2004 Volume 41 Issue 4 Pages 550-565
Most of the people who live in the mountainous region depend on agriculture for their livelihood. They are facing increasing difficulties in meeting their daily subsistence needs, let alone raising their living standards to levels enjoyed by the lowland populations. At the same time, the agro-resources on which the economic welfare of the mountain people depends have been suffering severe degradation with consequent reductions in productivity. Finding ways to intensify agricultural production in a sustainable manner is a critical problem facing both the farmers who inhabit the mountainous region and for the national governments of Laos, Thailand, and Vietnam. In this paper, drawing on the detailed case studies of specific local areas that are presented in the papers in this special issue, we describe some key problems facing agricultural populations in the mountains, examine the driving forces for change, look at the adaptive responses of the farmers to the changing resource situation in the mountains, assess some potential solutions, and set-out some research priorities.
