to include small ruminant animals and game farming in 

 the total production system. 



Some findings could be imported for use in the 

 United states. For instance, the use of multiple 

 cropping, while increasing, is still uncommon in the 

 United States. (Some 25 percent of the soybeans grown 

 in North Carolina are multicropped with grain, and 

 interplanting of maize and soybeans in Minnesota has 

 been shown to increase grain yields significantly.) 

 Nowhere in the United States does one find the 

 diversity of plant (and animal) species grown in close 

 proximity and/or sequentially that are found in 

 numerous places abroad. Almost nowhere does the United 

 States reach the levels of production per unit of land 

 achieved in some systems in developing countries. 



Proposed initiatives 



We recommend that the United States announce that 

 it is expanding support to developing countries for 

 making better use of tropical soils and that it would 

 welcome greater international collaboration to this 

 end. Several measures are called for to implement this 

 initiative. First, the Consortium on Soils of the 

 Tropics, comprising seven U.S. universities, needs to 

 be strengthened and adequately supported on a long-term 

 basis so that it can continue to play a leading role in 

 research, education, and training, and provide a U.S. 

 base for an expanded program in tropical soils. This 

 AID-supported consortium conducts field work in many 

 countries, including Brazil, Cameroons, Indonesia, 

 Peru, and the Philippines. Its members maintain 

 informal contact with tropical soil scientists around 

 the world. They also publish a newsletter and have 

 already held a series of workshops for training, 

 information exchange, and research planning. The 

 University of Hawaii has a soils data bank which makes 

 it possible to cross-reference and search for 

 information of use to major experiment stations of the 

 tropics. Thus an effective delivery system already 

 exists. 



Second, the United states might offer to respond 

 favorably to serious requests for cooperative programs 

 on the development and demonstration of appropriate 

 management practices for tropical soils. The United 

 States has many resources for responding to such 

 requests. It can call on the Consortium on Soils of 

 the Tropics and invite participation by additional 

 universities with strong programs in soil science, as 

 well as by agencies within USDA such as the Agriculture 

 Research Service and the SCS. section 1458 of the 1977 

 Food and Agriculture Act provides a new avenue for 



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