ABSTRACT
Shifting cultivation is the dominant cropping system in the uplands and mountains of Lao P.D.R. At least 300,000 families are fully or partially engaged in it, equal to about 1.8 million people or 40% of the population. Assuming that each family plants about 1.5 ha per year, the area used annually for shifting cultivation would be about 450,000 ha. The total area involved in the shifting cultivation cycle, including fallowed land, is difficult to assess, but it may be between 2 million and 2.5 million hectares, equal to about 10% of the area of Laos.
