For centuries swidden was an important farming practice found across the girth of Southeast Asia. Today, however, these systems are changing and sometimes disappearing at a pace never before experienced. In order to explain the demise or transitioning of swidden we need to understand the rapid and massive changes that have and are occurring in the political and economic environment in which these farmers operate. Swidden farming has always been characterized by change, but since the onset of modern independent nation states, governments and markets in Southeast Asia have transformed the terms of swiddeners' everyday lives to a degree that is significantly different from that ever experienced before. In this paper we identified six factors that have contributed to the demise or transformation of swidden systems, and support these arguments with examples from China (Xishuangbanna), Laos, Thailand, Malaysia, and Indonesia. These trends include classifying swiddeners as ethnic minorities within nation-states, dividing the landscape into forest and permanent agriculture, expansion of forest departments and the rise of conservation, resettlement, privatization and commoditization of land and land-based production, and expansion of market infrastructure and the promotion of industrial agriculture. In addition we note a growing trend toward a transition from rural to urban livelihoods and expanding urban-labor markets.Keywords Policies . Political economy . Political ecology . Swidden . Southeast Asia Swidden farmers throughout Southeast Asia are rapidly transforming or abandoning traditional land-use practices (Padoch et al. 2007). In order to explain the demise of swidden we need to understand the political and economic changes that have occurred across the region, affecting the contexts in which these farmers operate. Of course, change has always characterized the milieu within which swiddeners function, and the intensities and rapidity of change in

Seeds from 53 of 64 collections of Loliumperenne from its centre of origin or from old pastures in Europe were found to be infected with endophyte whereas only four of 16 commercial cultivars had infected seed. Almost two thirds of seed samples of L. multijiorum, Festuca arundinacea and F. pratensis collected from plants growing

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Infection of susceptible cultivars of perennial (Lolium perenne) and Italian (Lolium multifiorum) ryegrasses with crown rust {Puccinia coronata) reduced yield measured 6 weeks after infection and at two regrowth cuts. In perennial, but not Italian, ryegrass, rust infection of mixed swards of a resistant and a susceptible cultivar reduced the contribution to yield made by the susceptible cultivar and increased that of the resistant cultivar. This effect persisted for three regrowth cuts. The trend in effect on the number of tillers, but not plant height, was similar.Infection increased leaf protein in susceptible perennial ryegrass but had little effect in Italian ryegrass. In both species, rust reduced water-soluble carbohydrate and the predicted digestibility of susceptible and resistant cultivars, but had no effect on quality of regrowth.

Swidden cultivators are often found as a distinct category of farmers in the literature, but rarely appear in population censuses or other national and regional classifications. This has led to a worldwide confusion on how many people are dependent on this form of agriculture. The most often cited number of 200-300 million dates back to the early 1970s, but the source is obscure. We assess available, published data from nine countries in Southeast Asia and conclude that on this basis it is not possible to provide a firm estimate of the number of swidden cultivators in the region. A conservative range of 14-34 million people engaged in swidden cultivation in the region Hum Ecol (is suggested, however. We argue that along with improved knowledge of swidden livelihoods, there is an urgent need to develop techniques that will allow for better estimates of swidden populations in order to secure appropriate rural development and poverty reduction in swidden areas.