The agrarian transition in the Mekong Region: pathways towards sustainable land systems

TitleThe agrarian transition in the Mekong Region: pathways towards sustainable land systems
Annotated RecordAnnotated
Year of Publication2024
AuthorsEhrensperger A, Nanhthavong V, Beban A, Gironde C, Diepart J-C, Scurrah N, Nguyen A-T, Cole R, Hett C, Ingalls M
Secondary TitleJournal of Land Use Science
Volume19
Issue1
Pagination1-23
PublisherTaylor & Francis
Key themesEnvironment, FDI, Formalisation-titling, Gender, MarginalisedPeople
Abstract

The agrarian transition, with its rapid growth in land-based investments, has radically altered agrarian and forest landscapes across the Mekong Region. These processes were enabled and accelerated by choices of actors in the public and private sectors with the aim of alleviating poverty and boosting socioeconomic development. We examine to what extent these goals were achieved and for whom, with a focus on poverty allevia- tion, gender equality, and forest conservation. Our descriptive assessment shows that the sustainability outcomes of the agrarian transition offer a highly variegated picture that is often not reflected in national level statistics used for monitoring the distance to target towards achieving the 2030 Agenda. Based on our findings, we sketch pathways for a more sustainable agrarian transition in the region. These pathways are explored in greater detail in three framing papers of the special issue “Agrarian Change in the Mekong Region: Pathways towards Sustainable Land Systems’.
URLhttps://doi.org/10.1080/1747423X.2024.2288728
Availability

Available for download
Countries

Cambodia, Laos, Regional
Document Type

Journal Article

Annotations

Overall relevance: 

The agrarian transition in the Mekong region has been driven by the rapid growth of commercial agricultural and land-based investments, profoundly transforming agrarian and forestry landscapes. In this paper, the authors assess the impacts of policies promoting agricultural commercialization and land-based investments on poverty alleviation, gender equality and forest conservation – all of which are crucial for achieving Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Their assessment does not show strong correlations between the agrarian transition and poverty reduction, gender equality, or forest conservation, highlighting the increased marginalization of some sectors of society (the poor, ethnic minorities), widened gender disparities, and loss of forests and biodiversity. The paper outlines possible pathways for a more sustainable and equitable agrarian transition for countries in the Mekong region, which will be crucial to meet their respective SDGs.

Key Themes: 
  • Land and the environment: pollution, deforestation, climate change, conservation zoning - Forest loss features centrally in the agrarian transition because the expansion of agriculture is a key driver of deforestation across the region. Forest clearance gives way to agriculture to meet the need for land of growing rural populations as well as agribusiness actors investing in crop plantations, particularly through the issuing of large-scale land concessions. While large agro-industrial concessions have been (rightly) blamed for much of the deforestation that has occurred in countries like Cambodia over the past two decades, deforestation occurring outside agro-industrial concession areas is also very significant.
  • FDI and land access: economic land concessions, contract farming, short term and long term renting - Policy objectives towards commercial, export-oriented production of agricultural commodities lie at the heart of the contemporary agrarian transition in the Mekong region. Governments have facilitated land-based investments by the private sector and also engaged smallholder communities in remote locations in commercial production. These trends have contributed to economic growth and poverty reduction for some, but benefits have not been equally shared and there have been negative impacts on marginalized people and the environment.
  • Land rights recognition/formalization/titling/collective tenure - Governments in the region have adopted policies that benefit corporate and agribusiness actors by offering below-market rates for land, facilitating land acquisition through concessions, promoting monoculture systems and the export of commodity crops, and by focusing tenure security enhancement in urban and peri-urban areas at the expense of rural and agricultural ones. Securing land tenure rights of Indigenous people and smallholder farmers is a fundamental policy requirement to foster more equitable agro-commodity production that includes local management of land and forest resources, as well as investment by and for smallholder farmers in more sustainable and diversified practices.
  • Gender and land - Access to and control over land is deemed essential to achieve gender equality and women’s empowerment. Yet, measuring progress towards these goals is difficult because datasets on agriculture and food security are not sex disaggregated and there is a lack of relevant information and indicators. Nevertheless, there is mounting evidence through studies that contemporary processes of agrarian change overall are negative for gender equality in the region, despite the development of laws promoting better gender equality and women’s rights to land. Women bear a high ‘triple burden’ of unpaid care work, unpaid family farm work, and wage work, which limits their potential to benefit from agricultural commercialization.
  • Marginalized people's land rights and access: ethnic minorities, poor and women - The paper demonstrates that poorer and socially marginalized communities, particularly those living in rural areas with low land tenure security, in state forest areas, or in areas with a high proportion of ethnic minorities, have been excluded from wider gains in national development. The authors highlight the need for targeted support for vulnerable groups and collective platforms such as farmer networks and cooperatives to help to reverse the poverty-inducing consequences of land-based investments and uptake of cash crops in the context of weak governance and legal enforcement.
Research basis: 

The article examines the impacts of the agrarian transition on livelihoods and poverty (SDG 1), disparities and gender equity (SDG 5), and the environment (SDG 15). The article takes an approach of zooming in on specific sub-national contexts to illustrate examples of the three themes, where available data with sufficient quality and resolution is available. Impacts of the agrarian transition on poverty is based on village level poverty data in Laos taken from the national census of 2005 and 2015 and a comprehensive assessment of land-based investments. Examination of the effects of the agrarian transition on gender is based on a review of relevant global reports by NGOs and UN agencies, scientific literature, as well as national level figures. The impact of agricultural concessions on forest cover in Cambodia draws on publicly available regionally consistent datasets. (Provided by Promnea Vong)