Economy

For those Montagnards growing upland rice, the traditional economy was based on swidden, or slash-and-burn, farming. A village community would clear a few acres in the jungle by cutting down or burning the forest and allowing the fodder to enrich the soil. Next the community would farm the area for 3 or 4 years, until the soil was depleted. Then the community would clear a new swath of land and repeat the process. A typical Montagnard village might rotate six or seven agricultural sites but would let most lie fallow for a few years while they farmed one or two until the soil needed to be replenished. Other villages were sedentary, particularly those that adopted wet rice farming. In addition to highland rice, crops included vegetables and fruits. Villagers raised buffalo, cows, pigs, and chickens and hunted game and gathered wild plants and herbs in the forest.

Slash-and-burn farming began to die out during the 1960s because of the war and other outside influences. After the war, the Vietnamese government began to lay claim to some of the lands for the resettlement of mainstream Vietnamese. Swidden farming has now all but ended in the Central Highlands. Increasing population density has required other farming methods, and the Montagnards have lost control of ancestral lands. Large-scale government-controlled farming schemes, with coffee being the major crop, have been implemented in the area. Tribal villagers survive with small garden plots, growing cash crops such as coffee when the market is favorable. Many seek jobs in the growing villages and towns. However, traditional discrimination against the Montagnards restricts employment for most.

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