ABSTRACT
This chapter examines contemporary land issues and problems to highlight the interconnectedness of agricultural transformation processes occurring in the region and looming land scarcity, which raises questions on environmental sustainability, equity and growing concern over land grabs. It reviews agrarian transformation in Southeast Asia since the last quarter of the twentieth century. The improved accessibility to the market has enabled farmers across the region to increase their use of machinery, fertilizers and pesticides, and to diversify their agricultural activities. Agricultural change and development have been accompanied by institutional reforms on property rights, intensification of agricultural production through new technology and integration into national and global commodity markets. As countries achieved economic growth, agriculture's role in the national economies of Southeast Asia began to change. However, agriculture is very far from obsolete, continues to play an important role in national economies and provides the basis of livelihoods for the majority of the population.
