Nutrient budgets, soil fertility management and livelihood analysis in Northeast Thailand: a basis for integrated rural development strategies in developing countries

In Northeast Thailand, the sustainability of rainfed lowland rice-based systems, the dominant land-use system (LUS) in the region, is a concern for livelihood development in this relatively poor area of the country. Poor soil fertility and low inputs are considered major causes of the sustainability problems. Similar problems exist for a wide range of LUS in the developing world. Reversal of such developments requires integrated rural development strategies aimed at breaking the environment-poverty downward spiral.

The key hypothesis for this thesis is that, efficient and effective, rural-development strategies, aimed at the twin-objectives of sustainable natural resource management (SNRM) and improved and sustainable livelihood development, require ‘innovative’, i.e. more participatory, integrated and holistic approaches, while following a strict priority setting by combining holistic concepts and a small selected set of participatory, integrated and/or complementary analyses to keep efforts manageable and result-oriented...