Processes of inclusion and adverse incorporation: oil palm and agrarian change in Sumatra, Indonesia

Changes in globalised agriculture raise critical questions as rapid agricultural development leads to widespread social and environmental transformation. With increased global demand for vegetable oils and biofuel, in Indonesia the area under oil palm has doubled over the last decade. This paper pre...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:	The Journal of peasant studies 2010-10, Vol.37 (4), p.821-850
Main Author:	McCarthy, John F.
Format:	Article
Language:	eng
Subjects:	adverse incorporation Agrarian Structures Agribusiness Agricultural Development Agricultural policy Agricultural production Agriculture Agriculture - economics Agriculture - education Agriculture - history Agriculture - legislation & jurisprudence Asia, Southeastern - ethnology Biodiesel fuels biofuel Biofuels Biofuels - economics Biofuels - history Commodity market Commodity markets Crops, Agricultural - economics Crops, Agricultural - history Demand Economics - history Economics - legislation & jurisprudence Farming Globalization History of medicine History, 20th Century History, 21st Century Indonesia Indonesia - ethnology Intervention Markets Narratives oil palm Petroleum Plant Oils - economics Plant Oils - history Social Change - history Social differentiation Southeast Asia Space and Time Sumatra Vegetable oils Villages
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Summary:	Changes in globalised agriculture raise critical questions as rapid agricultural development leads to widespread social and environmental transformation. With increased global demand for vegetable oils and biofuel, in Indonesia the area under oil palm has doubled over the last decade. This paper presents a case study of how micro-processes that are linked to wider dynamics shape oil palm related agrarian change in villages in Sumatra, Indonesia. It pursues related questions regarding the impact of agribusiness-driven agriculture, the fate of smallholders experiencing contemporary agrarian transition, and the impact of increased demand for vegetable oils and biofuels on agrarian structures in Sumatra. It argues that the paths of agrarian change are highly uneven and depend on how changing livelihood strategies are enabled or constrained by economic, social and political relations that vary over time and space. In contrast to simplifying narratives of inclusion/exclusion, it argues that outcomes depend on the terms under which smallholders engage with oil palm. Distinguishing between exogenous processes of agribusiness expansion and endogenous commodity market expansion, it finds each is associated with characteristic processes of change. It concludes that the way successive policy interventions have worked with the specific characteristics of oil palm have cumulatively shaped the space where agrarian change occurs in Sumatra.
ISSN:	0306-6150 1743-9361