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Case study in Son La and Lam Dong Provinces PROPOOR LAND CONSOLIDATION: Issues related to Ethnic Minorities. 1/2013. Rationale of the Research. Land consolidation (LC) is happening in all over the country, which has impacts on different ethnic minority groups and under different modalities
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Case study in Son La and Lam Dong Provinces PROPOOR LAND CONSOLIDATION:Issues related to Ethnic Minorities 1/2013
Rationale of the Research • Land consolidation (LC) is happening in all over the country, which has impacts on different ethnic minority groups and under different modalities • It has changes farming effectiveness, product quality and income value per unit of land • It stringers changes in land use, labor structures in the society, which may cause “land loss”, lack of on-farm employment and negative impacts on the social structure • It is a solution to develop agriculture commodities which producers apply as an advantage • How LC has taken into account the perspectives of the poor and ethnic minorities?
Study in Son La and Lam Dong • Selecting production entities as a research object to describe LC solutions and its impacts on relevant stake holders • Case study, qualitative research methodology • Describe perspectives of different stake holders, especially ethnic minorities who involve in LC • In depth interview 46 households, 5 group discussions, interview 5 companies, 10 governmental departments, People Committee in 8 communes, 7 village leaders
Ethnic Minorities in Son La and Lam Dong • Son La has more than 1 mil people belonging to 12 ethnic groups . Ethic minorities accounts for over 80%; Thai – 55%, H’mong – 12%, Muong – 8.4%, Dao – 1.82%, Kho Mu – 1.89% and other groups • Lam Dong has over 40 ethnic groups – 1 mill people. Ethic minorities account for 33%: K’ho – 12%, Ma – 2.5%, Nung – 2%, Tay, Hoa – 1.5 %, Chu Ru – 1% and other groups
Production Entities that has Land Consolidated • Companies • State Joint Stock company (Son La Joint Stock Rubber Company) • Lam Dai Ltd. Company (100% foreign owned, producing vegetables) • Maya Ltd. Co (100% foreign owned) • Cooperatives • A cooperative which its founder members is ethnic minorities (Sơn La) • A cooperative which has no ethnic minority (Lam Dong)
Land Consolidation in Different Cases • LC reflects the specialization approach of the production entities in order to exploit the local natural resources, social and technical advantage (farmers contributing land to the joint venture, contract farming, companies leasing land from farmers) • Time period of LC depends on the availability of supporting policies and the results of the production entities • The “specialization” solution and “capacity of the farmers who has land use rights” decides the cooperation modalities between the land use right holders - farmers and the production entities in LC
Reason to choose the modality of Land Consolidation* Case study Sơn la *Perspective of the interviewees ** Number of farmers in the interview minutes
Change of Labor Structure • Changing the position of land use right holders (from employers to employees) • Change the labor relations (from having full autonomy to make decision to depending on the decision of the production entities) • Change the characteristic of asset accumulative production to commodity production. Reduce opportunities to select products/commodities which is suitable to their farming capacity • Promote (cooperatives) and eliminate (rubber company) the simple emerging agri production models in the locality
Changes of Income • Income changes : change of income is often compared between salary received and past income from the land contributed to the company. None of “farmer shareholder” knows how many % of the company value that they are holding, the profit sharing mechanism… • Having income from land lease (in Lâm đồng) • Change of income is corresponding with the level of labor invested (contributing land to cooperatives) • Changing the “face” of community: (i) reducing poverty gap the poor get better off, the better-off become poorer (Son La rubber company); (ii) not get out of poverty/reducing livelihood opportunities (L Đ)
Changes of Traditional Social Structure • Correspondent with change of production model at household and community levels • Changes of household decision making related to organizing production, labor division, redistributing income in household • Role of the elderly and skilled full producers reduces. Risk of negative impacts on indigenous knowledge with local product characteristic and culture identity • Time for cultural activities and festival shorten and in smaller scale
Who decides Land consolidation Son La case study
Discussion: Effectiveness of Land Consolidation (Son La) • In line with the industrialization objectives of the locality • Leading to many households under the “safety” level • Eliminate simple emerging production models • “Assimilate” community to be the sole worker class • LC exploits natural and policy advantages, rather than social, technical and culture advantages • Erosion of cultural values, indigenous knowledge through different production development stages of LC
Discussion: Effectiveness of Land Consolidation (Cooperatives) • Limit the dynamic of production entities because they can not consolidate big land area • Within the “safety” level of households • Create opportunities for market access and to develop commodities with indigenous knowledge • No significant change of income and social structure • Improve farmers’ position when they are a production entity signing contract with companies • Difficult to make big changes due to small scale, technical capacity and limited production organization
Recommendations • The approval procedures of investment project which having land consolidation should includes : • Appraise the relevance of the planned land consolidation with culture identity, social structure to avoid loosing culture and ethnic identity • Appraise the adaptability of production model at household level after land consolidation • Implement community consultation before approval the investment project. Should not approve first, and then mobilizing/sensitizing people
Recommendations • Should have supportive policy to “pull” production entities to introduce traditional products to market • Should have special policies when land consolidation involved: changing farming structures for farmers who fall under the safety level of production and labor • Continue to study to improve the rubber company model: representativeness of shareholders, insurance for assets on land, effectiveness of keeping the “red book” • Other researches