Burning lands and fragile livelihoods in the hills of Myanmar?s southern Chin State.... "Everywhere you look in Myanmar?s isolated southern Chin State in March, the landscape is burning. The crisp morning air quickly turns acrid and smoke fills the valleys, obscuring the impressive peaks of the Arakan Mountains that extend northwest over the border into India. At night, thin lines of orange flame extend off into the horizon, like fiery necklaces draped over the slopes below. Fire is an essential part of the agro-ecological landscape in Chin state. The Chin people, known for the traditional facial tattoos that adorn older Chin women, are predominantly shifting cultivators. Leading up to the rainy season, farmers set fire to the forest to clear and prepare a new patch of land for planting crops of mostly millet, maize and upland rice varieties. After harvest, the land is left to regenerate for five to 10 years, as farmers move on to a new patch of land to repeat the process. Agriculture here is extremely low input. The lack of flat land makes the use of draught animals difficult, and households lack access to fertilisers and irrigation. In fact, in most cases the only input is the labour of the farming household. While shifting cultivation is deeply integrated into the daily experiences of Chin households, farmers here face increasing economic and ecological challenges in improving the livelihoods and food security of their households — particularly in the context of ongoing reforms in the wider Myanmar economy. The hilly terrain, poor soils and lack of irrigation mean that agriculture is often a precarious pursuit, and limited to grain crops of low nutritional value..."