ABSTRACT
Swidden agriculture achieved extremely efficient and sustainable agricultural systems in past centuries when land was the cheap resource, labour was the expensive resource, and modern markets were largely inaccessible or non-existent. This chapter concentrates on swidden and green manure/cover crop techniques that are presently being used by farmers elsewhere in the world that could potentially be of use within Southeast Asia. The introduction of the System of Rice Intensification (SRI) in most of Southeast Asia presents a new opportunity to introduce additional biodiversity into the system. The ways of intensifying modern agriculture with added species of plants include the use of contour hedgerows, intercropping, relay cropping, rotating crops, planting understories beneath tree crops and recuperating wastelands. Even though fallow systems in Southeast Asia are gradually being modified, associated with other more intensive farming systems, the principles upon which swidden systems have been based will continue for generations to be extremely important.
