Issues Concerning the Adoption of Direct Seeding Mulch-Based Cropping Systems

Since the 1990s, in the southern districts of Xayabury province in the Mekong corridor, traditional farming systems have changed through extensive agricultural development based on cash crops. This development, by way of intensification, depends on local market accessibility, transfer of technologies from Thailand and the increasing financial capacities of local enterprises. Thai inputs, heavy mechanisation and technical skills are imported and cropping is largely opportunistic, following Thai market demand. Due to its low labour requirements and high labour productivity, maize is widely sown and spreads to new areas every year (more than 15,000 ha was sown in southern Xayabury in 2004), while crop rotation tends to be abandoned. Land preparation, based on burning residues and ploughing on steep slopes, has allowed for cultivation of large upland areas. As a result of this development, combined with land allocation and increasing population density, fallow periods are disappearing. Such ‘resource-mining’ agriculture generates land erosion- leading to destruction of roads and paddy fields – and is also responsible for fertility loss, yield decline and chemical pollution. To rehabilitate the areas most degraded by these practices, combinations of multicropping