Abstract
There continues to be much debate in anthropology concerning the mechanism by which agricultural intensification takes place and its impact on labor efficiency, farm diversity, and quality of diet. A major reason for this lack of consensus is the paucity of data from case studies that focus on specific agricultural systems at the point of transition from extensive to intensive methods of cultivation. Research in a frontier community in the Philippines, where farmers are making the shift from swidden cultivation to small-scale irrigated rice production, indicates that intensification does not necessarily result in lower efficiency or a decline in dietary standards. Rather, farmers faced with growing population pressure and an unproductive short fallow swidden system have been motivated to adopt irrigation because it increases the efficiency of their labor while maintaining a reliable and diverse farming system.
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Conelly, W.T. Agricultural intensification in a Philippine frontier community: Impact on labor efficiency and farm diversity. Hum Ecol 20, 203–223 (1992). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00889079
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00889079