Sustainable Land Management is defined as the use of land resources, including soils, water, animals, and plants, for the production of goods to meet changing human needs, while simultaneously ensuring the long-term productive potential of these resources and the maintenance of their environmental functions.

1. Sustainable Land Management (SLM) in Practice
Content
• Definition of SLM
• SLM Technologies
• SLM Approaches
• Recommended SLM Strategies
• Recommended SLM Practices
• Combined SLM Practices
• Evergreen Agro-ecosystem
• Food-Forest Gardens P.B. Dharmasena
Presentation made for agriculture students of RUSL at Thuppitiyawa
village (CORE Project) on 23.01.2023

2. Sustainable Land Management in
Practice
WOCAT's (World Overview of Conservation
Approaches and Technologies) Definition
• SLM is defined as the use of land resources,
including soils, water, animals and plants, for
the production of goods to meet changing
human needs, while simultaneously ensuring the
long-term productive potential of these
resources and the maintenance of their
environmental functions.

3. SLM Technologies
1. Integrated Soil Fertility
Management (ISFM)
2. Conservation farming
3. Organic farming or ecological
farming
4. Rotational cropping
5. Integrated crop-livestock
management
6. Sustainable grazing land
management
7. Pastoralism and rangeland
management
8. Agro-forestry
9. Sustainable planted forest
management
10. Sustainable forest management
(dry lands and rainforests)
11. Cross-slope barriers on sloping lands or
Sloping Agricultural Land Technology
(SALT)
12. Rainwater harvesting
13. Surface and groundwater management
14. Smallholder irrigation management
15. Water quality improvement
16. Gully control and other land
rehabilitation measures
17. Sand dune stabilization
18. Riverine and coastal bank protection
19. Protection against natural hazards
20. Waste management
21. Biodiversity conservation and
sustainable use
22. Protected areas

4. SLM Approaches
• Participatory Research and Development (PRD) which
includes Participatory Learning and action (PLA):
• Participatory Land Use Planning (PLUP)
• Integrated Watershed / landscape Management (IWM)
• Community-Based Natural Resources Management
(CBNRM):
• Community development / investment funds:
• Extension, advisory service and training
• Innovative extension approaches that empower farmers’
groups and innovators
• Payments / Rewards for Ecosystem Services (PES)

5. Recommended SLM Strategies
1. Increase soil cover
2. Increase soil organic
matter content
3. Increase water
infiltration and
moisture retention
capacity
4. Reduce runoff
5. Improve rooting
conditions

6. Recommended SLM Strategies
1. Increase soil cover
 Leave all the crop residues
in the field
 conservation tillage that
leaves the residues on the
soil surface
 Apply organic materials as
manures or mulch
 Adopt inter-cropping and
relay cropping
 Leave the weed residues on
the surface

7. Recommended SLM Strategies
2. Increase soil organic matter content
 Apply compost
 Add green manure
 Add liquid fertilizer
 Apply straw mulch

8. Recommended SLM Strategies
3. Increase water infiltration and moisture retention
capacity
Soil and Crop Management
• Maintain a protective cover of residues over the soil
• Reduce wind velocity by installing wind breaks
• Create surface roughness between the crop rows
• Keep fallow periods between cropping.
• Apply organic fertilizer
Mechanical measures
• Adopt contour ridging
• Reduce the land slope by terracing

9. Recommended SLM Strategies
4. Reduce runoff
• Collect the runoff in structures within which the water can
infiltrate
• Construct structures that collect and lead the runoff away from
the field
• Establish permeable barriers along the lines of contour to
reduce runoff velocity

10. Recommended SLM Strategies
5. Improve rooting conditions
 Loosen the soil around plants to reduce compaction and
increase porosity
 Improve drainage by placing drainage channels where soils
are poorly or imperfectly drained
 Make furrows or raised beds

11. Recommended SLM Practices
1. Agronomic
practices
Mulching
Contour planting
Zero tillage
Application of
organic fertilizer
Mixed cropping
Ginger and groundnut

12. Recommended SLM Practices
2. Vegetative
methods
Biological
hedges
Grass hedges
Cover crops

13. Nutrient composition of Manure Plants
Plant name Scientific term N % P % K %
Gliricidia Gliricidia sepium 4.6 0.2 1.45-2.95
Wild
sunflower
Helianthus annuus 4.7 0.4 2.15-4.20
Citronella Cymbopogon nardus 0.77 0.40 1.08
Adathoda Adathoda vasica 5.04 0.13 3.00-4.50
Erythrina Erythrina variegata 5.21 0.32 0.92-2.88
Keppetiya Croton laccifer 3.5 0.2 1.25-1.85
Thespesia Thespesia populnea 3.4 0.3 2.3
Water
hyacinth
Eichhornia crassipes 2.56 1.7 1.57-2.58
Azolla Azolla filiculoides 4.5 0.9 2.00-4.50

14. Recommended SLM Practices
3. Structural
methods
Lock and Spill
drains,
Stone bunds
Soil bunds and
drains,
 Terracing,
Gully control
structures.

15. Combined SLM Practices
 Conservation Farming
 Hedgerow cultivation – Alley cropping, SALT;
 Conservation of moisture in the top soil – mulching, in-
situ rainwater harvesting, Eyebrow bund and pitcher
system for perennial plants; and
 Soil fertility enhancement
 Plant residues - Crop residues and green manure;
 Animal wastes - Animal manure and slaughter house
wastes;
 Compost - Consists of both plant and animal materials,
which are wastes of various origin.

16. Alley cropping
Sesame with alley cropping Mungbean with alley cropping

17. Eyebrow bund and pitcher system for
perennial plants
Gliricidia
shade
tree
Perennial
plant
Pitcher
Eyebrow
bund
Citronella
plants

18. Enteric
fermentation
(26.6%)
Manure
Management
(3.9 %)
Cultivation of
Organic soils
(16.1 %)
Rice
Cultivation
(52.4 %)
Burning of Crop
Residues(1.0 %)
GHG emission from Agriculture in Sri Lanka (2015)
Green House Gases – Methane (CH4), Nitrous Oxide (N2O)
and Carbon Dioxide (CO2)

19. 2050 Carbon Net Zero Road Map
Contribution to GHG Emission
30.5 %
Enteric Fermentation
Livestock
Paddy and
Organic
soils
69.5 %
60.5 %
3.9 %
CH4 CO2 N2O
35.5 %
93.2 %
5.2 %
CH4 CO2 N2O
1.6 %
25 %

20. 29.25%
33.6%
GHG reduction by 2050
NDC extended = 1737 CO2 eq ‘000 Mt
Further improved = 1994 CO2 eq ‘000 Mt

21. What is the solution?
Make all agricultural lands evergreen
Agricultural land Extent (‘000 ha)
1 Home gardens 1,193
2 Tea 228
3 Rubber 186
4 Coconut 208
5 Paddy 984
6 Sugar cane 30
7 Field crops 307
8 Other agricultural lands 154
9 Abandoned agricultural lands 49
Total 3,339

22. New Concept Emerged!
Evergreen Agro-ecosystem
• Vision: Agro-ecosystem is to sustain a green cover
on the land throughout the year, increasing food and
fodder production sustainably.
• Integration: It integrates trees into crop and
livestock production systems at the farm level and
landscape scales.
• Approach:It is an ecologically sound, knowledge
intensive approach to agricultural production that helps
people to address some of the most challenging food
production issues that we currently face.
• Benefits: Implementing it on a broad scale will be a
major benefit to us both now and in the future

23. Benefits of Evergreen Agro-ecosystem
• Year round soil cover protection and increased soil
organic matter
• Improved plant nutrition via nitrogen fixation nutrient
cycling
• Ecologically sound control of insect pests and weeds
• Enhanced soil structure and soil water recharge
• Increased food production
• Increased production of non-food products such as oil,
fodder, fuel and medicines
• Increased landscape carbon sequestration
• Conservation and enhancement of biodiversity

24. Main features of Evergreen Agro-ecosystems
• Cultivation of crops with different duration to keep green cover even
during the harvesting stage of one crop;
• Cultivation of crops leaving zero fallow period of the land;
• Farming models, which combine seasonal, semi-perennial and perennial
crops ensuring the green cover around the year;
• Green manure plants such as gliricidia, adathoda, erithrina, thespesia etc.
are grown as hedges with strict frequency of pruning;
• Shade management is adopted to minimize light competition and to
maintain the crop land with evergreen situation;
• Live fence is maintained with plants to create a stratification enabling to
act as wind barrier as well as favourable micro-climate in the crop field;
and
• The farmer should have a field management / self-evaluation schedule
for his convenience to ensure the sustainability of the agro-ecosystem

25. Recommended trees and creepers for live fence:
Trees: Gliricidia (Gliricedia sepium), Kathuru murunga (Sesbania
grandiflora), Drumstick (Moringa oleifera), Woodapple (Limonia acidissima),
Pawatta (Adhatoda vasica), Gansooriya (Thespesia populnea), Erabadu
(Erythrina variegate), Teak (Tectona grandis), Beli (Aegle marmelos), Neem
(Azadirachta indica)
Creepers: Aguna (Dregea volubilis), Winged bean (Psophocarpus
tetragonolobus), Halmessan dambala (Lablab purpureus), Passion fruit
(Passiflora edulis), Sponge guord or Niyan wetakolu (Luffa cylindrical)

26. Recommended Creepers for the live fence:

27. Importance of live fencing:
• It makes protection from cattle, wild animals and thieves
• Legume trees planted along the fence provide large amount of green
manure
• The tree belt of the fence acts as a wind barrier
• Fence trees such as drumstick (murunga), Kathurumurunga
(Sesbania grandiflora) etc. provide nutritional vegetables
• Some fence trees can provide fuel wood, timber and fencing poles
• Fence trees such as Neem, Adathoda vasica etc. provide medicine
• Fence environment is favourable for some predators
• Many vegetable plants such as winged bean, bean, bitter gourd,
ribbed gourd, snake gourd, yard long bean etc. can be supported
without any trellis
• The live fence increases the bio-diversity
• Contributes to C sequestration

28. Grow pest repellant plants within the farm
Sera Citronella Turmeric
(Cymbopogon citratus) (Cymbopogon nardus) (Curcuma longa)
Ginger Araththa
(Zingiber officinale) (Alpina calcarata)

29. Food – Forest Garden
• The purpose of a food forest is to foster a sustainable
environment in which humans can live in harmony with
nature, with sufficient food, shelter, and other resources
necessary to thrive. It aims to create a diverse ecosystem that
acts as a favorable habitat for native plants and animal species.

30. Food – Forest Garden
• Characteristics
– Diversity of crops
– Forest effect
– Multi layer architecture
– Shade management
– Nutrient recycling
– Moisture sharing
– Micro-climate
– Habitats
– Pest control
– Livestock integration
– Aesthetic beauty

31. Large
canopy
Medium
canopy
Low
canopy
Ground layer
Creepers
Ground cover
Roots and
tubers
Layers of Food – Forest Garden

32. Large
canopy
Medium
canopy
Low
canopy
Ground layer
Creepers
Ground cover
Roots and
tubers
Layers of Food – Forest Garden
Beli, Wood apple, Neem,
Mango, Coconut
Papaya, Drumstick, Kathuru,
Guava, Pomegranate, Katu
anoda
Anguna, Wingedbean, Passion fruits,
Ginger, turmeric,
vegetables
Gotukola, Mukunuwenna,
Potato, Sweet potato, carrot