Improving food security through sustainable watershed development

About the book: In the Mae Tun Watershed of Northwestern Thailand, the environment has been degrading rapidly over the last 30 years due to the commercial logging of hardwoods and forest clearing for commercial farming systems. The demand for food and fuel wood is increasing because of the high population growth. The result is that household food security is threatened due to diminishing availability and use of forest food resources, fewer income earning opportunities for the rural poor and increased burdens on households in meeting their basic needs. In working out solutions to these problems, this piece of research has attempted to use methodologies such as Satellite Imagery Analyses (SIA) and Geographical Information Systems (GIS) for investigating land use issues related to small-scale farming. The combined methodology of SIA and GIS has been developed for mapping land suitability classes for small-scale farming based on the available data for different factors taken into account in this study. In order to develop sustainable watershed management, agriculture systems and improving food security, effective land use monitoring is essential. It is necessary first to assess the land use pattern and its suitability for small farming system, so that protective measures can be taken and better decision-making can be achieved for policy planning and implementation.