ABSTRACT
Agriculture is the chief means of livelihood for most of the inhabitants of Indo-China. Food crops form the primary source of wealth and the rearing of livestock is little developed, though many oxen and buffaloes are kept for work in the fields. The capital, initiative and engineering skill of the French colonists, seen in the establishment of irrigation schemes and in the setting up of agricultural research stations, have led to improvements both in the quality and output of native production. During the last half-century modern plantations, employing native labour under white supervision, have been organized for the large-scale production of rubber, coffee and tea; their advanced methods of cultivation and of marketing contrast with the primitive techniques of native agriculture. Although the development of plantations has opened up large areas hitherto uncultivated or only partially cultivated, the area under native and European crops, owing to the existence of vast forested mountains and plateaux, is still only about 6 million ha. out of a total area for the whole country of 74 million ha.
