Sustainable development of agriculture: Southeast Asian perspectives and issues

In the context of agricultural research activities in the Southeast Asian region, the development has enhanced the human capacity of research institutions and has gradually changed research needs from crop productivity to diversification of production, competitiveness, and sustainability. In particular, this region is characterized by both a high potential of productivity per land unit and labor-intensive and resource-saving inputs that have resulted in very dense population even in rural areas. However, this situation has become a very severe constraint against the structural reforms that have been realized in some western countries based on the institutional liberalization and/or economy of scale. Many international collaborative research programs and/or projects have also gradually revealed such changes and characteristics in the region and have eventually focused on similar aspects for the region. Some have focused on the competitiveness of a target sector, area, and/or field by encouraging them to join the market and globalized economy; some have focused on the sustainability of a target(s) as a whole by emphasizing community-based approaches, while others have managed to adopt alternative ways to survive in the region by emphasizing subsistence activities. Sustainable development of agriculture is an agricultural system that contributes to the protection of soil and water resources and biodiversity to exist along with the maintenance of adequate production both in forms of yield and quality for the basic requirements of farmers and consumers. This system includes integrated farming, organic farming, natural farming, agro-forestry, and other alternative forms of farming. Cooperation among Asian countries is important in order to share the information on sustainable agriculture. At present, many research and development activities involve the participatory process, a strategy for the transfer of technology know-how that increases the capabilities of sustainable farming.