Sustainable Sloping Lands and Watershed Management Conference Agrarian Land-Use Transformation in Northern

Farmers in northern Laos have been experiencing a rapid transformation from subsistence agricultural production to intensive cash crop cultivation over the last decade. In particular, this transformation has been accompanied by conversion of secondary forest areas which were formerly part of the upland swidden system into permanent agricultural land. Introduction of new crops such as sugar cane, maize, and rubber are providing new economic opportunities to upland farmers who have traditionally been dependent on upland rice cultivation for household food consumption. While this commercialisation of upland agricultural production is being promoted by the government to alleviate rural poverty, not all upland communities are able to capitalise on the emerging opportunities. The current research examine