Agriculture on the steep slopes of tropical America: Current situation and prospects for the year 2000

We examine agricultural and social indicators of the tropical American steep slopes. For the whole region, these areas currently produce between 20 and 40% of total agricultural output, have 20–50% of total agricultural land in annual crops, contain 30–50% of the farming population, and have the worst poverty. A similar situation appears likely for the year 2000. Viable development strategies for the steep sloped areas will involve increased agricultural productivity and off-farm employment to reduce poverty, economic incentives to preserve the resource base, and research into sustainable production systems for the part-time small farmers who are common there.