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Local land use strategies in a globalizing world: Subsistence farming, cash crops and income diversification
AGRICULTURAL SYSTEMS Agricultural Systems 85 (2005) 209–215 www.elsevier.com/locate/agsy
Local land use strategies in a globalizing world: Subsistence farming, cash crops and income diversification Ole Mertz a
a,*
, Reed L. Wadley b, Andreas Egelund Christensen
a
Institute of Geography, University of Copenhagen, Øster Voldgade 10, 1350 Copenhagen K, Denmark b Department of Anthropology, 107 Swallow Hall, University of Missouri-Columbia, Columbia MO 65211, USA
Abstract This paper introduces the special issue, which deals with local rural peopleÕs responses to external and internal pressures brought about by global change processes. The contributions are grouped in three categories: (1) Deforestation, land use change and local management systems, including papers on the spread of an alien wattle species in South Africa, large scale forest conservation and rehabilitation in China and consequences of government efforts to reverse deforestation in Indonesia; (2) Subsistence farming and cash crop interaction, addressed by two articles on swidden systems in Malaysia and Indonesia; and (3) Land use change and income diversification, which includes two contributions on changing livelihoods of farmers in Tanzania and Papua New Guinea and one paper developing a method for identifying and mapping the spatial distribution of farming systems in Vietnam. All articles were originally presented at an International Conference in Copenhagen, Denmark in 2003, under the auspices of the Danish University Consortium on Environment and Development – Sustainable Land Use and Natural Resource Management (DUCED SLUSE). Ó 2005 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. Keywords: Agricultural development; Deforestation; Environmental change; Farming systems; Globalization; Land use change; Natural resource management *
Corresponding author. Tel.: +45 35 32 25 29. E-mail addresses: [email protected] (O. Mertz), [email protected] (R.L. Wadley), aec@geogr. ku.dk (A.E. Christensen). 0308-521X/$ - see front matter Ó 2005 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. doi:10.1016/j.agsy.2005.06.007
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O. Mertz et al. / Agricultural Systems 85 (2005) 209–215
1. Introduction During the last decade, various developing countries have seen both rapid economic growth and even more rapid economic decline. Yet others have stagnated with growth rates insufficient to match population growth. Each country and region has experienced these changes differently, but all have become more firmly involved in the wider process of globalization, for good and for bad. Accompanying such changes have been the apparently increasing climatic variability, land use change, deforestation, land degradation and what some have termed globalization of poverty (Lambin et al., 2001; Geist and Lambin, 2001, 2002). Other changes include increasing commercialization and transborder trade, and the creation of new economic, social and political alignments. These changing conditions come along with strengthened state power in some places, leading to increasing constraints on local peoplesÕ livelihoods; elsewhere, weakened state power has resulted in more local autonomy but also more threats from outside in the form of uncontrolled resource exploitation (Dove, 1996; Casson and Obidzinski, 2002; Imbernon, 1999). All of these changes have led to heightened concern over the sustainability of land use practices and natural resource management. As a result, several perspectives on local changes in resource management have emerged – from proponents of the classical land degradation and deforestation paradigms (e.g., Brady, 1996; Young, 1998), to studies providing quantitative data on land use change (e.g., Bernard and DeKoninck, 1996; Reenberg et al., 1998), to studies emphasizing the often overlooked appropriateness and flexibility of traditional land use strategies (e.g., Dahlberg, 1994; Stocking, 1996; Scoones et al., 1997; Padoch et al., 1998; Fox, 2000; Lambin et al., 2001). Local, rural peoples (whether indigenous or migrant) have had to deal with these changes (whether positive or negative) as the globalization process and its accompanying effects reach into their social and economic lives. Local land use strategies have undergone changes as a result, as people adapt earlier practices to the new circumstances. This might be in terms, for example, of improved agroforestry systems, short-term and long-term cash cropping, mechanization of farming, and improved crop-livestock integration (e.g., Brookfield et al., 1995; Jabbar, 1996; Cairns and Garrity, 1999). While local peoples may be constrained by or see opportunities in what they can do economically with their natural and social environments (e.g., BirchThomsen et al., 2001), the globalization process may further affect their options through increasing commercialization of agriculture, land degradation, expanded and shifting opportunities for labour migration, and changing notions of household necessity and luxury (e.g., Wadley, 2000, 2002). For example, of particular importance here is the well-documented Ôoccupational multiplicityÕ – the diverse sources of income in farming households that affect land use and other natural resource use decisions and practices (e.g., Eder, 1999; Leinbach and Smith, 1994; Mertz et al., 1999; Reardon et al., 2000; Rigg, 2001). This special issue of Agricultural Systems deals with local farmersÕ responses to some of these external and internal pressures, with particular emphasis on how
O. Mertz et al. / Agricultural Systems 85 (2005) 209–215
211
their land use and livelihood systems are affected. The eight contributions here have been selected from among more than 70 papers presented at the International Conference on Local Land Use Strategies in a Globalizing World: Shaping Sustainable Social and Natural Environments held on 21–23 August 2003 at the Institute of Geography, University of Copenhagen, Denmark. The conference was part of the research programme of the Danish University Consortium on Environment and Development – Sustainable Land Use and Natural Resource Management (DUCED SLUSE).
2. Overview The papers in this issue cover a relatively diverse set of topics and regions, but what brings them together are analyses of linkages between local livelihoods, land use strategies and natural resources management decisions and how these are used in the context of different external pressures. We have categorized the papers under three broad headings: (1) deforestation, land use change and local management; (2) subsistence farming and cash crop interaction; (3) and land use change and income diversification, although several of the papers necessarily have elements belonging to more than one of these. 2.1. Deforestation, land use change and local management The papers by de Neergaard et al., Weyerhauser et al., and Verbist et al. all address the key issue of how local people react to often ill-adapted government efforts to protect the environment in areas as diverse as South Africa, China and Indonesia. De Neergaard et al. investigate the spread of the alien wattle species (Acacia mearnsii and Acacia dealbata) in the Drakensberg region of South Africa and the potential dilemma between government interest in eradicating these species because of their relatively high water consumption capability, threats to indigenous biodiversity and encroachment of grassland and arable land vis-a`-vis the value (actual or potential) they may have for local people in terms of firewood, building materials and medicine, and as a source of green manure. An eradication scheme hires local people to fight the wattle, and although this scheme has provided greatly needed local job opportunities and many local people agree that the wattle also have negative effects, the paper concludes that the control of the wattle is unlikely to be sustainable because the scheme is 100% externally funded and the current under-utilization of land makes local investments in wattle control unlikely. It thus appears that local people are making the best of two external forces: the wattle invasion is being used for various purposes and the eradication scheme is a welcome source of income, but the long term sustainability of the current grassland and farming systems may be threatened. In China, Weyerhauser et al. demonstrate the impacts on local swidden communities of government intervention that aims to address a more classical problem – large scale deforestation and land use change – with large scale forest
212
O. Mertz et al. / Agricultural Systems 85 (2005) 209–215
conservation and rehabilitation programmes. Although one of the programmes involved community development and communities generally supported the objectives, rigid programme design and insufficient local participation lead to problems such as limitations on access to land for herding and collection of forest products, leaving households without income sources and insufficient erosion control because of poor location of reforestation sites. The paper demonstrates the need for policy research and pilot programmes before forest conservation activities are scaled up. The consequences of government action to reverse deforestation are also discussed by Verbist et al. Here the point is made that the problem for watershed functions is not deforestation per se but the nature of the land use practices that follow. While reforestation and associated evictions of farmers have been the preferred solution to protect water catchment areas, the paper demonstrates that the coffee agroforestry system employed by local people in Sumatra has in fact had a positive impact on power generation of a downstream hydroelectric dam. Though addressing different types of problems, all three contributions illustrate what has been emphasized by many authors: involvement of local people in natural resource management is essential for adequate environmental management and development of appropriate production systems. 2.2. Subsistence farming and cash crop interaction Two papers deal with the interactions between subsistence farming, cash crop production and other means of income diversification. Sulistiawati et al. base their modelling approach on a study of a KantuÕ community in West Kalimantan, Indonesia, engaged in swidden agriculture and rubber production (Dove, 1985). They reach the conclusion that swiddening is likely to remain an important part of local farming strategies under various scenarios, as it acts as a buffer in times of rubber price fluctuations. A similar conclusion was reached for the swidden cultivation of hill rice and pepper interaction in Sarawak, Malaysia, by Cramb (1993), and this model is tested here by Wadley and Mertz on two communities in Sarawak, Malaysia and West Kalimantan. They conclude that the mutual buffering capacity of pepper and hill rice cultivation is less evident in the communities studied for a number of reasons, whereas labour migration to a larger degree is used to buffer fluctuating pepper prices, especially in the West Kalimantan case. Thus both studies confirm that swidden systems remain the mainstay of agricultural production in these areas, whereas farmers use cash crops as tools in a diverse and flexible strategy for generating cash income. The model developed by Sulistiawati et al. could become a useful tool for analyzing other swidden communities with similar subsistence and cash crop interactions. 2.3. Land use change and income diversification Income diversification is also the central issue in the contributions by Soini and by Koczberski and Curry. In both cases, smallholders in Tanzania and Papua New Gui-
O. Mertz et al. / Agricultural Systems 85 (2005) 209–215
213
nea (PNG) are experiencing increasing pressure on the land due to population growth, socioeconomic change, and, in Tanzania, climatic change, all of which have led to changes in livelihoods and income sources. The two areas differ in that the smallholder oil palm scheme in PNG is a relatively recent government introduction from the late 1960s, whereas the Chagga farming system on the slopes of Mt. Kilimanjaro has developed over many centuries, though the current focus on coffee began in the 1930s. The conclusions are also quite different. Koczberski and Curry find income diversification, particularly off-farm income, to be associated with higher levels of farm investment and innovation, and urge the oil palm industry to recognize the benefits of diverse farmer strategies. Conversely, Soini finds signs of increasingly unsustainable land management, which, despite plenty of local initiative, is partly due to few locally conceived alternatives and a lack of integrated approaches to technical agricultural research, economic analysis, policy studies and reforms, as well as the problem of an ageing population less capable of tending the land. The last paper, by Leisz et al., also deals with land use change and the diversity of farming practices in the uplands of northern Vietnam. The main thrust, however, is the development of a method for identifying and mapping the spatial distribution of different farming systems in the area. This may prove to be highly useful in other areas of the world dominated by spatially complex farming systems, which are not easily mapped at a level of detail needed to understand the complexity. The contribution concludes that permanent cultivation of both irrigated rice and upland gardens are appearing and replacing swiddening systems, and that this is most likely caused by the ÔpullingÕ function of markets following infrastructure development.
Acknowledgements The editors thank all the authors for their contributions to this special issue, and we are also grateful to the anonymous referees for their thorough and constructive reviews of the papers. Thanks go to the following sponsors of the International Conference in 2003 who made all of this possible: The Danish University Consortium on Environment and Development – Sustainable Land Use and Natural Resource Management (DUCED SLUSE), funded by the Danish Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Danida; The Institute of Geography, University of Copenhagen, Denmark; The Danish Social Science Research Council; The North/South Priority Research Area, University of Copenhagen, Denmark; The Danish Agricultural and Veterinary Research Council; Knud Højgaards Fund, Denmark; The Royal Veterinary and Agricultural University, Denmark; and The International Institute for Asian Studies, Netherlands.
References Bernard, S., DeKoninck, R., 1996. The retreat of the forest in Southeast Asia: a cartographic assessment. Singapore Journal of Tropical Geography 17, 1–14.
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Birch-Thomsen, T., Frederiksen, P., Sano, H.-O., 2001. A livelihood perspective on natural resource management and environmental change in Semiarid Tanzania. Economic Geography 77, 41–66. Brady, N.C., 1996. Alternatives to slash-and-burn: a global perspective. Agriculture Ecosystems and Environment 58, 3–11. Brookfield, H., Potter, L., Byron, Y., 1995. In Place of the Forest: Environmental and Socio-economic Transformation in Borneo and the Eastern Malay Peninsula. United Nations University Press, Tokyo. Cairns, M., Garrity, D.P., 1999. Improving shifting cultivation in Southeast Asia by building on indigenous fallow management strategies. Agroforestry Systems 47, 37–48. Casson, A., Obidzinski, K., 2002. From New Order to regional autonomy: shifting dynamics of ‘‘illegal’’ logging in Kalimantan, Indonesia. World Development 30, 2133–2151. Cramb, R.A., 1993. Shifting cultivation and sustainable agriculture in East Malaysia: a longitudinal case study. Agricultural Systems 42, 209–226. Dahlberg, A., 1994. Contesting Views and Changing Paradigms: The Land Degradation Debate in Southern Africa. Nordiska Afrikainstitutet, Uppsala, Sweden. Discussion Paper 6. Dove, M.R., 1985. Swidden Agriculture in Indonesia. The Subsistence Strategies of the Kalimantan Kantu. Mouton Publishers, Berlin. Dove, M.R., 1996. So far from power, so near to the forest: a structural analysis of gain and blame in tropical forest development. In: Padoch, C., Peluso, N.L. (Eds.), Borneo in Transition: People, Forests, Conservation, and Development. Oxford University Press, Kuala Lumpur, pp. 41–58. Eder, J., 1999. A Generation Later: Household Strategies and Economic Change in the Rural Philippines. University of Hawaii Press, Honolulu. Fox, J., 2000. How blaming Ôslash and burnÕ farmers is deforesting mainland Southeast Asia. Asia Pacific Issues 47, 1–8. Geist, H.J., Lambin, E.F., 2001. What drives tropical deforestation? A meta-analysis of proximate and underlying causes based on sub-national case study evidence. LUCC Report Series No. 4. CIACO, Louvain-la-Neuve. Geist, H.J., Lambin, E.F., 2002. Proximate causes and underlying driving forces of tropical deforestation. Bioscience 52, 143–150. Imbernon, J., 1999. Changes in agricultural practice and landscape over a 60-year period in North Lampung, Sumatra. Agriculture, Ecosystems and Environment 76, 61–66. Jabbar, M., 1996. Energy and the evolution of farming systems: the potential of mixed farming in the Moist Savannah of sub-Saharan Africa. Outlook on Agriculture 25, 27–36. Lambin, E.F., Turner, B.L., Geist, H.J., Agbola, S.B., Angelsen, A., Bruce, J.W., Coomes, O.T., Dirzo, R., Fischer, G., Folke, C., George, P.S., Homewood, K., Imbernon, J., Leemans, R., Li, X.B., Moran, E.F, Mortimore, M., Ramakrishnan, P.S., Richards, J.F., Skanes, H., Steffen, W., Stone, G.D., Svedin, U., Veldkamp, T.A., Vogel, C., Xu, J.C., 2001. The causes of land-use and land-cover change: moving beyond the myths. Global Environmental Change-Human and Policy Dimensions 11, 261–269. Leinbach, T.R., Smith, A., 1994. Off-farm employment, land and life cycle: transmigrant households in South Sumatra, Indonesia. Economic Geography 70, 273–296. Mertz, O., Christensen, A.E., Højskov, P., Birch-Thomsen, T., 1999. Subsistence or cash: strategies for change in shifting cultivation. Danish Journal of Geography Special Issue 1, 133–142. Padoch, C., Harwell, E., Susanto, A., 1998. Swidden, sawah, and in-between: agricultural transformation in Borneo. Human Ecology 26, 3–20. Reardon, T., Taylor, J.E., Stamoulis, K., Lanjouw, P., Balisacan, A., 2000. Effects of non-farm employment on rural income inequality in developing countries: an investment perspective. Journal of Agricultural Economics 51, 266–288. Reenberg, A., Nielsen, T.L., Rasmussen, K., 1998. Field expansion and reallocation in the Sahel – land use pattern dynamics in a fluctuating biophysical and socio-economic environment. Global Environmental Change 8, 309–327. Rigg, J., 2001. More than the Soil: Rural Change in Southeast Asia. Prentice Hall, Harlow, UK. Scoones, I., Reij, C., Toulmin, C., 1997. Sustaining the soil: indigenous soil and water conservation in Africa. In: Reij, C., Scoones, I., Toulmin, C. (Eds.), Sustaining the Soil Indigenous Soil and Water Conservation in Africa. Earthscan, London, pp. 1–27.
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Stocking, M., 1996. Soil erosion: breaking new ground. In: Leach, M., Mearns, R. (Eds.), The Lie of the Land Challenging Received Wisdom on the African Environment. James Currey, Oxford, pp. 140–154. Wadley, R., 2000. Transnational circular labour migration in northwestern Borneo. Revue Europe´enne des Migrations Internationales 16, 127–149. Wadley, R., 2002. Coping with crisis – smoke, drought, flood and currency: Iban households in West Kalimantan, Indonesia. Culture and Agriculture 24, 26–33. Young, A., 1998. Land Resources, Now and for the Future. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.
Local land use strategies in a globalizing world: Subsistence farming, cash crops and income diversification Ole Mertz a
a,*
, Reed L. Wadley b, Andreas Egelund Christensen
a
Institute of Geography, University of Copenhagen, Øster Voldgade 10, 1350 Copenhagen K, Denmark b Department of Anthropology, 107 Swallow Hall, University of Missouri-Columbia, Columbia MO 65211, USA
Abstract This paper introduces the special issue, which deals with local rural peopleÕs responses to external and internal pressures brought about by global change processes. The contributions are grouped in three categories: (1) Deforestation, land use change and local management systems, including papers on the spread of an alien wattle species in South Africa, large scale forest conservation and rehabilitation in China and consequences of government efforts to reverse deforestation in Indonesia; (2) Subsistence farming and cash crop interaction, addressed by two articles on swidden systems in Malaysia and Indonesia; and (3) Land use change and income diversification, which includes two contributions on changing livelihoods of farmers in Tanzania and Papua New Guinea and one paper developing a method for identifying and mapping the spatial distribution of farming systems in Vietnam. All articles were originally presented at an International Conference in Copenhagen, Denmark in 2003, under the auspices of the Danish University Consortium on Environment and Development – Sustainable Land Use and Natural Resource Management (DUCED SLUSE). Ó 2005 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. Keywords: Agricultural development; Deforestation; Environmental change; Farming systems; Globalization; Land use change; Natural resource management *
Corresponding author. Tel.: +45 35 32 25 29. E-mail addresses: [email protected] (O. Mertz), [email protected] (R.L. Wadley), aec@geogr. ku.dk (A.E. Christensen). 0308-521X/$ - see front matter Ó 2005 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. doi:10.1016/j.agsy.2005.06.007
210
O. Mertz et al. / Agricultural Systems 85 (2005) 209–215
1. Introduction During the last decade, various developing countries have seen both rapid economic growth and even more rapid economic decline. Yet others have stagnated with growth rates insufficient to match population growth. Each country and region has experienced these changes differently, but all have become more firmly involved in the wider process of globalization, for good and for bad. Accompanying such changes have been the apparently increasing climatic variability, land use change, deforestation, land degradation and what some have termed globalization of poverty (Lambin et al., 2001; Geist and Lambin, 2001, 2002). Other changes include increasing commercialization and transborder trade, and the creation of new economic, social and political alignments. These changing conditions come along with strengthened state power in some places, leading to increasing constraints on local peoplesÕ livelihoods; elsewhere, weakened state power has resulted in more local autonomy but also more threats from outside in the form of uncontrolled resource exploitation (Dove, 1996; Casson and Obidzinski, 2002; Imbernon, 1999). All of these changes have led to heightened concern over the sustainability of land use practices and natural resource management. As a result, several perspectives on local changes in resource management have emerged – from proponents of the classical land degradation and deforestation paradigms (e.g., Brady, 1996; Young, 1998), to studies providing quantitative data on land use change (e.g., Bernard and DeKoninck, 1996; Reenberg et al., 1998), to studies emphasizing the often overlooked appropriateness and flexibility of traditional land use strategies (e.g., Dahlberg, 1994; Stocking, 1996; Scoones et al., 1997; Padoch et al., 1998; Fox, 2000; Lambin et al., 2001). Local, rural peoples (whether indigenous or migrant) have had to deal with these changes (whether positive or negative) as the globalization process and its accompanying effects reach into their social and economic lives. Local land use strategies have undergone changes as a result, as people adapt earlier practices to the new circumstances. This might be in terms, for example, of improved agroforestry systems, short-term and long-term cash cropping, mechanization of farming, and improved crop-livestock integration (e.g., Brookfield et al., 1995; Jabbar, 1996; Cairns and Garrity, 1999). While local peoples may be constrained by or see opportunities in what they can do economically with their natural and social environments (e.g., BirchThomsen et al., 2001), the globalization process may further affect their options through increasing commercialization of agriculture, land degradation, expanded and shifting opportunities for labour migration, and changing notions of household necessity and luxury (e.g., Wadley, 2000, 2002). For example, of particular importance here is the well-documented Ôoccupational multiplicityÕ – the diverse sources of income in farming households that affect land use and other natural resource use decisions and practices (e.g., Eder, 1999; Leinbach and Smith, 1994; Mertz et al., 1999; Reardon et al., 2000; Rigg, 2001). This special issue of Agricultural Systems deals with local farmersÕ responses to some of these external and internal pressures, with particular emphasis on how
O. Mertz et al. / Agricultural Systems 85 (2005) 209–215
211
their land use and livelihood systems are affected. The eight contributions here have been selected from among more than 70 papers presented at the International Conference on Local Land Use Strategies in a Globalizing World: Shaping Sustainable Social and Natural Environments held on 21–23 August 2003 at the Institute of Geography, University of Copenhagen, Denmark. The conference was part of the research programme of the Danish University Consortium on Environment and Development – Sustainable Land Use and Natural Resource Management (DUCED SLUSE).
2. Overview The papers in this issue cover a relatively diverse set of topics and regions, but what brings them together are analyses of linkages between local livelihoods, land use strategies and natural resources management decisions and how these are used in the context of different external pressures. We have categorized the papers under three broad headings: (1) deforestation, land use change and local management; (2) subsistence farming and cash crop interaction; (3) and land use change and income diversification, although several of the papers necessarily have elements belonging to more than one of these. 2.1. Deforestation, land use change and local management The papers by de Neergaard et al., Weyerhauser et al., and Verbist et al. all address the key issue of how local people react to often ill-adapted government efforts to protect the environment in areas as diverse as South Africa, China and Indonesia. De Neergaard et al. investigate the spread of the alien wattle species (Acacia mearnsii and Acacia dealbata) in the Drakensberg region of South Africa and the potential dilemma between government interest in eradicating these species because of their relatively high water consumption capability, threats to indigenous biodiversity and encroachment of grassland and arable land vis-a`-vis the value (actual or potential) they may have for local people in terms of firewood, building materials and medicine, and as a source of green manure. An eradication scheme hires local people to fight the wattle, and although this scheme has provided greatly needed local job opportunities and many local people agree that the wattle also have negative effects, the paper concludes that the control of the wattle is unlikely to be sustainable because the scheme is 100% externally funded and the current under-utilization of land makes local investments in wattle control unlikely. It thus appears that local people are making the best of two external forces: the wattle invasion is being used for various purposes and the eradication scheme is a welcome source of income, but the long term sustainability of the current grassland and farming systems may be threatened. In China, Weyerhauser et al. demonstrate the impacts on local swidden communities of government intervention that aims to address a more classical problem – large scale deforestation and land use change – with large scale forest
212
O. Mertz et al. / Agricultural Systems 85 (2005) 209–215
conservation and rehabilitation programmes. Although one of the programmes involved community development and communities generally supported the objectives, rigid programme design and insufficient local participation lead to problems such as limitations on access to land for herding and collection of forest products, leaving households without income sources and insufficient erosion control because of poor location of reforestation sites. The paper demonstrates the need for policy research and pilot programmes before forest conservation activities are scaled up. The consequences of government action to reverse deforestation are also discussed by Verbist et al. Here the point is made that the problem for watershed functions is not deforestation per se but the nature of the land use practices that follow. While reforestation and associated evictions of farmers have been the preferred solution to protect water catchment areas, the paper demonstrates that the coffee agroforestry system employed by local people in Sumatra has in fact had a positive impact on power generation of a downstream hydroelectric dam. Though addressing different types of problems, all three contributions illustrate what has been emphasized by many authors: involvement of local people in natural resource management is essential for adequate environmental management and development of appropriate production systems. 2.2. Subsistence farming and cash crop interaction Two papers deal with the interactions between subsistence farming, cash crop production and other means of income diversification. Sulistiawati et al. base their modelling approach on a study of a KantuÕ community in West Kalimantan, Indonesia, engaged in swidden agriculture and rubber production (Dove, 1985). They reach the conclusion that swiddening is likely to remain an important part of local farming strategies under various scenarios, as it acts as a buffer in times of rubber price fluctuations. A similar conclusion was reached for the swidden cultivation of hill rice and pepper interaction in Sarawak, Malaysia, by Cramb (1993), and this model is tested here by Wadley and Mertz on two communities in Sarawak, Malaysia and West Kalimantan. They conclude that the mutual buffering capacity of pepper and hill rice cultivation is less evident in the communities studied for a number of reasons, whereas labour migration to a larger degree is used to buffer fluctuating pepper prices, especially in the West Kalimantan case. Thus both studies confirm that swidden systems remain the mainstay of agricultural production in these areas, whereas farmers use cash crops as tools in a diverse and flexible strategy for generating cash income. The model developed by Sulistiawati et al. could become a useful tool for analyzing other swidden communities with similar subsistence and cash crop interactions. 2.3. Land use change and income diversification Income diversification is also the central issue in the contributions by Soini and by Koczberski and Curry. In both cases, smallholders in Tanzania and Papua New Gui-
O. Mertz et al. / Agricultural Systems 85 (2005) 209–215
213
nea (PNG) are experiencing increasing pressure on the land due to population growth, socioeconomic change, and, in Tanzania, climatic change, all of which have led to changes in livelihoods and income sources. The two areas differ in that the smallholder oil palm scheme in PNG is a relatively recent government introduction from the late 1960s, whereas the Chagga farming system on the slopes of Mt. Kilimanjaro has developed over many centuries, though the current focus on coffee began in the 1930s. The conclusions are also quite different. Koczberski and Curry find income diversification, particularly off-farm income, to be associated with higher levels of farm investment and innovation, and urge the oil palm industry to recognize the benefits of diverse farmer strategies. Conversely, Soini finds signs of increasingly unsustainable land management, which, despite plenty of local initiative, is partly due to few locally conceived alternatives and a lack of integrated approaches to technical agricultural research, economic analysis, policy studies and reforms, as well as the problem of an ageing population less capable of tending the land. The last paper, by Leisz et al., also deals with land use change and the diversity of farming practices in the uplands of northern Vietnam. The main thrust, however, is the development of a method for identifying and mapping the spatial distribution of different farming systems in the area. This may prove to be highly useful in other areas of the world dominated by spatially complex farming systems, which are not easily mapped at a level of detail needed to understand the complexity. The contribution concludes that permanent cultivation of both irrigated rice and upland gardens are appearing and replacing swiddening systems, and that this is most likely caused by the ÔpullingÕ function of markets following infrastructure development.
Acknowledgements The editors thank all the authors for their contributions to this special issue, and we are also grateful to the anonymous referees for their thorough and constructive reviews of the papers. Thanks go to the following sponsors of the International Conference in 2003 who made all of this possible: The Danish University Consortium on Environment and Development – Sustainable Land Use and Natural Resource Management (DUCED SLUSE), funded by the Danish Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Danida; The Institute of Geography, University of Copenhagen, Denmark; The Danish Social Science Research Council; The North/South Priority Research Area, University of Copenhagen, Denmark; The Danish Agricultural and Veterinary Research Council; Knud Højgaards Fund, Denmark; The Royal Veterinary and Agricultural University, Denmark; and The International Institute for Asian Studies, Netherlands.
References Bernard, S., DeKoninck, R., 1996. The retreat of the forest in Southeast Asia: a cartographic assessment. Singapore Journal of Tropical Geography 17, 1–14.
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