Shifting cultivation in the mountains of South and Southeast Asia: regional patterns and factors influencing the change

Shifting cultivation, which long provided the subsistence requirements of a large number of people in the mountains of South and Southeast Asia under a situation of low population, has been shown to be an environmentally and economically unsuitable practice. Efforts have been made throughout the region to replace it with more productive and sustainable land-use systems. Experiences have been mixed. Shifting cultivation has been almost entirely replaced by sedentary agriculture in Nepal, a considerable change has taken place in Thailand, and moderate changes have taken place in Indonesia and Malaysia. However, shifting cultivation is still being widely practised in the mountains of Bangladesh and Laos, and northeastern India. Such interregional variations are explained by several socio-economic, institutional and policy factors, including population growth, government control of common property resources, the land tenure system, physical infrastructure, technology and necessary support services. This paper concludes that the change from shifting to permanent cultivation does not take place automatically with increasing population pressure as postulated by Boserup (1965). It takes place when the favourable condition created by population growth is reinforced by other appropriate measures, including ownership rights to land, development of infrastructure and provision of necessary support services and facilities. Copyright © 2003 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

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