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INTRODUCTION
Asia, the largest of the continents, has an area of about 43,762,344 square kilometers. In Asia, are to be found some of the coldest lands in the world as well as some of the hottest, the driest as also the wettest (1.)
The wilderness of Asia lies in seven ecological zones:
1. The Tundra region: Along the northern coast of Asia lies a narrow belt of Tundra vegetation. This region is mostly covered with deep snow and ice for major part of the year except a brief cool summer and covered with moss and lichen. Th most common animal of the Tundra region is the reindeer.
2. The Taiga: This region lies to the south of the Tundra, a much broader belt of coniferous forests. It experiences severe winter and brief warm summer. Fur bearing animals like foxes, sables and minks are found here.
3. The Steppes: Mainly temperate grasslands in the west of Central Asia, experiences cold winter and fairly hot summer. Cattle, horses and camels are reared here.
4. The hot and cold deserts: Where only thorny plants, bushes, poor grasses grow. Arabia, Persia, parts of Central Asia and Indian deserts comes under hot deserts where camel dominates. The plateau of Tibet is a cold desert and the Yak is the common animal.
5. Monsoon forests are found in South, SouthEast and East Asia.
6. Equatorial Tropical Forests are found in Equatorial southeast Asia.
7. Mediterranean woodlands occur in Asia and Parts of Syria.
Asia ranging from inside the Arctic circle in the north to well into the equatorial tropics in the south and arid Arabian region in the west to rain forests of the Malay Archipelago in the east, offer very little uniformity in its flora and fauna.
The vegetation of Asia is determined by the monsoon winds and lofty mountains, which intercept them. However, there is a great diversity of plant genetic resources in Asia and the home of rice, the staple food of the vast majority of Asians Countries. Of the twelve megacentres of cultivated plants in the world, five centers are in Asia. The center of origin of wheat, barley, sugarcane, soybean, citrus, grapes, banana, yam and coconut are located in Asia (Fig. 1). In addition, it is the home of several medicinal and aromatic plants from which the Chinese, Tibetan and Indians have been preparing wonder drugs from time immemorial. the prominent examples of crop species that originated in the Indian sub-continent are given in table 1. In addition, the migratory locusts take their birth along the enormous reed beds of the great rivers of Asia. The great Panda inhabits part of China bordering Tibet whereas the lesser Panda is a Himalayan Animal and Tibet is the home of Yak. Apes are found only in rain forests, whereas orangutan is restricted to Sumatra and Borneo. The lion is confined to Gir forests of the Kathiawar Peninsula. The mink deer lives in the Pine-Zone of Kashmir, Nepal and Sikkim. The Indian one horned rhinoceros is confined to Nepal and Assam. The large and gorgeous bird-winged butterflies (Ornithoptera troides) are typical of Oriental region.
Extent of wilderness available in Asia:
Countrywise area, the extent of cultivable land, percent of grass land and other wasteland is given in Table-2 to provide a glimpses of the wilderness in Asia. The Indian sub-continent (Pakistan India Nepal, Bhutan, Bangladesh, Burma & Ceylon) and China constitute one third of Asia in area and has more than one third of the world population in one eleventh of the total area of the world. The fertile plains of Asia lies in this region from where, almost 90 per cent of the total world rice are produced. China with its 100 million ha cultivable land produces more than 300 million tons compared to less than 200 million tons from 150 million ha in India. Chinese Agriculture is distinguished primarily by its intensity, skill born of 40 centuries of transmitted experience. Soil fertility is maintained in spite of consistent intensive cultivation for such a long time, by replenishment with canal mud, use of night soil and every other possible kind of organic manure.
The rugged uplands of Shansi, Shensi and Kansu in the north west area, sometimes called "Loess land" is overlined by a thick mantle of fine grained wind deposited alluvium or loess between 50 to 250 feet deep, is highly fertile and where water is available is highly productive.
The India Sub-Continent has been over exploited, bringing vast areas under crops, leaving very little uncultivated area except the vast deserts, rugged Himalayan ranges and western eastern ghats. The productivity of soil is very low an the yields of majority of the crops are among the lowest in the world because of low organic matter content of the soil due to immense pressure on natural resources. India has 16% of the world's population and owns 15% of the world's live stock but possess only 2% of the world's geographical area, 1% of forest area and 0.5% of the pasture land2. As Wordsworth says: "Forests precede man, deserts follow him", the deserts are expanding as the forests are shrinking in the Indian sub continent.
The land use classification out of total land utilization in India is shown in Table-3 as an example to show that not all non-agricultural lands are wilderness. This may be true for other Asian countries also. The concept of wilderness as applicable to Africa, Australia and Latin America may not be applicable to Asian continent. Although vast areas of desert and mountain ranges are available, they are bereft of any significant biological activity and play very little role in sustainable food security. Similarly stretches are water logged, saline and alkaline lands but may not come under wilderness. For example, the extent of water logged area (6.000000 ha) and salt affected areas (3.303890 ha) in India are expanding because of abusive water management (Source : GOI, MOWR Report of working group on water logging, soil salinity and alkalinity (1991) pp. 43-53).
Invaders of wilderness - the past and the present
For several centuries the invaders plundered and loote the wealth of the subcontinent, but the real exploitation of forest wealth began with the arrival of Europeans in the beginning of 19th century. They saw the forest wilderness as something to be tamed, as they did in New Zealand where 70% of the land was covered with forests when they arrived in 1840 and now only 22% of the land is left with forest (3.) They were the first to set foot into all inaccessible forest wilderness to introduce plantations like coffee, tea, rubber, pepper, cardamom etc., in the Indian sub-continent. Although, coffee was brought to India in 1600 by a Muslim pilgrim Baba Budan, it remained in the Backyards of few people until 1820's when commercial plantations were opened up by Europeans. By 1869 there were 662 European planters and covered an area of 58,670 ha4. The roads made for easy access to plantation opened up vast virgin forest to smugglers and poachers. Some took pride in killing maximum number of wild animals including tiger. Introduction of coniferous plantations to Himalayan range destroyed the local vegetation as nothing grows under these trees.
In modern times another type of invasion started not by men but by plants and pests that have not only harmed the ecology and environment of the sub-continent, but also threatened the food security of the region. The invasive plant lik Parthenium (Parthenium hysterophorus and Eupatorium (Chromolena odorata) accidentally introduced have spread like wild fire and suppressed the local vegetation, depriving the grazing area and forest growth. The accidentally introduced insect pests like the spiraling whitefly (Aleurodycus disperses) and Serpentine leaf miner (Liriomyza trifolii) have found large number of hosts in the newly colonized lands and are threatening the food security of the region. These are but only a few examples and if properly documented there may be several hundreds, which, unbeknown to us, might be altering the ecology environment and food security in Asia.
Methods of assessing the ecology and environment
Several environmentalists, ecologists and nature conservationist all over the world have taken large animals or the `Flagship species as indicator taxa as a focus for conservation and monitoring the environment. The preponderance of studies using indicator taxa have relied on vertebrates especially those` species of high public interest' (5.) However the vertebrates as indicator taxa, tax time and finance for proper investigation.
On the other hand arthropod species especially insects as indicator taxa may afford cheaper quicker means of studies. One such study using tiger beetles (Coleoptera:Cicinidelidae) as indicator taxa for biodiversity and conservation studies has been successfully demonstrated. Species richness of tiger beetles and birds and butterflies show significant positive correlation.
Advantages of wilderness
Wilderness surrounding the cultivation has several advantages, particularly as a source of natural enemies like parasites and predators. and to supply biomass needed for enriching the soil with organic matter. For example, coffee stem borer (Xylotrechus quadripes) a major pest of arabica coffee in India has least natural enemies in a vast monocropping area but plantations neighbouring wilderness harbour higher population of natural enemies6. Soils rich in organic matter appear to suppress diseases naturally and may contain antagonistic or antibiotic flora (7.) Now all over Asia in general and particularly in Indian sub-continent crop pests and diseases have increased four fold in spite of using unprecedented pesticides during the last half of a century and are one of the major threats of food security in the region. Added to this the food production is also threatened by poor soil health because of depletion of organic matter and absence of enough wilderness surrounding the cultivation to support the natural enemies of the pest and to supply the biomass needed for augmenting organic matter of the soil. Wilderness is the safety locker for many vanishing and endangered species of plants and animals.
What ails in Asia for sustainable food security
Sustainabl food security has been defined as development that meets the needs for the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs. The need of the present or future depends on the attitude of the people. According to UN population and grain productions projections 1996 the present food production in terms of adequate standards of nutrition, the global population can be comfortably fed until 2030, when global population is estimated to stabilize, but if we use American and European standards of consumption we would need six or seven planet resources to deal with the problem. The prophetic warning of Gandhiji that the earth has enough for everyone's need but not for everyone's greed has been extensively echoed by ecologists and environmentalists all over the world. The Peruvian story of Incas then and the present conditio of Peru is attributed for two main reasons by Felipe Behavides (9), `The greed of other nations and immorality of government officials'. The situation in Asia may not be different from that of Peru.
The present day generation in Asia i s surging towards attaining the standards of America or Europe in their lifestyle and food habits without realizing the limitations of natural resources. Less than five percent of the world population had access to more than 60 per cent of world's natural resources to be able to reach the present standards of consumption in America and Europe. It would be disastrous, if we set the goal of attaining their standards in Asia. The growth rate of world agriculture has been declining from 3 per cent increase in 1960 to 2.3 per cent in 1970 and 2.0 per cent in 1980 and 1.8 per cent in 1990 and the trend may continue if we do not attempt to reverse it, particularly in Asia where more than one-third of world's population lives in only one-eleventh of the total area.
The 1996 UNDP report pointed out that `The world has become more polarized and gulf between the rich and the poor has widened-the poorest 20 percent of the world's people saw their share of global income decline from 2.3 to 1.4 percent in the last 30 years and in the last five years, in spite of many global conferences on food security and hunger, the gap between the rich and poor has further widened from a ratio of 30:1 to a ratio of 61:1'. Unfortunately, large percentage of poorest 20 per cent of the world's population live in Asia.
Role of wilderness and future strategy for sustainable food security in Asia
1. Wilderness is a must, as a source of supply of medicinal an aromatic plants and conservation of vast source of genetic material for future food security. We need to know whether population of medicinal plants like Sarpagandhi, Rauwolfia serpentina or wild relatives of cultivated plants like wild rice, Oryza nivara are threatened with extinction in the shrinking wilderness.
2. The biggest problem of food security in Asia is the low productivity of the soil because of centuries of exploitation of the land. One of the basic requirements to increase the productivity of th soil is to increase the organic matter content. The required organic matter has to come from the land only and the wasteland and wilderness can only come to our rescue if we protect and preserve them. In India alone about 90 million hectare of wasteland is available for watershed development (10.) There is great potential for rejuvenating the wasteland as has been shown by the National Watershed Development Project. Once developed they need constant vigilance to protect and preserve for proper utilization. Even the deserts can be made to bloom, if only proper attention is given.
3. All those who own more than 5 ha and more agricultural land must be made to reserve 10 per cent of their land for natural vegetation growth which will supply not only enough biomass to increase the productivity of their land but also provide habitat for natural enemies of crop pests and to improve the ecology of the surrounding environment.
4. A good organic amendment will improve the soil health, texture, and structure, suppress the plant diseases naturally, give strength to plant to with stand the pests and disease, which reduce the application of chemical fertilizers and synthetic pesticides which in turn help reduce environmental pollution. However, the biomass has to be scientifically composted with the right proportion of animal excreta to get the maximum benefit.
5. No country can wholly depend on its laws to protect the environment and judicious use of natural resources, unless the masse are educated and made to realise that their survival depends on the survival of everything around them. Asia was able to survive for millennia in spite of population explosion because of its sustainable food habits depending on locally available minor millets, the coarse grains, the nutritive grains which have survived for centuries in spite of vagaries of monsoon. Gandhiji has said that civilization meant `not the multiplication of wants but deliberate and voluntary reduction of selfish wants'. The day the countries of this continent have to await the arrival of food from outside, they will have lost their civilisation.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
While preparing this manuscript, the following scientists have assisted. Dr. S.P. Singh and Dr. Ramani, PDBC; Dr. S. Bisalaiah, Vice-chancellor, Dr. Ganeshaiah, Mr. Musthak Ali, all from UAS, Bangalore. I gratefully acknowledge their help and to Mrs. Padmaja for computer typing.
References:
1. Encyclopaedia Britanica, 1959. 2: 512-534.
2. M.S. Swaminathan, 1997. Towards a hungertree India. In: Wasteland News, Aug-Oct 1997, p. 8-9.
3. Eric Bennett, 1984. The New Zealand Experience. In: Widerness-the Way ahead. Eds. Vance Martin and Mary Inglish, p. 292-294.
4. Coffee in India. p. 1-6. In: Coffee Guide, 1996. Published by the Director, Central Coffee Research Institute, Balehonnur, Karnataka
5. David L. Pearson and Fabio Cassola, 1992. World-wide species richness patterns of Tiger Beetles (Coleoptera: Cicindelidae): Indicator Taxon for Biodiversity and Conservation Studies. Conservation Biology, 6(3): 376-391.
6. G.K. Veeresh, 1994. Bioecology and Management of coffee white stem borer [Xylotrechus quadripes (Chev.)] by G.K. Veeresh, Published, UAS, Bangalore, pp.56, printed at Navbharath Enterprises, Bangalore, India.
7. Natural Enemy Conservation in Biological Control. Eds. Driesche R.G.V. and Bellows, T.S. (Jr.), 1996, Chapman and Hall, New York, p.116-127.
8. Food Security: Strengthening Civil Society. In: Wastelands News, Aug-Oct 1997, p.10-13.
9. `From the Incas to C.I.T.E.S.' by Felip Benavidus. In: Wilderness: the Way Ahead, Eds. Vance Martin and Mary Inglish, Findhorn Press, LORIAN Press, p.29-37.
10. M.V. Nadkarni and Syed Ajmal Pasha, 1991. Developing Uncultivated Lands: Some issues from Karnataka's Experience in Social Forestry. Indian J. Agric. Econ., 46(4): 543-554.
TABLES
Table 1: Prominent examples of crop species that originated in the Indian sub-continent.
Cereals and millets Rice (Oryza sativa) Little millet (Panicum sumatrense) Kodo millet (Paspalum scrobiculatum)
Legumes and pulses Blackgram/urid (Vigna mungo) Moth bean (V. aconitifolia) Pigeonpea/arhar (Cajanus cajan) Horsegram (Macrotyloma uniflorum)
Fruits Mango (Mangifera indica) Banana (Musa spp.) Jamun (Syzygium cumini)
Jackfruit (Artocarpus heterophyllus) Citrus group - lime and others
Karonda (Carissa congesta)
Khirni (Manilkara hexandra)
Phalsa (Grewia subinaequalis)
Bael (Aegle marmelos)
Wood apple (Feronia limonia)
Kokam (Garcinia indica)
Vegetables Egg plant/brinjal (Solanum melongera) Ridge-gourd and smoothgourd/tori (Luffa spp.) Roundgourd/tinda (Citrullus lanatus) Pointedgourd (Trichosanthes dioica) Taros/arbi (Colocasia esuclenta) Yams (Dioscorea spp.) Jimikand (Amorphophallus campanulatus) Kundri (Coccinea indica) Cucumber (Cucumis sativus)
Oilseeds Brassica spp. (rai, sarson and toria types)
Spices Turmeric (Curcuma domestica) and condiments Ginger (Zingiber ofticinale)
Cardamom (Elettaria cardamom) Long pepper (Piper nigrum) Bengal cardamom (Amomum aromaticum) Betel leaf and Cinnamon/dalcini (Cinnamomum zeylanicum) Other crops Jute (Corchorus capsularis) Tree cotton (Gossypium arboreum) Sugarcane (Saccharum officinarum) Sunhemp (Crotalaria juncea) Tea (Camallia sinensis) Dhaincha (Sesbania sesban) Bamboos
Table Ý2:ÝCountries, area and land use (% ofÝtotal land area) in Asia, 1994*
Sl. Country Area in Cropland Permanent Others No. sq. km** pasture
01 Afghanistan 652090 12 - 88 02 Azarbaijan 8660 23 25 52 03 Bahrain 653 0.15 - 99.85 04 Bangladesh 144020 74 5 21 05 Bhutan 46600 0.32 - 99.70 06 Cambodia 81000 22 8 70 07 China 9597078 10 43 47 08 India 3287263 57 4 39 09 Indonesia 1919443 17 7 76 10 Iran 1648000 1 - 99 11 Iraq 434924 1 - 99 12 Japan 372431 13 2 85 13 Jordan 96000 5 9 86 14 Kajakistan 271730 13 70 17 15 Malaysia 26020 23 1 76 16 Mayanmar 678000 14 - 86 17 Mangolia 1565000 1 75 24 18 Nepal 141400 17 15 68 19 Oman 268800 0 5 95 20 Pakistan 803943 28 6 66 21 Philippines 300000 31 4 65 22 Saudi Arabia 2400000 2 56 42 23 Singapore 618 2 0 98 24 Sri Lanka 65609 29 7 64 25 Syria 185680 30 45 25 26 Taiwan 35989 - - - 27 Thailand 514000 41 2 58 28 Turkey 779452 36 16 48 29 UAE 92100 0 2 98 30 Vietnam 329566 21 1 78 31 Yemen Rep 287082 3 30 67 32 Uzbekistan 447040 11 50 39
* Source: World Development Report, 1997, p.230-231, World Bank, Washington ** The Oxford School Atlas 25th Edition
Table 3: The land use classification for India 1994-95*
Area in m ha. % of reproting area
I Geographical Area 328.73 II Reporting area for land 304.88 utilisation (statistics 1-5)
1. Forests 68.39 22.4
2. Not available for cultivation 41.28 13.6 (A+B) A) Area under nonagri- 22.51 cultural use B) Barren/uncultivable land 18.77
3. Other uncultivated land 29.08 9.6 excluding fallowland (A+B+C) A) Permanent pasture and 11.24 other grazing land B) Land under miscella- 3.63 neous tree crops and groves, not included in net area sown C) Cultivable waste 14.21
4. Fallow lands (A+B) 23.30 7.6 A) Fallow land other than 9.77 current fallow B) Current fallows 13.53
5. Net area sown (6,7) 142.82 46.8
6. Total cropped area 188.15 100.0 (gross) 7. Area sown more than 45.33 once
III Net area irrigated 53.00
IV Gross irrigated area 70.64
*Source: Agril. Statistics at a glance March 1998; pp.90-91; Ministry of Agriculture, New Delhi
*Presented at the 6th World Wilderness Congress Held at Bangalore ; Oct.24-29;1998.
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