Changing landscape of the Northern Thai hills: Adaptive strategies to increasing land pressure

Increasing land pressure in the hills of Northern Thailand is forcing farmers to abandon the long fallow periods which are essential for soil regeneration and weed control. The intensification of land-use in this marginal environment magnified a number of existing production constraints. Nutrient depletion and soil loss are casting a shadow over the long term sustainability but the farmers' major concern remains the elimination of weeds and insects. On the positive side, a number of new opportunities has been created by the easier access to urban markets, the higher mobility of the farmers and the increasing labour:land ratio. Agricultural adaptations were observed in 3 hilltribe villages which have a different degree of land pressure. Farmers are adopting new strategies to attain rice security and diversify their crops with special emphasis on high input cash crops and fruit trees. Some farmers specialize in former minor activities such as home gardening, pig raising or off-farm labour. Livestock population is adjusted to the changing local conditions. Not only the land use patterns are changing, but the cultivation practices are also being modified. Farmers till and weed their fields more often to cope with the increasing weed pressure, and have started to experiment with irrigation, fertilizers and pesticides. Burning intensity increases with growing land pressure, but the impact of burning becomes less in some areas with semi-permanent agriculture. The higher erosion risk has stimulated farmers to implement simple, indigenous soil conservation measures, while vegetative buffer strips are primarily adopted to claim land. These rapid adaptations show farmers' flexibility in reacting to new, challenging conditions. The long term sustainability of the intensified mountain agriculture depends on the combination of all these changes. The outcome will differ for every household and will depend on their available resources and their household strategy. Some households show a resilient capacity against the physical degradation of their farm; while families which lack the necessary resources to transform, are facing a production decline and are becoming increasingly dependent on off-farm activities. Agricultural extension and research have limited capacity to alter these processes, but can contribute by stimulating or slowing down on-going changes.