Smallholder Teak and Agrarian Change in Northern Laos |
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| Authors: | Jonathan C Newby R A Cramb Somphanh Sakanphet Sean McNamara |
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| Institution: | (1) School of Agricultural and Food Science, The University of Queensland, St Lucia, QLD, 4072, Australia;(2) Northern Agriculture and Forestry Research Center (NAFReC), Houay Khot Agricultural Research Station, Xieng Ngeun District, Luang Prabang, Lao PDR;(3) Agriculture and Forestry Policy Research Centre (AFPRC), National Agriculture and Forestry Research Institute (NAFRI), P.O. Box 7170, Vientiane, Lao PDR |
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| Abstract: | Smallholder teak (Tectona grandis) plantations have become increasingly prominent in the landscape of Luang Prabang Province, Lao PDR. While the global market
for teak-wood is attractive, investment has been driven by a range of factors, including changes to land legislation, land-use
planning, taxation incentives, and government and non-government programs and promotions. The establishment of teak stands
provides a labour-saving land use for households, potentially freeing up household resources for other farm and non-farm opportunities.
However, the degree to which households can participate in the industry varies within and between villages. This paper reviews
some of the underlying incentives for the expansion of teak plantations, examines the livelihood activities of both teak and
non-teak producers in five case study villages in Luang Prabang, and explores the differential outcomes emerging from the
expansion of smallholder teak production. The survey revealed that teak planting has been more extensive among households
with a longer history of settlement, where the household head is older and better educated, where household members have off-farm
sources of income, and where the household has access to paddy land and is thus more likely to be self-sufficient in rice.
Households that depend on shifting cultivation for their livelihoods, without access to alternative productive land or income
sources, will continue to have difficulty planting teak or holding on to the land they do manage to plant. The paper concludes
that the establishment and improvement of teak plantations, like other apparently technical interventions aimed at providing
a ‘pathway out of poverty’, need to be seen in the context of wider processes of agrarian change and differentiation to appreciate
the resultant impacts on livelihood trajectories. |
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