Temporal Land Resource Concerns and Farming Systems Research: Chiang Mai Valley, Northern Thailand

While farming systems research uses a wide range of information about farm-level production and consumption systems to identify ways to increase production, it tends to concentrate on short-term productivity gains. Unless a systemic approach capable of longer term concerns is adopted in the research and development phase, unforeseen effects may appear after large-scale adoption by farmers, leading to widespread and serious damage. Field data from the Multiple Cropping Project (MCP) in the Chiang Mai Valley in Northern Thailand reveals that agricultural intensification and the use of new high-yielding varieties and chemical fertilizer led to increased yields, but also caused changes in the environment, including chemical and structural changes in the soil. After yields increased in 1971, they steadily declined until, in 1977, the yields were again at 1969 levels.