Alternatives to land grabbing: exploring conditions for smallholder inclusion in agricultural commodity chains in Southeast Asia

Abstract

The International Center for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT) believes that open access contributes to its mission of reducing hunger and poverty, and improving human nutrition in the tropics through research aimed at increasing the eco-efficiency of agriculture. CIAT is committed to creating and sharing knowledge and information openly and globally. We do this through collaborative research as well as through the open sharing of our data, tools, and publications.

A multiscale gaming approach to understand farmer’s decision making in the boom of maize cultivation in Laos

“…Both large agribusinesses and smallholder farmers have engaged in crop booms (Hall 2011, Cramb et al 2017. The surge of largescale land acquisitions for cash crop production, particularly in the last decade, has been in the spotlight of media and research communities as drivers of land-use change and the commodification of farming (Rulli et al 2012, Heinimann and Messerli 2013, Kugelman 2013, Hirsch and Scurrah 2015.…”

“…They have appeared repeatedly in different countries of Southeast Asia and are driven by the international market demand of land-based commodities such as palm oil, rubber, banana, coffee, or hybrid maize (van den Top 1995, Fox and Castella 2013, Cramb et al 2017). Within a decade or less, a particular crop expands rapidly and can quickly disappear again.…”

“…Each decision bears consequences for the whole land use at the household, village, or regional level. Although crop booms bring economic growth on an aggregate level, they can also foster land degradation and inequality, e.g., between early adopters and others (Rigg and Vandergeest 2011, Byerlee 2014, Cramb et al 2017.…”

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“…Cassava (Manihot esculenta Crantz) is a perennial root crop originating from the tropical Americas 51 (Nassar and Ortiz, 2009), and grown on >3.5 M ha in Southeast Asia, primarily as a smallholder cash 52 crop serving global starch-based industrial markets (Cramb et al, 2017). From 2000-2016, Cambodia 53…”

“…Vietnamese factories predominantly process starch from fresh roots, or 58 produce dried chips for export, while the Cambodian sector primarily exports raw materials (either 59 fresh roots or dried chips) to neighboring Vietnam and Thailand for processing and re-export (SNV, 60 2015). The Southeast Asian market as a whole is driven largely by derived demand from Chinese 61 industrial processors (Cramb et al, 2017). 62…”