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| Thailand. Working the fields between Phitsanulok and Sukhothai. The kingdom of Sukhothai, whose name means, "dawn of happiness." Which developed in the twelfth century, was the first great Thai kingdom of the center of Siam. Between the valleys of the Yom and the Nan, the plains are given over to growing rice. Small and medium-sized farms using very little machinery harvest their crop twice a year. Despite a fairly low yield of 1.5 to 2 tonnes of rice per hectare (1,200 to 1,600 pounds per acre), rice takes up three-quarters of the country's arable land and is its chief export; Thailand alone supplies 40 percent of the world market. This success has been achieved at the price of very rapid expansion of the areas devoted to agriculture, to the detriment of the forest. The trend has accelerated since 1960, with crops being grown on stubble by landless peasants. In 1961 the forest occupied 57 percent of the country's surface area, but by 1992 it covered only 20 percent. Since the disastrous floods of 1989, Thailand has prohibited forest-clearing and has been importing wood from Laos, which in turn is cutting into its forest resource. Thus step by step, Asia is being deprived of the forests that used to stabilize its rainfall and climate, as well as its soil. |
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