Land and sustainability in cross-national perspective

Terry Leahy

Research program: Globalisation and International Development

This project undertakes a comparative analysis of environmental attitudes, landcare and sustainability in regional and rural communities in Indonesia, Australia and South Africa, using fieldwork and survey analysis.  This project has been initiated with a review of agriculture in Sulawesi, looking at the way various forms of cash crop agriculture had undermined the sustainable strategies employed in traditional subsistence agriculture (published at gifteconomy.octapod.org).  The next stage was a project of research carried out with Nazrina Zuryani on mixed cropping in North Bali, looking at the way the European Union irrigation project was changing agricultural practices and considering the long term viability of this newly irrigated agriculture (Chapter Five of PhD by Nazina Zuryani and recent joint publication for RIMA).  Most recently, working with Masters students in the MSCD, I have been compiling their research reports and my own observations as a book on sustainable agriculture and food security for the South African villages.  I am approaching publishers with the completed manuscript which we are also using as a teaching resource and distributing to agriculture departments in South Africa.