Ecological comparison of traditional agriculture and the Forest Village System (agroforestry) in Northern Thailand

Rural development and deforestation are the two increasingly important issues in Thailand. Traditional agriculture, practiced by many of the rural poor, is no longer sustainable. Valuable teak forests are disappearing. In an effort to remedy these problems, the Forest Industry Organization of Thailand has initiated a so-called "Forest Village System". The objective of this research is to evaluate the Forest Village System, and compare with the traditional agriculture.;To fulfill the objectives, a chronosequence of Forest Village System sites were compared with a traditional agricultural site.;The data indicated that total short term production in the two systems were comparable. Teak production in the Forest Village System gradually increased and reached a maximum at 56 years.;Nutrient fluxes into the two systems during the establishment phase are comparable. The Forest Village System began on nutrient poor sites, while the nutrient stocks in the traditional agriculture sites depleted quickly. The Forest Village System tended to improve soil to more favorable conditions, 11 years after establishment.;The overall energy efficiency of the traditional agriculture is better than the Forest Village System, in the short term. While the efficiency of the second rotation traditional agriculture did not improve, the efficiency for 1 complete rotation of the Forest Village System (60 years) improved to an output/input ratio of 14.5.;The Forest Village System has the capability of generating a substantial economic profitability to the members, and to the Forest Industry Organization. The Forest Village System is also desirable, because it uplifts the members' quality of life to a decent level, higher than that of most typical rural inhabitants.;Three major changes should be incorporated. (1) Land right compensation should be given to occupants of land incorporated into the projects, to solve the land limitation problem. (2) Land for permanent cultivation must be alloted with legal right to achieve long term settlement. (3) Teak spacing should be increased, and intercropped with some economically fast growing species to provide dual benefits of reducing antagonistic effects of teak on grain yield, and medium term economic benefit to the members. (Abstract shortened with permission of author.)...