moisture (especially in mountainous terrain), irrigation is one of the decisive factors in growing high and stable yields of agricultural crops. To this end, it is required to develop new technical solutions and introduce automated systems for low-intensity irrigation of agricultural crops that meet the requirements of ecology and environmental protection of their habitat, which makes it possible to improve the ecological state of irrigated lands, reduce water consumption per unit of production and increase the yield of certain crops on irrigated field. Irrigated soils in Azerbaijan cover 1.45 thousand hectares.

Sociocultural Mechanisms Concerning Cropping Systems in Mountain Agriculture: A Case Study of the Eastern Slopes of Tanzania’s Uluguru Mountains

In agricultural science, the establishment of a given cropping system in mountainous areas is often understood from the relationship between differences of altitude-specific, agroecological conditions and crop cultivation characteristics. However, social factors can also play a role. We aimed to clarify how the cropping system is maintained through examining sociocultural factors, specifically land tenure and marriage systems, in an agricultural community in rural mountainous Africa. Several surveys based on participatory observation accompanied by home stays were conducted to determine people who participated in cropping systems and to understand which social system maintained the cropping system. We found that around 70% of target households in Kiboguwa village cultivated three staple crops (maize, cassava and rice) using the same cropping system and almost no farmers outside the village used the village’s sloped fields, meaning that the villagers maintained the cropping system. Households acquired nearby sloped fields by various means such as inheriting land through maternal lineage of household heads or wives. We observed virilocal and uxorilocal residence at similar degrees—and if either the husband or wife was from outside the village, that household would also have fields outside the village. However, nearly 80% of marriages were intravillage and villagers predominantly used fields located within the village limits regardless of the residence type, which helped maintain the cropping system.