Global COE Program - Kyoto University - In Search of Sustainable Humanosphere in Asia and Africa

This seminar is co-organized by Initiative 2.

Date: June 27, 2008 (Fri.) 16:00 - 18:00PM 
Venue: E107, 1st floor of East Building, CSEAS

Presentation:
Runako von Luebke (Tha Australia National University)

Title: Transformation of village agriculture in the mountainous regions of the northwestern part of Thailand: Influence of market-oriented factors on traditional farming

【Record of Activity】
The features and issues regarding the process of transformation of agricultural form in villages scattered in the mountainous regions of the northwestern part of Thailand during the past several decades can be grasped more clearly by looking at the process viewed as friction between the following two incompatible vectors of economic activities: “maintenance of subsistence of upland and wet rice growing” and “introduction of cash-crops and non-farm activities.” In other words, the former is a traditional farming-type vector and the latter a market-oriented type vector. It can be said that the abovementioned dynamics of agricultural transformation is an expression of the process of trial and error by people in the mountainous regions seeking an “optimum trade-off” between the two vectors.

 

The development of the Karen mountainous regions has been discussed within the dichotomy between the emphasis on culture, centering around political activities declaring the validity of “rotational swidden cultivation” (rai mun wian in Thai) and the emphasis on economics that is its antithesis, so-called “Karen Consensus,” which cites the accompanying negative effects of the cultivation method. In order to understand the present situation and challenges stemming from the transformation of the agriculture of mountainous regions, however, it is necessary to consider both of the arguments in a complementary way.

From this perspective, this study examined five villages in the mountains (three Sgaw villages, one Pwo village, and one Kayah village) inhabited by Karen people located in Mae Hong Son Province, Thailand as the subject of the study and focus on the four major occupations of the Karen people: (1) swidden cultivation for upland rice farming; (2) paddy; (3) cash-crop farming; and (4) waged labor, to demonstrate various aspects of economic activities in different environments. Based on this we sought to elucidate the practical occupations of Karen people.

(Masayuki Yanagisawa)