Abstract
We visited Tuguozhai Village, Yuanyang County of Yunnan Province of the People’s Republic of China, where Chuhi-ho is widely applied as a traditional method of fertilizer placement. It applies manure as a recycled resource to maintain the rice terrace. The invesitation showed that this is a labor-saving system especially in terrains such as rice terraces on steep slopes. To maintain soil quality, the terrace is always filled with water. Although chuhi-ho and constant water-filling culture are conventional, cost-saving and easily operated by small scale farming, chemical fertilizers are penetrating through such communities due to recent socio-economic changes surrounding the communities. Over-dependence on fertilizers often causes problems. Therefore, such the resource-recycle system should be reevaluated to solve global resource shortage and environmental problems. Also, it nurtures not only forest and irrigation systems but also community structure and corporatism. We need to turn our attention to the general aspect of how people cultivate their fields and the irrigation system that they cooperatively use as a member of their village maintenance.
