Despite the many transformations taking place in Myanmar, its agricultural sector is lagging. A high proportion of rural households remain poor and food insecure as a result. This article examines the underlying causes of poor agricultural performance through a combination of literature and secondary data review combined with extensive field interviews with a broad range of key informants in the main agricultural zones of the country. We identify key structural changes that are needed to unleash smallholder-led agricultural transformation and broad-based rural economic growth.

ABSTRACTED FROM THE EXECUTIVE SUMMARY: Farmer indebtedness is a serious problem in Myanmar and the number of landless farm households is increasing. Working capital finance for farmers is exceedingly expensive except for the rather small amounts provided by the MADB and bad harvests can mean that farmers need to sell their land to satisfy loan repayments, becoming casual laborers instead. There is a serious lack of financing for equipment.

ABSTRACTED FROM THE EXECUTIVE SUMMARY: This Report analyses Cambodia’s development dynamism over the last two decades and identifies emerging development priorities for the next two. It examines Cambodia’s past performance, emerging priorities and future challenges in economic, social, environmental and political spheres. One of the distinguishing features of this Report is that it examines Cambodia’s past performance and emerging development priorities within a multi-country comparative perspective.

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.

ABSTRACTED FROM THE INTRODUCTION: This report provides a strategic assessment of the key issues, opportunities, constraints and choices facing Myanmar’s agricultural sector. Discussion focuses on pathways that will permit agriculture to contribute meaningfully to broad-based improvements in purchasing power and food security for the country’s many landless and vulnerable households. In doing so, it aims to assist public and private stakeholders who will be making the key investment and policy decisions governing future agricultural and food security trajectories in Myanmar.

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.

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.

The agricultural Sector in Cambodia still contributes the dominant quantity to the GDP. It is the most important source of income and rural livelihood for around 80% of the Cambodian population. Cambodia’s rural population faces new challenges like high population growth, embracing market economy and international private investment, nationwide food security and decreasing agricultural production conditions as a result of rapidly changing socio-economic conditions since 1990.

ABSTRACTED FROM THE EXECUTIVE SUMMARY: This paper focuses on the role of the rice sector in Cambodian agriculture strategy. The paper first reviews the performance of the rice sector in Cambodian agriculture and rice-related government policies and interventions, and it then identifies potential and constraints for future development of the rice sector.

This article discusses two important concepts of food security and food sovereignty in the context of Vietnam’s post-reform economy. It examines Vietnam’s persistent choice of the food security framework, its resulting policies and their implications. The article argues that the choice of food security framework has served to justify the promotion of industrial agriculture and international trade. While this model has led to increased food productivity, it failed to guarantee access to and quality of food, the other two important pillars of the food security framework.

Swidden (also called shifting cultivation) has long been the dominant farming system in Montane Mainland Southeast Asia (MMSEA). Today the ecological bounty of this region is threatened by the expansion of settled agriculture, including the proliferation of rubber plantations. In the current conception of REDD+, landscapes involving swidden qualify almost automatically for replacement by other land-use systems because swiddens are perceived to be degraded and inefficient with regard to carbon sequestration.