Documenting the transition to plantation agriculture: Long term and comparative study of ecological change and human impacts

由于全球对农业商品的需求增加，大片土地继续从小农自给作物生产转为种植高回报的即收作物，如可可、棕榈油、木薯、桉树和橡胶。批评者声称，这种转变代表了一个圈地的新时代，构成了“全球土地掠夺”，对社会公平和环境可持续性产生了负面影响。倡导者承认这些变化的影响，但反过来认为，农业商品生产是许多发展中国家对资源基础的最有效利用，也是它们实现经济现代化的最大希望。社会科学家试图了解这些转变对农村人民的影响，同样也存在分歧。许多研究都集中在经济边缘化，伴随着土地的损失和从混合生存经济过渡到依赖工资劳动。然而，一些研究人员已经证明，随着农村居民越来越多地融入国内市场，各种福祉指标实际上得到了改善。该奖项支持关于这一辩论的科学研究：农业转换和重组对当地人民是否有益？由于这一进程在全世界都在发生，包括在美国，它已经持续了一个多世纪，因此必须更好地了解其后果。这项研究将把柬埔寨作为一个可管理和适当的测试案例;在那里，小农失去了他们传统的资源基础，并被降级到新围栏边缘的中间空间。Jonathan Padwe博士（夏威夷大学Mânoa分校）将调查一系列高地村庄的土地使用模式和福祉。他将收集数据，为辩论的双方提供信息：对土地持有、资源使用和社会分化的精细研究，以及关于营养、福祉和家庭经济的数据。 这项研究将对新的土地制度的影响进行共时和历时的衡量。共时分析涉及对一系列村庄的土地使用和福祉的研究，从直接受影响的村庄到间接受影响的村庄。历时分析涉及对一个村庄的土地利用和福祉的比较研究，其中有十年的纵向数据。这项研究的结果将有助于我们了解人类向以种植园为基础的商品生产过渡的影响，为关于全球重要问题的理论辩论和发展政策提供信息。

Because of the rise in global demand for agricultural commodities, large land areas continue to be converted from smallholder subsistence crop production to plantation-based production of highly remunerative immediate-return crops, such as cacao, palm oil, cassava, eucalyptus and rubber. Critics claim that this transformation represents a new era of enclosures and constitutes a "global land grab," which has negative effects on social equity and environmental sustainability. Advocates acknowledge the impacts of the changes but argue in turn that agricultural commodity production represents the most efficient use of the resource base in many developing countries, and their best hope for economic modernization. Social scientists who seek to understand the impacts of these transformations on rural people have likewise been divided. Many studies have focused on the economic marginalization that accompanies loss of land and the transition from mixed subsistence economies to dependence on wage labor. Yet some researchers have demonstrated that various indicators of well-being in fact improve as rural residents become more integrated with national markets. This award supports scientific research on this debate: Is agricultural conversion and restructuring good for local people or not? Because this process occurs throughout the world, including in the United States where it has been ongoing for over a century, it is important to have a better understanding of its consequences. The research will use Cambodia as a manageable and appropriate test case; there, smallholder farmers have lost their traditional resource base and have been relegated to the in-between spaces at the edges of the new enclosures. Dr. Jonathan Padwe (University of Hawai'i at Mânoa) will survey land-use patterns and well-being across a series of highland villages. He will collect data to inform both sides of the debate: fine-scaled study of land-holding, resource use, and social differentiation as well as data on nutrition, well-being, and household economy. The study will make synchronic and diachronic measurements of the impact of new land regimes. Synchronic analysis involves the study of land use and well-being across a range of villages, from those that are directly affected to those that are indirectly affected. Diachronic analysis involves the comparative study of land use and well-being in a single village where ten-year longitudinal data are available. Findings from this research will contribute to our understanding of the impacts of the transition to plantation-based commodity production at a human scale, informing both theoretical debates and development policy on an issue of global importance.