Indiscriminate felling of trees for fuel, timber and fodder, combined with increased grazing pressure on open-access land is increasing soil erosion, reducing water retention, destroying biodiversity, reducing carbon retention and wasting potential income from forest products. Of course there are many areas of research which offer promise of reducing rural poverty, raising agricultural productivity, while minimizing damage to the environment. Below are just a few broad areas that are not being adequately addressed at this time. While it is commonly believed that Asian agriculture relies more on male labor, women contribute between 10 and 50 percent of labor for various crops. Women achieve this importance in tropical agriculture even though they often cannot own or inherit the land on which they work.
Women often have difficulty obtaining improved seeds or fertilizer or technical information.
Thus in many countries women small holder farmers are the under-performers in agricultural production. However, studies have shown that, given equal access to resources and expertise, they often achieve much higher yields than do men. Since women often use their additional r esources to invest in family welfare, this has potentially greater immediate and long-term impact on poverty and hunger than increased incomes for men. Tapping unused local knowledge Subsistence farmers living in hundreds of ecological zones have acquired invaluable knowledge of genetic stock, cultivating techniques, and natural resource management that can contribute to developing sustainable farming systems of the future But lit tle of this heritage of learning and insight is ever recorded. The key to further advances lies in building institutional bridges between farmers and research and extension services.