From land grab to agrarian transition? Hybrid trajectories of accumulation and environmental change on the Cambodia–Vietnam border

TitleFrom land grab to agrarian transition? Hybrid trajectories of accumulation and environmental change on the Cambodia–Vietnam border
Annotated RecordAnnotated
Year of Publication2017
AuthorsBeban A, Gorman T
Secondary TitleThe Journal of Peasant Studies
Volume44
Issue1
Pagination748-768
PublisherTaylor & Francis
Key themesAgriculturalModernization, FDI, MigrationLabour
Abstract

In recent years, thousands of Vietnamese migrant farmers have crossed the border into Cambodia and leased land for export-oriented rice and shrimp production. Based on case studies in two Cambodian border provinces, we argue that these land transfers represent an intersection of broader processes of agrarian change that is re-shaping the Cambodian borderlands into a hybrid socio-ecological zone. Cambodian landlords and intermediaries use unequal access to politico-legal authority and the exclusionary power of the border to leverage control over their migrant tenants, thereby capturing a significant portion of the surplus from the migrants’ high-value commodity production systems and potentially creating new trajectories of agrarian transition.
URLhttps://digitalcommons.montclair.edu/sociology-facpubs/51/
Availability

Available for download
Countries

Cambodia, Vietnam
Document Type

Journal Article

Annotations

Overall relevance: 

This paper demonstrates how the presence of Vietnamese tenant farmers have created conditions for agrarian change in the Cambodian borderlands. Cambodian landlords and intermediaries use unequal access to politico-legal authorities and the exclusionary power of the border to remain key players and beneficiaries over their migrant tenants. The Vietnamese farmers are also considered as catalysts for a nascent agrarian transformation by Cambodian elites.

Key Themes: 
  • Agrarian change and land: Migration and labour - The paper seeks to reveal emerging trajectories of agrarian transition along Cambodia’s border by transferring land to Vietnamese migrant farmers. The Vietnamese have essentially become agents of ecological change, reshaping the ecological relations of production in border areas through both the introduction of new farming systems and the adaptation of these systems to Cambodia’s physical environment and its property regime. The intersection of agrarian trajectories is re-shaping the Cambodian borderlands into a distinctive hybrid socio-ecological zone that reflects the mobile resources of the Vietnamese and the biophysical bases of production in Cambodia.
  • FDI and land access: economic land concessions, contract farming, short term and long term renting - Economic land concessions are directly awarded to Vietnamese migrant tenant farmers who possessed only informal contracts (sometimes unwritten) with landlords. Their illegal status meant they could be dispossessed at a moment’s notice, rendering their long-term presence on the land uncertain and compelling them to hand over a sizable portion of the surplus to landlords (through per-hectare rental payments) and to intermediaries (through monetary informal fees).
Research basis: 

This paper is based on two field visits, in November 2014 and February 2015. It involves quantitative and qualitative data collection techniques based on participant observation and ethnographic interviews with key informants. (Provided by Dar Li Thant)