Agriculture in the Malaysian Region


Book Description

Malaysia's transition from a country dependent on agriculture and mining to an industrialized society is readily apparent, but the process of change remains poorly understood. When R.D. Hill began studying agriculture in Malaysia, Singapore and Brunei in the 1960s, he found swiddening, market-gardening, semi-commercial wet-rice cultivation and large scale plantations. Today, Malaysian agriculture has become highly capital-intensive and increasingly specialized, and many forms of production have all but disappeared. Once dependent on the export of primary products such as tin, rubber and palm oil, Malaysia is now an industrialized, middle income country. Singapore has nearly abandoned its primary sector. This completely revised edition of Hill's 1982 study, with two lengthy new chapters, explains the evolution of agriculture in Malaysia, Brunei and Singapore over the last forty years, with particular attention to the agro-ecosystems of the major crops.







Sustainable Agriculture and the Environment in the Humid Tropics


Book Description

Rainforests are rapidly being cleared in the humid tropics to keep pace with food demands, economic needs, and population growth. Without proper management, these forests and other natural resources will be seriously depleted within the next 50 years. Sustainable Agriculture and the Environment in the Humid Tropics provides critically needed direction for developing strategies that both mitigate land degradation, deforestation, and biological resource losses and help the economic status of tropical countries through promotion of sustainable agricultural practices. The book includes: A practical discussion of 12 major land use options for boosting food production and enhancing local economies while protecting the natural resource base. Recommendations for developing technologies needed for sustainable agriculture. A strategy for changing policies that discourage conserving and managing natural resources and biodiversity. Detailed reports on agriculture and deforestation in seven tropical countries.




Cutting Across the Lands


Book Description

An annotated bibliography focused on Borneo and the Southern Philippines. With over 1,000 citations, this reference work identifies patterns of forestland transformation common to the areas under consideration. A subject index is included.




The View from Within


Book Description




Technology For Rural Development - Proceedings Of The Second Asian Conference On Technology For Rural Development


Book Description

In the last few years there has been a revival of interest in the old idea that spacetime may have more than four dimensions, all but four having been curled up into a small circumference. In this view the various particles and interactions we see at ordinary energies arise from a simple, perhaps purely geometrical, theory in higher dimensions. This idea has profound implications for elementary particle physics and cosmology, and raises challenging problems of mathematics. These matters were the topic of the Second Jerusalem Winter School of Theoretical Physics.