Thank you very much, professor. A question from India..
Question and Answer
Question 1 (Hon. Sat Mahajan, MP, INDIA):
Dr. Shigeto Kawano, professor, you have made a very good speech, and it is
a ve ry elabo-rate paper. But there are two or three things I would like to
say. Sin ce I come from the mountain states of India. The first thing you
said that the socialist economy is shifting to the market economy and the
trucks don't reach. It is adversely affecting the inhabitants of those areas?
Second, you have been laying stress on paddy cultivation, that two percent
of the crop is the paddy, and you said the river's waters cannot be reached.
I fail to under-stand why yo u have not made any suggestion about a crop that
can be grown in those hard are as, as we are growing in India, which lasts
very long. The third point is that you have said that there is going to be
the devastation of forests. Unless you provide the peo-ple food, they have
to destroy it. Ultimately the humanity will suffer, the environment will suffer,
and erosion is bound to take place unless you protect the people and give
them food. And you are giving them 100 dollars per person. Have you made any
scheme, such as an irrigation scheme, which could give them a permanent solution
about increas-ing the area of the paddy growing which with that thirst of
their existence?
Dr. Kawano:
Thank you very much for your comment. The shifting cultivation is not bad.
The exten-sion of the shifting cultivation will result in the destruction
of the fo rest, however. The issue is that we have to improve the productivity
of the shi fting cultivation. Then we will be able to minimize the increase
of the surface area covered by the shifting cultivation. The next issue to
be considered is as follows. What kind of irrigation is to be provided, in
the context of the shift ing cultivation? Cost estimates are necessary for
the irrigation for the shifti ng cultivation is very huge. Even in the shifting
cultivation of the maize and the wheat, such species be further improved in
order to enhance the productivit y, as well as the selection of the fertilizer
should be well improved. Therefor e there are a certain ways and measures
to be taken to improve the shifting cul tivation. But in the past decade,
for the first time in the history, the wester n countries are now getting
into the country for the cooperation. Up until a de cade ago, the Lao PDR
was quite separate from the global community. However now adays, at last,
the Lao PDR is ready to develop as a member of the global socie ty, to be
supported by the ODA or the other systems. I'm sure that instead of t he reallocation
of the people from the middle and the upland to the lowland are a, we will
be able to do something to maintain the shifting cultivation. In the context
of the forestry. we have to take a certain measurement in order to main tain
a certain coverage of the forest while increasing the productivity of the
forestry goods. Lat me also add, there is
