On Fri, Mar 09, 2001 at 08:36:32PM -0500, Michael Pollak wrote:
>
> In a couple of different contexts, I've run into the idea that soil
> reclaimed from rain forests is bad for farming. Jeffrey Sachs makes the
> idea prominent in some of his recent arguments for why African economic
> history developed differently over the longue duree. And recently it
> showed up in an article on Colombia, about how farmers in the recently
> sprayed Putamayo district would likely be planting coca there again, even
> if the government made good on its offer to provide $2000 worth of
> fertilizer to each peasant that joined the voluntary eradication program
> (originally it was supposed to $5000, in cash), because the fragile jungle
> soils that had no tree cover couldn't support intensive agriculture.
>
> For a bio-ignoramus like myself, it seems puzzling how soil that can
> support the luxuriant growth of a rain forest can't support farming. But
> maybe it's not a matter of fertility but of proneness to washing away, or
> of a negative interaction with fertilizer? At any rate, if someone could
> explain why jungle soil won't sustain intensive farming as well as
> temparate climate soil will, I'd be much obliged. URLS or citations would
> also be great.
>
> Michael
>
>
> __________________________________________________________________________
> Michael Pollak................New York City..............mpollak at panix.com
>
>
-- Michael Perelman Economics Department California State University Chico, CA 95929
Tel. 530-898-5321 E-Mail michael at ecst.csuchico.edu