The Agroforestry for Livelihoods of Smallholder farmers in Northwestern Viet Nam project (2011-2016) focuses on agroforestry trials on farms in the northwestern mountainous region of the country. The objective of the study was to make an inventory of the current upland farming systems and identify key strengths and weaknesses of each system, including economic efficiency. The farming system diagnosis was based on participatory assessments and focus group discussions and in- depth interviews with 45 project ‘farmer co-operators’ in 17 villages in Yen Bai, Son La and Dien Bien provinces.

This paper provides a brief review on the global and Malaysian perspective of climate change, and its impacts on Malaysian agriculture and relevant adaptation practices. It also provides policy recommendations for better coping with the changing nature of climatic factors. Changing climate has had negative impacts on Malaysian agriculture, including: water stress; worsening soil condition, disease, pest outbreaks on crops and livestock; and sea-level rise.

Agriculture is the largest global user of biodiversity. Over-reliance on a handful of crops puts global food security at great risk especially in the context of climate change. Selected and used by generations of farmers, agricultural biodiversity contributes to reducing malnutrition, alleviating poverty and combating climate change challenges. This diversity has been in decline for decades and is now in danger of disappearing and efforts needed to conserve them using both ex situ and in situ approaches.

Although Cambodia is one of Asia’s smallest and poorest economies—in the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) only Burma’s per capita purchasing power is lower—changes in its environment for business and trade since the turn of the millennium have been rapid and dramatic. Insiders and outsiders alike are increasingly recognizing the country’s economic potential as a range of new investment and infrastructure projects evince growing confidence and opportunity.

Cambodia is highly dependent on agriculture: the agricultural sector is responsible for more than 30 percent of GDP and provides employment for more than 70 percent of people who are employed (ADB 2011). Given such high dependence on agriculture, an important question is, "How will Cambodia be affected by climate change, especially the agricultural sector?" Climate change, by definition, will alter temperature and rainfall patterns.

Over the past decade the Myanmar government has increasingly promoted industrial agricultural production in the country, especially for rubber. With the lead up to the national elections, and now after political-economic reforms begin to set in, foreign investors are eager to make Myanmar into the next rubber production frontier. This report outlines the emerging political ecology of rubber production in Myanmar, with particular attention to the political economy and geography of rubber development taking root during Myanmar’s reform period.

ABSTRACTED FROM THE EXECUTIVE SUMMARY: The key findings of this field visit identified two main types of agricultural investments in northern Laos. One is the government-initiated agricultural cooperation program, in par-ticular the Alternative Development Scheme aka Opium Substation Development Scheme supported by Chinese government. The other is individual small-scale contract farming investments by Chinese businessmen. Current and potential issues related to these agricultural investments were also examined, including border passings and cus-tom clearance procedures.

PUBLISHER'S ABSTRACT: This report discusses the political, economic and social opportunities and constraints that will influence the design and implementation of REDD+ in Vietnam. In particular, four major direct drivers (land conversion for agriculture; infrastructure development; logging (illegal and legal); forest fire) and three indirect drivers (pressure of population growth and migration; the state's weak forest management capacity; the limited funding available for forest protection) of deforestation and degradation in Vietnam are discussed, along with their implications for REDD+.

This paper attempts to contribute to the understanding of the impacts of secure rural agricultural land rights on labour structural transformation from agriculture to non-agriculture as well as on urbanization, with a specific focus on Thailand. Using province-level panel data and instrumental variable strategy, partial land right entitlement (known in Thailand as SPK4-01 titling) is found to have a positive impact on labour movement towards the non-agricultural sector. In particular, approximately 27 per cent of this impact can be explained by enhanced farm productivity.

The use of groundwater in irrigated agriculture is often regarded as an effective way of increasing farm productivity. However, the effects of differential access to groundwater by farmers have rarely been studied at the microeconomic scale, particularly the possibly negative effects of marginalization of small farmers. During the hydraulic crisis that has affected Algerian irrigation schemes since the 1980s, groundwater has become a major source of irrigation for farmers. A process of farm differentiation occurred linked to farmers' access to groundwater, causing social inequity.