The current study attempts to examine whether large-scale agricultural investment of this type benefits the poor and how this investment can be implemented to increase benefits for the poor. It is arguable whether the poor need more land to grow crops to meet their food security requirements or need to benefit from large-scale agricultural investment in Cambodia. Although the poor households are capable of operating small plots of a few hectares each, they generally lack capital and the means to work large chunks of new land with forests or degrade forests.

FIRST PARAGRAPH OF OVERVIEW: This paper is part of a study “Policy Analysis for the Development of Land Policy for Socio- Economic Development.” Land policy relates to the institutional arrangements through which the Government of Vietnam defines which individuals and groups have access to rights in land and the circumstances that apply to gaining and retaining that access.

Agricultural accumulation has been one of the main source determined the social differentiation in Vietnamese countryside. The complexities of agrarian changes under the post - socialist industrialization with high rate of agricultural land conversion in recent context reveal the new forms of capital accumulation and social differentiation. This research investigates how land conversion process to industrial zones and clusters affected to the way that different groups of peasant households accumulate their resources.

ABSTRACTED FROM INTRODUCTION: Lao PDR is the least densely populated country in Asia and has long been remote and isolated from the rest of the continent. This role has only recently begun to change. The geographic location of Laos between the booming economies of Thailand, Vietnam, and China has led to the perception of Laos as a potential crossroads of the tightly integrated GMS an organization promoting trade, tourism, and development between countries through which the Mekong River runs. However, this is a role it has been somewhat reluctant to accept.

ABSTRACTED FROM THE INTRODUCTION: This is a study of the rice economy in Myanmar. It seeks to identify barriers and bottlenecks that are hindering growth and depressing value in a sector that must play a central role in alleviating the extreme poverty that currently afflicts an expanding proportion of rural households.

This study discusses the innovation adoption of leading farmers and their problems and suggestions. A focus group discussion was conducted on leading farmers of the Tram Kak District, Takeo Province, Thailand, who first adopted the system of rice intensification (SRI). Findings showed that leading farmers observed the system of rice intensification (SRI) after attending the training course which was organized by Centre d'Etude et de Développement Agricole Cambodgien (CEDAC).

INTRODUCTION: Over the last 30 years, the context of development in Cambodian has undergone dramatic changes. A succession of deep transformations, characterized by a complete restructuring of institutional and socio-economic environment, has resulted in a singular situation. Cambodian society remains largely agrarian, with land being the corner stone of the production system for a large majority of the population.

In Vietnam, forest devolution policies were implemented in the early 1990’s under which the government transferred management power over large areas of forested land previously controlled by the state forest enterprises or local authorities to local households. The government believes that implementing devolution policies would improve local livelihoods for the upland poor and stabilize forest conditions to increase forest cover.

The transition to a market economy has sparked Vietnam's unprecedented urbanization and industrialization. In order to accommodate the spiraling land demand triggered by urban and economic growth, the Vietnamese government has been using the mechanism of compulsory acquisition at an astounding scale to convert massive amount of agricultural land to urban land for non-agricultural uses. A large number of the country's poorest, most vulnerable citizens have been forced out of their land to make way for development projects, yet, they are also the group that have least benefited from them.

The research team set out to answer three research questions: 1) What are rubber investment’s key features with regard to the investment process, investor identity, location, activities and scale? 2) How was the “upland” landscape originally zoned and mapped as part of the LFA process, and later re-zoned and mapped by local authorities and foreign investors? 3) What are the impacts of rubber investment in upland areas on the land use and livelihoods of the villagers involved?

INTRODUCTION: The following report has been compiled to bring to the attention of a wider audience many of the problems facing the people of Burma, especially its many ethnic nationalities. For many outside observers, Burma’s problems are confined simply to the ongoing incarceration of Nobel Laureate Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, the country’s democratically elected leader, and many other political prisoners. However, as we hope to show in the following report, this is only one of very many human rights abuses that provide obstacles to the people’s hope for democracy.

ABSTRACTED FROM INTRODUCTION: Since đổi mới, Vietnam witnesses a rapid urbanization and industrialization, which leads to conversions of a large area of agricultural land and other types of land, and this has forced thousands of farmer households to change their traditional livelihoods and even their lives. Using the lens of a sustainable livelihoods framework, this study analyzes and explains the questions of how, in what ways and to what extent agricultural land conversions have been affecting farmer livelihoods in one peri-urban Hanoi village.