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Lowland Khon Muang agriculture: dynamics of a system in change

Zolvinski, Stephen Paul
http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1078949387

Abstract Details

2004, Doctor of Philosophy, Ohio State University, Anthropology.
This study examines the causes and effects of agricultural change in a lowland Khon Muang hamlet in Mae Chaem District, Chiang Mai Province, Thailand. Lucien Hanks’ classic study of agricultural change in the Central Plain of Thailand drew upon agricultural economist Ester Boserup’s emphasis on population growth to explain farmers’ intensification of irrigated rice fields. This study applies Hanks’ model to a northern Thai multi-cropping hamlet in an intermontaine valley, which overcame annual rice deficits two decades ago due to the introduction of high-yielding rice varieties by a Royal Thai Government-U.S. Agency for International Development project. Rice yields have nearly tripled, providing food security for the hamlet. Meantime, farmers have expanded to cash-cropping in harvested rice paddies and to ecologically vulnerable hills where they grow seed maize under contract to the Thai multinational agroindustrial firm, Charoen Pokaphand Group. This study found that 76 percent of the hamlet’s agricultural land area was in hill crops, or five times the amount of ground in rice paddies. Continuous hill production can pose potential problems for watershed functioning and the ecological stability of the highland area. In addition to the development intervention, an extensive road system is an impetus for change by linking farmers to middlemen and outside markets. The study concludes that Boserup’s population thesis is too reductionistic because the changes in this hamlet occurred while population stabilized. Hanks’ overall model provides some insight because its holism takes into account state interventions in terms of infrastructure improvements and the effects of globalization. This study conforms that environmental deterioration is not necessarily the result of poverty or low-producing agricultural systems, but it can be due to a state-promoted “development dynamic,” as asserted by geographer Philip Hirsch. This study also contributes to our understanding of northern Thai agriculture by including homegardens in the analysis. Homegarden production is often slighted in Thai agricultural studies, but is important in terms of household subsistence, ritual life, and also provides economic benefits.
Chung-min Chen (Advisor)
Robert Agunga (Other)
Richard Moore (Other)
Amy Zaharlick (Other)
257 p.
Anthropology, Cultural
Chaem; Mae Chaem; Mae; Thai; Baan; Baan Lek; hamlet

Recommended Citations

Citations

  • Zolvinski, S. P. (2004). Lowland Khon Muang agriculture: dynamics of a system in change [Doctoral dissertation, Ohio State University]. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1078949387

    APA Style (7th edition)

  • Zolvinski, Stephen. Lowland Khon Muang agriculture: dynamics of a system in change. 2004. Ohio State University, Doctoral dissertation. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center, http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1078949387.

    MLA Style (8th edition)

  • Zolvinski, Stephen. "Lowland Khon Muang agriculture: dynamics of a system in change." Doctoral dissertation, Ohio State University, 2004. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1078949387

    Chicago Manual of Style (17th edition)

osu1078949387
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This open access ETD is published by The Ohio State University and OhioLINK.