This meta-analysis of land-cover transformations of the past 10–15 years in tropical forest-agriculture frontiers world-wide shows that swidden agriculture decreases in landscapes with access to local, national and international markets that encourage cattle production and cash cropping, including biofuels. Conservation policies and practices also accelerate changes in swidden by restricting forest clearing and encouraging commercial agriculture. However, swidden remains important in many frontier areas where farmers have unequal or insecure access to investment and market opportunities, or where multi-functionality of land uses has been preserved as a strategy to adapt to current ecological, economic and political circumstances. In some areas swidden remains important simply because intensification is not a viable choice, for example when population densities and/or food market demands are low. The transformation of swidden landscapes into more intensive land uses has generally increased household incomes, but has also led to negative effects on the social and human capital of local communities to varying degrees. From an environmental perspective, the transition from swidden to other land uses often contributes to permanent deforestation, loss of biodiversity, increased weed pressure, declines in soil fertility, and accelerated soil erosion. Our prognosis is that, despite the global trend towards land use intensification, in many areas swidden will remain part of rural landscapes as the safety component of diversified systems, particularly in response to risks and uncertainties associated with more intensive land use systems.

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Trends, drivers and impacts of changes in swidden cultivation in tropical forest-agriculture frontiers: A global assessment

Rubber plantations are expanding rapidly throughout montane mainland Southeast Asia ( 1 – 3 ). More than 500,000 ha may have been converted already in the uplands of China, Laos, Thailand, Vietnam, Cambodia, and Myanmar (see the figure, panel A). By 2050, the area of land dedicated to rubber and other diversified farming systems could more than double or triple, largely by replacing lands now occupied by evergreen broadleaf trees and swidden-related secondary vegetation ( 2 ). What are the environmental consequences of this conversion of vast landscapes to rubber?

https://science.sciencemag.org/content/sci/324/5930/1024.full.pdf

The Rubber Juggernaut

This paper argues that research into the dynamics of land control in the contemporary ‘land grab’ can benefit from engagement with the literature on booms in the production of crops like cocoa, coffee, fast-growing trees, oil palm, rubber and shrimp in Southeast Asia. This literature can help answer three key questions: who seeks to exercise control over land for the purpose of growing export-oriented crops under boom conditions; how would-be producers bring tobear regulatory power, market power, force, and legitimation to gain control over land; and how booms differentially affect areas with secure and insecure land control relations.

Land grabs, land control, and Southeast Asian crop booms

This paper explores the major interactions between the transformation of swidden farming and the pursuit of rural livelihoods in the uplands of Southeast Asia. The paper draws on selected literature, workshop reflections, and six case studies to describe the causal processes and livelihood consequences of swidden change. Household-level livelihood responses have included both the intensification and ‘dis-intensification’ of swidden land-use, the insertion of cash crops, the redeployment of household labour, and the taking on of broader (often non-rural) livelihood aspirations and strategies. At the community level there have been emerging institutional arrangements for management of land and forests, and varying degrees of participation in or resistance to government schemes and programs. Swidden change has led to the loss and also the reassertion, realignment, and redefinition of cultures and identities, with important implications for access to resources. The impacts of these changes have been varied. Cash crops have often improved livelihoods but complete specialisation for the market increases vulnerability. Thus swidden can still provide an important safety net in the face of market fluctuations. Improved access to markets and social provision of education and health care have mostly improved the welfare of previously isolated groups. However, growing differences within and between communities in the course of swidden transformations can leave some groups marginalized and worse off. These processes of differentiation can be accentuated by heavy-handed state interventions based on swidden stereotypes. Nevertheless, communities have not passively accepted these pressures and have mobilized to protect their livelihood assets and strategies. Thus swidden farmers are not resisting appropriate and supportive forms of development. They are adopting new practices and engaging with markets, but in many situations swidden is still important to their livelihood strategies, providing resilience in the face of turbulent change. Active involvement of local people is essential in planning, implementing, monitoring and evaluating development and conservation programs in swidden lands. Positive market incentives and supportive government policies are better than standardised, top-down directives.

/pdf/swidden-transformations-and-rural-livelihoods-in-southeast-13ek3z9lvi.pdf

Swidden Transformations and Rural Livelihoods in Southeast Asia

The rubber tree is native to the humid tropics and has traditionally been cropped in the equatorial zone between 10°N and 10°S; in mainland Southeast Asia this includes portions of southern Thailand, southeastern Vietnam, and southern Myanmar. In the early 1950s, the Chinese government began to invest in growing rubber in environments perceived to be ecologically marginal and eventually established state rubber plantations in areas that lie as far north as 22° north latitude. China's success in growing rubber in these ‘non-traditional’ environments expanded the habitat in which rubber could be planted and pushed it further north. Today entrepreneurs from China, Vietnam, Malaysia, and Thailand are investing in rubber plantations in areas of Laos, Cambodia, and Myanmar, northwest Vietnam, northeast Thailand, and Yunnan, China. The impact of rubber on smallholders, however, is not yet clear. Experiences in Xishuangbanna, Yunnan, China and northeast Thailand clearly show that smallholder rubber production is ...

http://asia-uplands.org/Catch-Up/pdf/13FX_S1.pdf

Expansion of rubber (Hevea brasiliensis) in Mainland Southeast Asia: what are the prospects for smallholders?

In Northern Laos, as elsewhere in the Southeast Asian uplands, there is an agricultural transition underway from subsistence production based on shifting cultivation to commercial production based on tree crops. In response to demand from China, rubber smallholdings are being established by shifting cultivators in Northern Laos, encouraged by government land-use policy. We examine the bio-economics of smallholder rubber production in an established rubber-growing village and model the likely expansion of smallholder rubber in Northern Laos. Data were obtained from key informants, group interviews, direct observation, and a farm-household survey. Latex yields were estimated using the Bioeconomic Rubber Agroforestry Support System (BRASS). A financial model was developed to estimate the net present value for a representative rubber smallholding. This model was then combined with spatial data in a Geographical Information System (GIS) to predict the likely expansion of rubber based on resource quality and accessibility. Implications are drawn for upland development in the region.

/pdf/economics-of-smallholder-rubber-expansion-in-northern-laos-4nkru2wnc9.pdf

Economics of smallholder rubber expansion in Northern Laos

Despite being a low-income, agriculture-based country with a subsistence orientation, Laos is in the early stages of a major economic transformation whereby rural households have been experiencing rapid change in their farming and livelihood systems. Some households have begun to engage in semi-commercial farming while others have adopted labour-oriented or migration-oriented livelihood strategies. This paper explores how rural households in six villages in the lowlands of Champasak Province in southern Laos make a living. These villages vary in their access to irrigation and to markets. Nevertheless, in all villages, long-term migration of younger household members to neighbouring Thailand has come to play a large role in household livelihood strategies. In some cases this is necessary to meet the household’s consumption requirements; in most, it is part of a diversified strategy in which rice farming still plays a significant role, though still largely for subsistence. The paper examines some of the issues involved in attempting to promote intensive, market-oriented rice farming in a context of an emerging on-farm labour shortage combined with an increasing flow of remittances from migrant family members.

Rice and Remittances: Crop Intensification Versus Labour Migration in Southern Laos

Smallholder engagement with export commodities in Southeast Asia potentially offers a more inclusive development pathway than large-scale plantation production, which has been associated with the phenomenon of land grabs. This raises three questions which we explore in this paper: What are the agro-economic factors favouring or obstructing smallholders relative to plantations? What are the incentives for agribusiness firms to contribute to smallholder production other than by direct control of land? Can smallholder production be broadly inclusive in the face of internal differentiation and encroachment by external investors? We compare smallholder involvement with four cash crops which have experienced strong market demand – rubber, oil palm, cassava and teak – based on fieldwork in six Southeast Asian countries. We conclude that smallholder production can be a viable and inclusive strategy, contingent on the case-by-case confluence of a number of key factors which we enumerate.

/pdf/alternatives-to-land-grabbing-exploring-conditions-for-6n66nd2o1n.pdf

Alternatives to land grabbing: exploring conditions for smallholder inclusion in agricultural commodity chains in Southeast Asia

Rubber smallholdings are being established by shifting cultivators in Northern Laos, in response to demand from China and encouraged by government land-use policy. This can be seen as part of a general transition from subsistence to commercial agriculture in the uplands – in particular, from shifting cultivation to tree crop production. This study examines the economics of smallholder rubber production in an established rubber-growing village in Luangnamtha Province and models the likely expansion of smallholder rubber in the Province. Data were obtained from key informant interviews, group interviews, direct observation, and a farm-household survey. Latex yields were estimated using the Bioeconomic Rubber Agroforestry Support System (BRASS). A discounted cash flow (DCF) model was developed to estimate the net present value for a representative rubber smallholding. This model was then combined with spatial data in a Geographical Information System (GIS) to predict the likely expansion of rubber based on resource quality and accessibility. The study shows that, given current market conditions and credit support, investment in smallholder rubber production in the uplands of Northern Laos can be profitable. The results from the DCF analysis for the study village show that the expansion of rubber planting in that village is based on good economic returns. The spatial analysis indicates that the potential for rubber in the study village is not an isolated case; there are also other areas in Luangnamtha Province that appear to be economically suitable for rubber. Therefore, rubber can be considered as one of the potential alternatives for poor upland farmers, in line with the government policy of stabilising shifting cultivation and supporting new livelihood options for poverty reduction. However, there are risks associated with rubber production and emerging constraints of land and labour, hence government should move cautiously in promoting rubber where farmers are uncertain about reducing their dependence on shifting cultivation. The role for government, as in other countries where smallholder rubber has played a significant role in rural development, is to ensure the provision of good quality planting material, to assist financially during the long investment period when no income is generated, and to invest in roads and marketing infrastructure. In particular, maintaining secure access to the China market will be crucial for the sustainability of smallholder rubber in Northern Laos. If carefully managed, the expansion of smallholder rubber in Laos has the potential to contribute to sustainable rural livelihoods.

Vongpaphane Manivong

Papers

Economics of smallholder rubber expansion in Northern Laos

Rice and Remittances: Crop Intensification Versus Labour Migration in Southern Laos

Alternatives to land grabbing: exploring conditions for smallholder inclusion in agricultural commodity chains in Southeast Asia

The Economic Potential for Smallholder Rubber Production in Northern Laos

The Adoption of Smallholder Rubber Production by Shifting Cultivators in Northern Laos