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Large areas of the warm, humid tropics in Southeast Asia, the
Pacific, Latin America, the Caribbean, and Africa are hilly or
mountainous. Jackson and Scherr (1995) estimate that these tropical
hillside areas are inhabited by 500 million people, or one-tenth of
the current world population, many of whom practice subsistence
agriculture. The region most affected is Asia which has the lowest
area of arable land per capita. Aside from limited areas of
irrigated terraces, most of the sloping land, which constitutes 60%
to 90% of the land resources in many Southeast Asian countries, has
been by-passed in the economic development of the region (Maglinao
and Hashim, 1993). Poverty in these areas is often high, in
contrast to the relative wealth of irri gated rice farms in lowland
areas that benefited from the green revolution. Rapid population
growth in some countries is also exacerbating the problems of
hillside areas. Increasingly, people are migrating from
high-potential lowland areas where land is scarce to more remote
hillside areas. Such migra tion, together with inherent high
population growth, is forcing a transforma tion in land use from
subsistence to permanent agriculture on fragile slopes, and is
creating a new suite of social, economic, and environmental
problems (Garrity, 1993; Maglinao and Hashim, 1993)."
Large areas of the warm, humid tropics in Southeast Asia, the
Pacific, Latin America, the Caribbean, and Africa are hilly or
mountainous. Jackson and Scherr (1995) estimate that these tropical
hillside areas are inhabited by 500 million people, or one-tenth of
the current world population, many of whom practice subsistence
agriculture. The region most affected is Asia which has the lowest
area of arable land per capita. Aside from limited areas of
irrigated terraces, most of the sloping land, which constitutes 60%
to 90% of the land resources in many Southeast Asian countries, has
been by-passed in the economic development of the region (Maglinao
and Hashim, 1993). Poverty in these areas is often high, in
contrast to the relative wealth of irri gated rice farms in lowland
areas that benefited from the green revolution. Rapid population
growth in some countries is also exacerbating the problems of
hillside areas. Increasingly, people are migrating from
high-potential lowland areas where land is scarce to more remote
hillside areas. Such migra tion, together with inherent high
population growth, is forcing a transforma tion in land use from
subsistence to permanent agriculture on fragile slopes, and is
creating a new suite of social, economic, and environmental
problems (Garrity, 1993; Maglinao and Hashim, 1993)."
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