Productivity decline occurs in many agronomic systems due to loss of soil organic matter and a consequent decline in soil fertility. This is pronounced in light textured soils, which even in their pristine state can have low levels of fertility. High temperatures and leaching conditions in tropical environments further exacerbates this poor fertility. In order to facilitate agronomic production on these soils, significant amounts of organic or inorganic fertilizers are required to maintain economic yields.

Local people in South-east Asia are often cited as skilled forest managers. It is barely acknowledged that an essential part of this forest management does not concern natural forests, but forests that have been planted, often after the removal of pre-existing natural forests; forests that are cultivated not by professional foresters, but by sedentary or swidden farmers, on their farmlands; forests that are based not on exotic, fast-growing trees, but on local tree species, and harbour an incredible variety of plant and animal species.

Summary:
"Wrong-headed agricultural and development policies, counter-insurgency activities, as well
as corruption and cronyism by the Burmese military regime, have all caused a dramatic
decrease in rice production and food security in southern Shan State over the past ten years.
The township of Mong Nai provides a good example of how food security, commonly defined
as the physical and economic access to sufficient, safe and nutritious food at all times, has

Paul Wolfowitz, President of the World Bank, argued that the Doha Round presents an opportunity to rewrite the rules of an unfair trading system that holds back the potential of the poorest people. As important as aid is, as important as debt relief is, the opportunities generated by trade are far more significant. Unless the people of Africa and other poor countries have access to markets to sell their products, they will not escape poverty or be able to give their children a better future.

Documents the history of evictions of rural dwellers based on a comprehensive survey of people displaced from South African farms between 1984-2004. Content includes methodology and objectives of the study, the scale of evictions, perspectives from commercial farmers, the impact of evictions on the livelihoods of farm dwellers, local impact, aspirations of evictees, possible interventions.

Between October 2004 and January 2005 SPDC troops launched forays into the hills of Nyaunglebin District in an attempt to flush villagers down into the plains and a life under SPDC control. Viciously timed to coincide with the rice harvest, the campaign focused on burning crops and landmining the fields to starve out the villagers. Most people fled into the forest, where they now face food shortages and uncertainty about this year's planting and the security of their villages.

Released on March 30, 2005...
This bulletin examines the factors causing many villagers in Pa'an district to say that they now face a deepening food and money shortage crisis which is threatening their health and survival. Based on villagers' testimony, the main factors appear to be recurring forced labour for both SPDC and DKBA authorities, made worse in some areas by orders for farmers to double-crop on their land and the encroachment of new SPDC military bases on villages and farmland.

Agrarian reform, or AR, is the redistribution of public and private agricultural lands, regardless of produce and tenurial arrangement, to landless farmers and regular farm workers, to include support services and other arrangements alternative to distribution of land such as production/profi t sharing, labor organization, or distribution of shares of stock.