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ten years, whereas the increase in area planted to rice and other staple food crops hasbeen just enough to maintain the region’s level of per capita food output.The results of the study indicate the important role that access to markets canplay in arresting and reversing the Boserupian decline in labor productivity as population-drivenintensification of land use occurs. Both land and labor productivity werehigher in areas with better market access. The improvement in productivity and incomeresulted mostly from an expansion in cash crop production. Improvements inmarket access also reduced the need to intensify food production in the uplands. Thesefactors may have also generated positive environmental benefits.These positive effects of market access, however, probably would not havematerialized unless the productivity of lowlands increased to improve the food securityof farmers. Unlike in other countries, Vietnamese upland farmers also have somelowland fields in river basins and intermontane valleys. A rapid improvement in theproductivity of lowland fields as a result of policy changes during the mid-1980s wasinstrumental in relaxing food supply constraints to the diversification of land use inthe uplands. In fact, upland rice area, which had expanded rapidly during the 1970swhen lowland rice productivity was low, started to decline after the mid-1980s. Improvementsin market access alone without changes in the productivity of rice in thelowlands would probably not have resulted in more commercial production in theuplands.These results highlight the importance of taking measures to assure food securityas a prerequisite for a move toward more commercialized production systems inthe Asian uplands. In other countries and regions where farmers do not have access tolowlands to secure their food supplies, additional food production must come eitherfrom improvements in the productivity of uplands or through stable marketing channels.Since marketing institutions in upland areas of most Asian countries are poorlydeveloped, improvements in the yield of food crops in uplands through agriculturalresearch and policy reform are needed to encourage changes in land use toward income-generatingactivities.ReferencesArraudeau M, Xuan VT. 1995. Opportunities for upland rice research in Vietnam. In: DenningG, Xuan VT, editors. Vietnam and IRRI: a partnership in rice research. Manila (Philippines):International Rice Research Institute and Hanoi (Vietnam): Ministry of Agricultureand Food Industry. p 191-198.Barbier B. 1998. Impact of market and population pressure on production, incomes and naturalresources in the dryland savannas of West Africa: bioeconomic modeling at the villagelevel. EPTD Discussion Paper No. 21. Washington, D.C. (USA): International FoodPolicy Research Institute.Barbier B, Bergeron G. 1998. Natural resource management in the hillsides of Honduras:bioeconomic modeling at the micro-watershed level. EPTD Discussion Paper No. 32.Washington, D.C. (USA): International Food Policy Research Institute.Boserup E. 1965. The conditions of agricultural growth. New York (USA): Aldine PublishingCo.388 Khiem et al