Journal of Mountain Science Vol 4 No 1 (2007): 057~070

http://jms.imde.ac.cn

DOI: 10.1007/s11629-007-0057-9

Coping with Pressures of Modernization by Traditional

Farmers: a Strategy for Sustainable Rural Development
in Yunnan, China

SHIRO Chikamatsu

Imperial College London, London SW7 2AZ, England, U.K.

E-mail: shiro.chikamatsu@imperial.ac.uk or shiro_0801@hotmail.com

Jose Ireneu Furtad

Imperial College London, London SW7 2AZ, England, U.K.

SHEN Lixin*

Yunnan Academy of Forestry, Kunming 650204, China

*Corresponding author, E-mail: yafslx@gmail.com

YAN Mei

Asian Institute of Management, Manila, Philippines

Abstract: Traditional farming practices conform to
sustainable rural livelihoods, while agricultural mod-
ernisation tends to undermine these practices through
various perturbations. A case study in Tengchong
County (western Yunnan, China) shows that trans-
formation of traditional alder (Alnus nepalensis) and
dry rice (upland rice) rotational farming to introduced
Chinese fir (Cunninghamia lanceolata (Lamb.) Hook.)
plantations leads to localised water scarcity and soil
fertility decline. While farmers are aware of ecological
sustainability of traditional farming, they prefer Chi-
nese fir forestry because it is less labour-intensive, has
a high market value, and releases time for profitable
off-farm work. Farmers adapt to economic liberaliza-
tion by planting high value crops and trees. However,
alternatives to make local agricultural production
more profitable through competitive business strate-
gies, cooperative approaches, innovations in inte-
grating high value crops and ‘downstream’ processing
Received: 9 November 2006
Accepted: 18 January 2007
for sustainable rural livelihoods have been overlooked
largely due to poor information availability and lack
of organisational framework.
Keywords: Agrobiodiversity; sustainable rural de-
velopment; capital assets; traditional knowledge; tra-
ditional farming; Yunnan; alder-upland rice; Chinese fir
Introduction
The International Plant Genetic Resource In-
stitute (IPGRI) estimates that only 150 out of 7000
species of plants are commercially cultivated
(Padma 2005). Currently more than 90 % of the
plants cultivated by humans come from 20 species,
and over 50 % of food production is derived from 4
species (Conner et al. 2003). The Green Revolution
in the Philippines replaced thousands of traditional
rice varieties with new high-yielding varieties to the

57
SHIRO Chikamatsu et al.
point that in 1980s, 98 % of rice fields in the Phil-
ippines were occupied by just two Green Revolu-
tion varieties (Shand 1997). Agricultural moderni-
zation with high external inputs tends to cause
dramatic decline in agrobiodiversity. Traditional
farming systems, on the contrary, are generally
characterised by high levels of agrobiodiversity and
low external inputs, and considered ecologically
sustainable (Alteri 1995). Their decline suggests
that they do not fit well in modern market econo-
mies. What are the causes for this deficiency in
market fitness? Is it due to traditional agrobiodi-
versity in use, use of fragile (or marginal) lands,
limited knowledge base, small-scale household
farming systems, use of low inputs, subsistence
nature of production, limitations of traditional
technology, poor access to micro-credits and finan-
cial capital, lack of a corporate approach to com-
pete in global markets, or a combination of these?
Re-assessment of traditional agriculture in terms of
the efficient use of scarce resources, extended costs
and benefits, and the effective mobilization of all
forms of disposal capital may provide some useful
clues to the future of sustainable rural develop-
ment.
Yunnan in southwestern China is home to
around 25 ethnic minority communities with di-
verse traditional agricultural heritage systems due
to ancient east-west and north-south migrations
across the tail end of the Himalayas. Agroforestry is
one of the traditional agricultural systems. GUO
and Padoch (1995) identified four principal agro-
forestry types in Yunnan, with 11 subtypes, 82
forms and 220 associations. One of the four prin-
cipal agroforestry types is based on alder (Alnus
nepalensis), an indigenous tree species widely dis-
tributed in the Himalayan region from the north-
ern boundary of Pakistan to northern Yunnan,
China and occurring at altitudes of 1000 ~ 2500 m
(GUO 1995a). It fixes nitrogen, and grows fast even
in infertile soils (SHEN 2003). Farmers in Teng-
chong County have practiced alder and dry rice ro-
tational farming for many centuries, but this prac-
tice has become increasingly rare due to losses in
traditional knowledge and community solidarity.
Local farmers refer to dry rice cultivation (i.e.,
grown without inundation in water in rice fields
like paddy) as hangu (in Chinese), and is referred
to as upland rice or hill rice in the literature. The
complete cycle of alder and dry rice rotational
58
farming is around 8 ~ 10 years (FAO 2003); and
involves the cutting down alder forests, burning the
land, sowing alder and dry rice seed, harvesting
rice and leaving the trees to grow for 7 ~ 9 years,
and then cutting down the trees and burning the
land to begin the next cycle (SHEN 2003). The
ecological benefits of this practice include a very
low use of external inputs, soil and water conserva-
tion by intercropping and rotation with alder, and
nitrogen fixation by alder (FAO 2003). Alder leaves
are composted for use in paddy rice fields, and al-
der trees are pruned and thinned for firewood and
building material (SHEN 2003).
This research aimed to understand the impor-
tant multifaceted values of traditional agriculture
for rural livelihoods in the past, at present, and in
the future in Yunnan. Its objectives were to under-
stand:
(1) Changes in farming system from farmer’s
point of view;
(2) Causes for the decline in traditional alder
and dry rice rotational farming;
(3) The main advantages and disadvantages of
traditional and conventional agriculture for sus-
tainable rural livelihoods;
(4) The favourable conditions for farmers to
conduct sustainable agriculture practices whilst
improving their standard of living.
1 Study Area
Field research was conducted between June
and July 2005 in Tengchong County, western
Yunnan bordering with Myanmar (Figure 1) (Teng-
chong town is the capital of Tengchong County and
belongs to Baoshan City, Yunnan Province). Farm-
ers’ interviews were conducted in Hetaoyuan
administrative village (altitude 1700 m) about 3 km
north of Tengchong town with a population of 1137
residents and 261 households. It is a mountainous
area where farmers terraced paddy rice fields; and
Hetaoyuan administrative village consists of sev-
eral natural villages and interviews were conducted
in Dingzizhai (zhai means village in Chinese) with a
population of 99 residents and 22 households and
Guojiazhai with a population of 773 residents and
170 houses. A day’s field tour was conducted in

conductedVillage
Gongping in Gongping Village
(altitude 2000 (altitude
m) 50 km2000
northm)
of
Tengchong City,
50 km north and a market
of Tengchong survey
City, and and interview
a market sur-
Figure 1 Map of Yunnan
2 Methods
2.1 Conceptual framework for analysing
sustainable rural livelihoods
Sustainable rural livelihoods of villagers were
assessed using the five capital assets (Table 1) or
“resources that people use” and “assets that give
them the capability to be and to act” (Bebbington
1999). These “capital assets” were assessed in a ho-
listic manner: in terms of their use, combination or
transformation by rural people to sustain their live-
lihood (Bebbington 1999, Campbell et al. 2001,
Scoones 1998). This research compared the way
villagers managed these five assets in the past,
when they practiced traditional alder and dry rice
rotational farming, with the present capital assets
management scheme to understand the impacts of
rapid socio-economic transition on the rural liveli-
hoods.
2.2 Fieldwork
Field data was collected using a combination
of different methods. Semi-structured interviews
were carried out with the farmers from Guojiazhai
Journal of Mountain Science Vol 4 No 1 (2007)
with officials
vey and took place
interview withinofficials
TengchongtookTown (alti-
place in
tude 1600 m).
Tengchong Town (altitude 1600 m).
and Dingzizhai villages, using a combination of
questionnaire and Rapid Rural Appraisal (RRA).
The questionnaire was used to gather comparative
data, but whenever the interviewee had something
interesting to say then the questionnaire was put
aside to enable the interviewee to speak out. This
allowed for a natural flow in the conversation and
for the interviewee to feel relaxed enough to speak
out without hesitation. The questionnaire was used
to explore the five capitals the household possessed,
the technologies and knowledge of dry rice and al-
der rotational farming, and the farmers’ attitude
towards traditional and present land use. The re-
sults from the questionnaire were organised in
Windows ExcelTM; and a Student t-test was carried
out to compare the data sets. Statistical analysis
was limited due to limited sample size (35 inter-
viewees from two villages); and a strong emphasis
was not placed on analysing the correlation be-
tween variables (e.g. the level of income affecting
the consumption of dry rice) but, instead, on dis-
covering new information on a day-to-day basis
that could not possibly have been obtained from
conventional quantitative surveys (Chambers et al.
1989, Chamber 1992). Reliability of information
collected was checked using triangulation tech-
59
SHIRO Chikamatsu et al.

niques, such as asking the same question several
times in different ways, cross-checking it with
other interviewees, and checking it with different
sources such as officials, literature, and people
from outside the village.
Participatory Rural Appraisal (PRA) was car-
ried out in the two villages where the semi-structured
interview took place. In Guojiazhai it focused on their
current forest management practice, and in Dingziz-
hai on their change in income sources over time.
These differences enabled the collection of a variety
of information on farming systems, within the lim-
ited timeframe in the field. Ranking of different
tree species was used for forestry management
PRA and historical timeline was drawn for the
change in income source PRA.
Officials from agriculture and forestry bureaus
were interviewed to understand policies affecting
land use of farmers at the local level.
A simple market survey was carried out to find
out the market price of rice and timber in the
Tengchong market.
A one-day field tour was conducted of Gong-
ping Village with the village head to see the dry rice
cultivation and was followed by a semi-structured
interview with the village head, a secretary and a
villager. This tour enabled an assessment of the
factors for continuing cultivation of dry rice and of
the changes in their farming system over time.

Table 1 Description of the five capitals. (Adapted from Scoones, 1998 and Campbell et al. 2001)

The capital base (cash, credit/debt, savings, and other economic assets) those are essential for
Financial capital
the pursuit of any livelihood strategy.

Social relations such as access to social networks, associations, affiliations, relationship of

Social capital
trust, which people use for their livelihoods.

The natural resource stocks and environmental services from which resources flow and the
Natural capital
services useful for livelihood delivered.

The skills, knowledge, and health of the land users and their ability to work, which allow the
Human capital
land users to secure their livelihoods.

Infrastructure purchased goods and manufactured items that are used to produce and sustain
Physical capital
livelihoods.

2.3 Data analysis used to identify the strengths and weaknesses of

The compiled field data was presented in the
form of historical, capital asset and SWOT
(Strengths Weaknesses Opportunities and Threats)
analyses. Historical analysis was used to identify
the relation between change in policy, introduction
of new technology and the change in farmers’ land
use decision. Other variables such as change in in-
come and change in availability of water resource
are included in this analysis. Capital asset analysis
was carried out to investigate the five capital assets
of Guojiazhai and Dingzizhai villages and how they
have changed over time. The SWOT analysis was
the village’s capital assets and to identify the op-
portunity and threats of external environmental
changes for sustainable rural livelihood of the vil-
lage.
3 Result
3.1 Historical change in land use
According to Hetaoyuan villagers, the alder
and dry rice rotational farming system already ex-
isted during the Ming Dynasty, more than 360

60

years ago (SHEN 2003). Until 1980s, it was com-
mon for the farmers in the Tengchong region to
practice this rotational cropping. From 1955, the
central government set up hukou (household regis-
tration system), to distinguish rural from non-rural
(urban) citizens, and bound the rural citizens to
their own settlements (LIU 2005). This required
rural citizens to obtain a temporary work permit
for working in the cities; only non-rural (urban)
citizens could purchase basic staple products from
state-owned shops using rationed food coupons;
and rural citizens had to be self-reliant on food
(LIU 2005). Dingzizhai and Guojiazhai villagers
cultivated dry rice and alder for subsistence by us-
ing mountain land, since their paddy rice fields
were not sufficiently productive. The land reform
policy (also known as household contract system)
came in force in 1978 (GUO 1995b) and was im-
plemented in Hetaoyuan in 1982; and allocated
each household with collective farmland and
mountain land to manage individually on a lease-
hold basis. Initially the household contract was for
3 ~ 5 years, but was extended to 30 years in 1995.
According to several farmers, paddy rice produc-
tion increased significantly after the land reform
policy, so that most villagers were self-sufficient
from the output of paddy fields alone. During the
collective times the land was owned by the collec-
tives, work time was heavily regulated and grains
were redistributed by the collectives, so that there
were no incentives for individual farmers to work
hard: “It was illegal to work hard”. After the land
reform, individual farmers were motivated to work
hard, since their production was linked to their ef-
fort, and since they were able to flexibly change
their farming practices to fit the local condition and
thus become more efficient. Within three years of
land reform, 56 % and 33 % of farmers in Dingziz-
hai and Guojiazhai stopped dry rice and alder rota-
tional farming since they had become
self-sufficient in food from paddy fields alone.
However, most farmers continued dry rice and al-
der cultivation for another 1 ~ 2 years after the land
reform and then changed to cornfields. This
matched the results from the PRA in Dingzizhai
where during 1980s farmers started to keep live-
stock, which required corn as a fodder. Increase in
crop productivity due to land reform has occurred
at a national scale: From 1978 to 1984, grain pro-
duction increased from 307 million tonnes to 407
Journal of Mountain Science Vol 4 No 1 (2007)
million tonnes, solving most of the chronic food
shortage problems in China (Chen and Davis, 1999).
During 1985, hybrid rice was introduced into Teng-
chong and gradually spread across the county. Due
to its close proximity, Hetaoyuan would have
adapted hybrid rice fairly quickly. Productivity of
hybrid rice was roughly double that of the local va-
riety, thus making most farmers self-sufficient
from paddy production. Chinese fir (Cunningha-
mia lanceolata (Lamb.) Hook.) was introduced
from Wenshen City, Yunnan during 1960s and it is
sometimes called Wenshen fir. Market liberalisa-
tion starting around late 1970s enabled the farmers
to sell Chinese fir timber and buy rice when they
had insufficient production from their own paddy
fields. Chinese fir was easy to grow and it grew fast,
eventually becoming popular for farmers to create
Chinese fir forests in their individually owned
mountain land; replacing alder and dry rice rota-
tional cropping. The local forestry bureau formal-
ised afforestation scheme that gave farmers train-
ing and subsidises to create Chinese fir forest,
which speeded the process of conversion of rota-
tional land into permanent forest. Expansion of
Chinese fir forestry led to a decline in water re-
sources, adversely affecting paddy production.
Currently, several farmers could not meet their
self-consumption levels from their own paddy
fields, but most were not particularly concerned
about it since they could buy rice from the market.
A farmer who did not have adequate land was
planning to revert to dry rice cultivation, renting
land that was left out of cultivation. Change in land
use from dry rice and alder rotational cropping to
Chinese fir forest provided farmers with extra time
to do temporary off-farm work. Temporary off-farm
work and timber sales increased the cash income of
villagers, thereby enabling them to buy seed, fertilizer
and pesticides for hybrid rice production or to just
buy rice from the market.
3.2 Capital asset analysis
Major changes have occurred in the nature of
capital assets after changes in land use from tradi-
tional alder and dry rice rotational farming to con-
ventional Chinese fir forestry and these are sum-
marised in Table 2.
61
SHIRO Chikamatsu et al.

Table 2 Comparison of the capital base of the past (alder and dry rice rotational farming) and the present
(Chinese fir forest) land use

Past (alder-dry rice rotation) Present (Chinese fir forest)

Items

Survival & subsistence Income & surplus generation

Human Labour-intensive Labour-saving
Traditional ecological knowledge New market information & knowledge

Social Inter-village seed exchange Work with forestry extension station

Dry rice require little water & cultivatable

on marginal land
Chinese fir grows fast, & grows on mar-
Alder fixes nitrogen, & alder leaves used as
ginal land
fertiliser for paddy fields
Natural Chinese fir regenerates after logging
Ox used for ploughing paddy field, & dung
used to burn rotational land Chinese fir used as timber & firewood
Alder grows fast, used as poles & firewood
High agrobiodiversity

Some dry rice sold for alcohol processing

Chinese fir with high price
Alder firewood with low price
Financial Chinese fir seed subsidised by Forestry
Processed alder for flooring with high Bureau (now stopped)
price

Alder timber (pest-prone unless proc-

Physical Chinese fir timber pest-free
essed)

3.2.1 Human capital compared to modern farmers. Some farmers favour

While many farmers did not identify any dis-
advantages in the current land use compared with
traditional rotational farming, the older generation
of farmers did significantly (*P<0.05). Traditional
dry rice and alder rotational farming was heavily
reliant on the farmer’s knowledge and cultivation
skills. The quality of soil for dry rice to grow well
was determined by the farmer’s ability to plough
the land well, read the weather conditions and burn
the land adequately. In comparison, the output of
the modern hybrid rice is determined somewhat by
the amount of fertiliser and water used. Thus, tra-
ditional farmers worked much closer with nature
growing paddy rice to dry rice, because they could
apply herbicides and pesticides to control weeds
and pests unlike dry rice cultivation, which re-
quires hard work and good burning skills for suc-
cessful pest and weed control. Modern agricultural
technologies allowed farming activities to be less
dependent on nature and reduced the necessity for
farmers to have the ability to “read” nature.
Older farmers were aware of the detrimental
effects of current land use on the natural environ-
ment, and were able to compare the soil quality of
alder forest with Chinese fir forest. Some younger
farmers also knew about these effects, but were not
too concerned even though their self-consumption

62

needs were not met by the roots of adjacent Chi-
nese fir trees affecting paddy rice and using up its
water supply. They were not so much concerned
about growing crops as about earning cash to buy
food from the market, and using their spare labour
to earn off-farm income. In contrast older farmers
were used to traditional subsistence farming and
less able to earn off-farm income, hence more con-
cerned about the loss of paddy rice fields. Never-
theless, older farmers had extensive knowledge of
dry rice and alder rotational farming system in-
cluding its history and development. 78 % of farm-
ers from both villages felt that their children had
no knowledge of traditional rotational farming, and
some younger farmers in their 30s mentioned of
experiencing this cultivation system once or twice.
Some young farmers in their 30s and early 40s felt
that their children had no knowledge at all of dry
rice. It is quite evident that community knowledge
of dry rice and alder rotational farming, once
transmitted from one generation to the next over
many centuries, is currently being lost.
3.2.2 Social capital
Hetaoyuan farmers exchanged dry rice seeds
with other villages in order to prevent seed quality
degeneration. Some farmers found dry rice varie-
ties from higher altitude with colder climate being
more vigorous, and others found that dry rice va-
rieties could be kept virulent and healthy by
changing their environment. In any case, most
farmers exchanged their dry rice seeds every 2 ~ 3
years, exchanging with other villages on the basis
of seed for seed, for dry rice and/or paddy rice, or
for money. In one instance 60 kg of paddy rice was
exchanged with 50 kg of dry rice seed; in another
instance 0.5 ~ 0.6 Yuan was paid per kg of dry rice
seed; and in yet another instance new rice seeds
provided an estimated 20 % increase in yield. In-
ter-village relationships were critical for maintain-
ing healthy dry rice seeds. After market liberalisa-
tion, farmers purchased hybrid rice seed from the
market and the inter-village exchange system
gradually disintegrated. However, there was a de-
cline in hybrid rice yield, and farmers restarted
exchanging seed among villagers. The link between
social capital (village network) and natural capital
(yield of the crop) in the traditional seed exchange
system has been replaced by institutional capital
(buying the seed in the market) and dependence on
Journal of Mountain Science Vol 4 No 1 (2007)
financial capital.
3.2.3 Natural capital
It seems highly likely that the transformation
of dry rice and alder rotational land into Chinese fir
forest has led to a decline in biodiversity. Guojiaz-
hai farmers used to have 11 native species of trees
suitable for timber, but now Chinese fir dominates
70 % of mountain land. The loss of all dry rice va-
rieties in the local area and the disappearance of
the alder forest have significantly reduced local
species and varieties. The understory of Chinese fir
forest is mostly occupied by highly invasive
non-native weed, Eupatorium adenophorum
Spreng originally from South America (known as
aeroplane weed in China). Plant biodiversity in a
protected forest around a local temple appeared
much higher than that in Chinese fir forest. Alder
was a keystone species for the traditional dry rice
and alder rotational farming, providing ecosystem
services such as nitrogen fixation, water retention
and maintenance of soil fertility. Chinese fir does
not provide these ecosystem services, leading to a
decline in soil fertility, and the subsequent diffi-
culty of land conversion back to farmland. Chinese
fir forests consume high quantities of water causing
localised droughts as seen in the drying up of the
stream close to Hetaoyuan Village and of many
paddy rice fields a day after planting with rice
seedlings. Growth of rice seedlings was slower near
Chinese fir forests than at villages further away,
even under average rainfall. Some Hetaoyuan
farmers were thus changing their paddy rice fields
into cornfields due to low water availability, and
others were converting their paddy rice fields
and/or cornfields to Chinese fir forest due to the
invasion of Chinese fir roots from neighbouring
forests into their farmland. The absence of ecosys-
tem services by alder trees leads to a decline in
natural capital.
3.2.4 Financial capital
Market liberalisation and abolishment of the
ration system enabled farmers to access markets to
buy food and to earn income by selling Chinese fir
timber, thereby contributing to the rapid expansion
of Chinese fir forests. Dingzizhai farmers obtained
30 % of their income from off-farm work and 50 %
from Chinese fir forestry. Farmers with an average
63
SHIRO Chikamatsu et al.
family size according to the village administration
would be earning 5000 Yuan annually, with 2500
Yuan coming from Chinese fir forestry (selling
timber and seedling). The official market price of
Chinese fir timber ranged from 300 to 1000
Yuan·m-3 depending on its diameter (1000
Yuan·m-3 for 30 cm diameter tree), and was sold at
900 Yuan.m-3 in the wood market of Tengchong
town. Farmers found work in cities since Chinese
fir forestry was simple, less labour-intensive and
less time-consuming compared to dry rice and al-
der rotational farming. Farmer could earn 10 Yuan
per day by working in the city or 20 Yuan per day
from stone processing work. Using the mean out-
put of dry rice (230 kg·mu-1·yr-1) (1 mu=1/15 ha),
with mean individually owned mountain land size
in Dingzizhai (6.4 mu) and the current market
price of dry rice in Tengchong town rice market (3
Yuan·kg-1), and assuming a 10-year rotational cul-
tivation, farmers could earn 441 Yuan annually
from their mountain land by selling dry rice (with
extra cash earned by selling alder as fire wood for
80 Yuan·m-3). It is far more efficient financially to
use mountain land for Chinese fir forestry and seek
off-farm work than practicing labour intensive
traditional alder-dry rice agriculture.
Although Chinese fir is the current choice of
trees among Hetaoyuan farmers, some farmers
predicated that the market value for alder timber
will increase in the future making and it will be po-
tentially more profitable to plant alder than Chi-
nese fir. The current market price of alder timber,
processed for flooring, ranges from 500 to 1400
Yuan·m-3; and the price of alder round wood in
Tengchong is 700 Yuan·m-3.
Farmers have to wait 10 years for the Chinese
fir to grow for sale as timber, yet there is no insur-
ance scheme for them. Chinese fir trees are densely
planted and the ground is covered by dry leaf litter,
highly vulnerable to forest fires. The loss of Chinese
fir forest would devastate the financial capital of
village farmers.
3.2.5 Physical capital
Alder and Chinese fir are both usable for con-
struction material, but alder timber is prone to pest
infestation whereas Chinese fir is pest resistant.
Many farmers plan using Chinese fir timber to
build their homes. However, pests of Chinese fir
64
have been identified in other parts of China (Hsiao
1982). Alder processed by steam pressure in a
Tengchong factory for flooring is pest resistant.
3.3 SWOT analysis
Ideas for strategies for sustainable rural live-
lihoods and development in Tengchong were for-
mulated using a SWOT analysis (Table 3).
3.4 Internal strengths to surmount
external threats
Local small farmers with their rich traditional
knowledge and rich agro-biodiversity are con-
fronted by external threats:
(1) Cheap imported mass-produced similar
agricultural products from fertile lands or
subsidised agriculture that potentially displaces
their high-cost local small farm products due to
high transportation costs for local products in
mountainous terrain;
(2) Availability of hybrid varieties and exotic
species from external ‘seed’ companies displaces
traditional knowledge and skills in the selection,
conservation and perpetuation of local ‘seed’ varie-
ties;
(3) Improved transportation infrastructure
(e.g. construction of Tengchong Airport, Baoshan
Highway) potentially threatens to flood local mar-
kets with cheap external agricultural products.
Local small farmers have the potential to sur-
mount these external threats using their internal
strengths to advantage by:
(1) Utilizing their traditional knowledge and
skills on agro-biodiversity (e.g. dry rice, alder) to
stabilise and enhance the local environment, and
producing high-quality niche products;
(2) Collective organization, strategic planning,
bargaining and implementation;
(3) Exploring alternative cost-effective tech-
nologies for adding value to local small-scale prod-
ucts for niche markets and exports at competitive
prices (e.g. camellia tea oil, dry rice alcohol and
processed alder wood); and
(4) Taking advantage of new and improved
transportation infrastructure to reach provincial
and national markets.
 Journal of Mountain Science Vol 4 No 1 (2007)

Table 3 Analysis of internal strength/weakness and external opportunities and threats

Internal analysis - village level

Items Strength Weakness

High agrobiodiversity maintained through in-
formal seed exchange
High yielding hybrid crop
Local nitrogen-fixing soil-friendly and wa-
ter-efficient forest trees (e.g. alder) for fertilis-
ing dry rice in mountain marginal lands
Traditional dry rice varieties grown with little
water and withstand cold climate at high alti-
tude where hybrid rice cannot survive, and
Natural fermented to produce quality beverages
capital
Chinese fir trees water-demanding, cre-
ating localised water shortages &
adversely affecting paddy fields
Chinese fir nutrient-demanding reducing
soil fertility
Potential fire hazard of densely planted
Chinese fir forests
Degeneration of Chinese fir seedlings
Fertiliser and pesticide input required for
hybrid crops

Fast growing trees (e.g. Chinese fir and alder)

for sale in markets, and used as timber & fire-
wood. Farmers plant high value crops and trees
which do not grow well in local environ-
Alder leaf litter composted as fertiliser for
ment
paddy rice
Hybrid seed varieties produced by seed
Grafting technique improves variety (e.g.
companies
camellia tree)
Ox ploughing paddy rice fields

Proximity & access to markets

Physical Small landholding
Individually owned/managed farm and moun-
capital Marginal land
tain land

Increased income due to market access

Purchase of seed, fertiliser and pesticides to Low income from traditional farming
Financial
increase production Lack of insurance & niche markets
capital
Sale of wood to buy rice instead of cultivating
rice in marginal lands for subsistence

Exchange labour and information within

community Unplanned afforestation resulting in lo-
Social capi-
calised water scarcity and shortage / loss
tal Seed exchange to prevent varietal degeneration of soil fertility
(e.g. dry rice, paddy rice)

Rich traditional knowledge held by individuals

High labour input for traditional farming
of community
Human Lack of awareness of traditional farming
Capability to survive environmental hazards
capital and knowledge strengths & values
Capacity to grow diverse plant species
Inability to see beyond market value
Ability to farm with nature

65
SHIRO Chikamatsu et al.

External analysis - regional level

Items Opportunity Threat

Forestry development policy & subsidies en- Removal of subsidy for Chinese fir seed-
Political courage forestry on agricultural lands ling

Opportunities for off-farm work & income Imported exotic commodities preferred
Economic due to industrialisation by traders in local market

Comparable lifestyle among urban and rural Devaluation of traditional knowledge &
Social residents lifestyles

Introduction of hybrid rice Introduction of exotic species without as-

Technology
Timber processing sessing ecological impacts

External analysis – national and international level

Items Opportunity Threat

Land reform policy (converting communal Seed law allowing markets to control seed
Political land into private ownership) breeding, selection and distribution

Flooding of cheap products into local

Exportation of local products with high
markets
market value
Economic National and international timber de-
High value for timber makes it economically
mand met by unsustainable logging in
viable for farmers to plant trees
Myanmar (Kahrl et al. 2005)

World Heritage (UNESCO), and interna-

Large wealth gap between urban and ru-
Social tional value of traditional farming of Yunnan
ral population
province

Top-down technology transfer without

Telecommunications & transportation infra-
Technology much local initiatives & information dis-
structure.
semination

66

3.5 External opportunities to surmount
internal weaknesses
Local small farmers with their traditional
knowledge on agro-biodiversity are in a weak posi-
tion to compete in agricultural production at pro-
vincial and national levels due to:
(1) Marginal lands, poor soils and low produc-
tion levels of agricultural produce;
(2) Non-availability of technical information,
alternative technologies and subsidies and incen-
tives for small-scale farming due to isolation from
mainstream development;
(3) Non-familiarity with formal and market
institutions compared to informal traditional
institutions;
(4) Non-transparent functioning of and
asymmetrical information at local markets con-
trolled by distant provincial and national commer-
cial centres potentially exploiting local farmers;
(5) Inadequate range of provincial institutions
serving rural and small farm development due to
political control by urban elites (e.g. information
dissemination, extension services, complaints sys-
tem, ombudsman tribunals, policing and judicial
systems);
(6) Improved transportation infrastructure
(e.g. Tengchong Airport, Baoshan Highway) poten-
tially force isolated rural farmers to enter into the
mainstream competitive global market without
much preparedness.
Local small farmers have the potential to ex-
port high value agricultural products to provincial
and national markets through the improved trans-
portation facilities provided, and use this opportu-
nity to:
(1) Enhance the structure and transparency of
local Tengchong markets for sustainable rural live-
lihoods;
(2) Strengthen agro-forestry development
through local self-governance systems so as to al-
low local farmers to pursue production without ex-
cessive government intervention (e.g. farmers re-
quiring government permission to fell trees in
mountain lands);
(3) Strengthen agro-forestry policies to allow
local farmers to cultivate crops under forest trees
on mountain land, and forest trees on farmlands so
Journal of Mountain Science Vol 4 No 1 (2007)
as to enhance sustainable timber & non-timber
production.
(4) Strengthen local government institutions
to promote integrated rural development and pro-
vide for sustainable rural livelihoods. However,
they need start-up support from the government.
4 Discussion
4.1 Local “knowledge capital”
Locally shared knowledge could be considered
as an asset distinctive from other five capitals
(physical, financial, human, social and natural
capital). In the case of Hetaoyuan, spatially dis-
persed farmers carefully observed local ecosystem
(human capital) and shared their experience within
the community (social capital), which resulted in
anthropogenic accumulation of collective knowl-
edge, and this enabled the farmers to identify Chi-
nese fir as the cause of localised drought. Local
knowledge capital could be defined as locally spe-
cific knowledge that is dynamic, continually evolv-
ing and its entity is beyond the cognition of an in-
dividual, which is used to support the livelihood
and well being of people. This knowledge would
have been developed, modified and matured within
a long historical timeframe. Individuals could con-
tribute towards accumulation of local knowledge,
and community members as well as non-members
have access to this knowledge through social net-
works. Traditional farming could be described as a
cohesive form of local knowledge capital. It is an
intangible asset that is difficult to quantitatively
measure, but it is this knowledge that enabled the
community to survive in the region until this day.
Knowledge capital stock could be depleted as
people show less interest in it. Loss of appreciation
of traditional dry rice and alder farming by com-
munity members has contributed towards estab-
lishment of ecologically unsustainable forestry,
which was seen as problem by the older generation
with rich traditional farming experiences. For rural
development to be “sustainable”, there is a need to
consider local, community, and/or traditional
knowledge as capital assets in rural development
projects.
Knowledge capital cannot bring about sus-
tainable and viable livelihood on its own. Financial
67
SHIRO Chikamatsu et al.
return from dry rice cultivation was too low for it to
support the livelihood of the villagers in the context
of modernised market economy. It is necessary for
the farmers to have better business relation with
extra locals through improved social networks
(Jenkins 2000) for the dry rice to have the value of
“worth the effort of cultivating it”. Capital assets
can be combined in this way to achieve overall sus-
tainable development (Scoones 1998).
The concept of local knowledge as capital as-
sets would add to a growing list of capitals: There
are conceptualisations of other forms of capital as-
sets such as political, symbolic and cultural capital,
but the importance here is to understand that peo-
ple use various forms of capital to pursuit their
livelihood and bring about their capabilities and
well-being (Bebbington 1999, Scoones 1998). Local
traditional knowledge can potentially promote de-
velopment using local resources; and enable local
communities to actively participate in the process
of rural development. However, it is difficult to
differentiate in local knowledge as “capital” be-
tween “belief” and “knowledge”, and what precise
knowledge makes livelihood unsustainable. The
concept of capital assets needs critical analysis for
consideration in successful rural development
strategies.
4.2 Business strategies for the farmers
Traditional subsistence farming relied on nu-
trient cycling for continuous output of their crops.
Alder played an important role in bringing back
nutrients to the soil and maintaining local water
reserves. Introduction of fertiliser, pesticide and
exotic species dissociates modern farming systems
from local ecosystems. Introduction of exotic spe-
cies, such as Chinese fir and hybrid rice, is based
on output rates, and does not consider complex
processes of species interaction with the local en-
vironment. As a result, Chinese fir caused localised
drought in Hetaoyuan, and hybrid rice yield was
low in Gongping at an altitude around 2000 m,
which is too cold and dry for hybrid rice. Gongping
farmers restarted cultivating dry rice, but used fer-
tilisers and pesticides to maintain high annual
outputs from the same piece of land, resulting in
severe ground pest (grub) problems. While eco-
logical knowledge was relevant in the past, and it
will continue to be important in future farming for
68
viability and sustainability purposes. Ecological in-
tegrity, which “reflects the completeness of evolved
elements and processes over a broad range of or-
ganisational levels and spatiotemporal scales”
(Angermeler 1994) promotes an understanding of
traditional agriculture in terms of conserving
natural biodiversity.
Hetaoyuan farmers successfully adapted to
market liberalisation, by giving up low output dry
rice cultivation and starting more profitable less
labour and time consuming Chinese fir forestry.
With improved cash income and standard of living
farmers can now afford to buy food from the mar-
ket, and local droughts do not adversely affect their
livelihood as it would have in the past. However,
this does not mean that natural capital needs to be
sacrificed for financial capital, since both are es-
sential for sustainable rural livelihoods. Chinese fir
forestry while being economically viable in the
short term is not the only alternative to alder and
dry rice traditional agriculture, since the moun-
tainous terrain of Yunnan has a rich diversity of
other cultivated plant species and varieties with a
high market value. As shown in SWOT analyses,
designing a business strategy by small farmers, ei-
ther individually or in groups, may provide the key
for agricultural products to be economically viable,
such as in the high global demands for organic
foods and traditional herbs and medicines. Ironi-
cally, Yunnan farmers cultivating organic crops are
those who are too poor to afford to buy pesticides
and fertilisers. Upland rice and wild rice are fash-
ionable for example in Europe, Middle East and
Southeast Asia and yet farmers in Tengchong con-
sider upland rice as “poor man’s food”. In-situ
conservation of the dry rice will provide genetic
material, which is a commodity in itself, for the
development of hybrid rice (Arraudeau 1995). It is
obvious that rural farmers do not have access to
market information and to organizational frame-
works (especially ‘upstream’ and ‘downstream’
linkages) necessary for agricultural modernisation.
Policy and institutional frameworks need to enable
rural small-scale farmers to enter the market
economy with ecologically sustainable practices.
Hetaoyuan farmers were very sensitive to prices
and price changes at the scale of local markets.
What is abundant (such as tea oil from camellia
tree) in one region can be scarce and valuable in
other parts of the region (in fact the tea oil is con-

sidered as an Emperor’s oil in China). An institu-
tion allowing farmers to access information and
providing a level ‘playing field’ could help tradi-
tional farmers to sell their traditional agriculture as
niche products at high prices. High-value niche
products from traditional agriculture could com-
pensate for high-labour inputs and low yields per
area, and could revitalise traditional agriculture
and knowledge, as with traditional health products
in India.
Another phenomenon of agricultural
modernisation is the decline of mutual cooperation
amongst traditional farmers. Individual farmers
are entrepreneurial, experimenting with different
types of produce (e.g. horticultural products and
camellia varieties), and yet they are not innovative
in terms of village level natural resource manage-
ment, such as the intensification of localised
drought due to extensive Chinese fir plantation
near water sources. Labour exchange commonly
practiced in the past, was changing to payments for
farm labour making it more difficult for cash-poor
households to secure extra labour. The traditionally
strong social capital of the rural community was
undervalued compared with to financial capital.
Traditional communal linkages may need to be re-
placed by the formation of cooperatives (e.g. farm-
ers’ association) to address common environmental,
information and marketing problems, thereby
reconciling social capital. Farmers’ association
could help identify markets for niche products and
attract investments for ‘downstream’ processing for
added value. For example, dry rice could be proc-
essed into beverage, certified as an organic product,
branded and sold as a luxury item for the high-end
market. Farmers’ association and organisations
could provide services that small scale farmers in-
dividually could not undertake, such as insuring
crops and stabilising markets, and could form
partnerships with the urban consumers (e.g.
through consumer associations) to assess con-
sumer needs, re-evaluate traditional knowledge,
provide consumer with healthy food products and
stabilise market prices. Use of traditional agricul-
tural method will also cut costs such as fertiliser,
pesticide and purchase of hybrid seed from compa-
nies.
In other parts of Tengchong region, farmers
have developed tea/alder intercropping system,
where alder is used for shading the tea and for cre-
Journal of Mountain Science Vol 4 No 1 (2007)
ating leaf compost fertiliser (FAO 2003). Shaded
tealeaves are considered to have a high quality and
fetch high market price. Alder tree is used for cre-
ating tealeaf box since preserves the aroma of tea
for a long time. The high level of agrobiodiversity
in this region and extensive ecological knowledge
obtained through traditional farming practices
makes Yunnan an attractive region for revitalising
sustainable rural livelihoods with economic liber-
alisation.
4.3 Local policies for sustainable
development
There are several entry points for addressing
sustainable rural development (Scoones 1998) in-
cluding the formulation of local policies. Although
there is high demand for timber, national policy
heavily restricts logging in state and privately
owned lands. Harmonisation of national and local
policies restricting unsustainable forestry ex-
ports/imports, protecting land ownership of tradi-
tional farmers and encouraging ecologically sound
traditional agroforestry should provide incentives
for farmers to undertake sustainable forestry prac-
tices, and increase their income from high value
timber and other marketable products.
5 Conclusion
This case study reflects a general trend due to
agricultural modernisation, namely, decline in
agrobiodiversity and loss of traditional knowledge
in many rural societies, leading to unsustainable
use of natural resources (Martin 2001, Altieri
2001). However, it also reveals farmers’ apprecia-
tion of modern agriculture and market economy.
Traditional farming requiring high labour inputs,
time consumption, and lack of access to markets
confined farmers to starvation when they did not
produce enough food. Policy and organizational
frameworks need to be harmonised for technologi-
cal innovation and enterprise by traditional farm-
ers in the face of socio-economic modernisation for
conserving agrobiodiversity and promoting sus-
tainable rural livelihoods.
69
SHIRO Chikamatsu et al.
Acknowledgement
We would like to thank people from Teng-
chong Forestry Bureau, Agricultural Bureau, For-
estry Extension Station, Gongping Village and
Hetaoyuan Village for sharing their valuable
knowledge and participating in our research. Spe-
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