Farm System Change Induced by Social-Economy Development at the Village Level

No group retains exactly the same agricultural practices as ancestors did. The agricultural ecosystems and their technologies have always been dynamic induced by economic, social, political and environmental factors. The case study explores the agricultural ecosystem change at the village level through systematic interviews with households in the villages of Daka and Baka, Xishuangbanna, south Yunnan, SW China. The transformation of landscape from traditional shifting cultivation to paddy farm and cash crop plantation is mainly driven by the population increase for more subsistence needs. Due to need more income and individual land tenure policy, annual and industrial crops are replacing largely traditional crops and varieties. However, during each transformation, there is an innovation in tillage practices, such as plough the fallow, intercropping and agroforestry to improve soil productivities.