Agricultural technologies of terraced rice cultivation in the Ailao Mountains, Yunnan, China

Along the slopes of the Ailao Mountains in Yunnan Province, Southwest China, ethnic groups such as the Hani and Yi have developed an impressive landscape of terraced paddy fields over the past several hundred years. Their intensive terraced rice cultivation stands in striking contrast to shifting cultivation, the predominant mode of agriculture in tropical mountain areas. This study aims to clarify how terraced rice cultivation has been developed and sustained over many years in the Ailao Mountains from the viewpoint of agricultural technology. In terraced rice cultivation, considerable..