The Plantation in Malaysian Economic Development

Courtenay, P. P.

doi:10.1017/s0022463400009905

Cited by 8 publications

(5 citation statements)

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“…Colonial governments eased this constraint by facilitating immigration of indentured labor. Issues of labor rights and conditions became widespread throughout the region [31,41,42], resulting in labor inspections by the newly created International Labor Organization as early as the 1920s that gradually improved conditions [43].…”

Section: Rubber-a Quintessential Smallholder Cropmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Fall and Rise Again of Plantations in Tropical Asia: History Repeated?

Byerlee¹

2014

Land

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Abstract:The type of agrarian structure employed to produce tropical commodities affects many dimensions of land use, such as ownership inequality, overlapping land rights and conflicts, and land use changes. I conduct a literature review of historical changes in agrarian structures of commodities grown on the upland frontier of mainland Southeast and South Asia, using a case study approach, of tea, rubber, oil palm and cassava. Although the production of all these commodities was initiated in the colonial period on large plantations, over the course of the 20th century, most transited to smallholder systems. Two groups of factors are posited to explain this evolution. First, economic fundamentals related to processing methods and pioneering costs and risks sometimes favored large-scale plantations. Second, policy biases and development paradigms often strongly favored plantations and discriminated against smallholders in the colonial states, especially provision of cheap land and labor. However, beginning after World War I and accelerating after independence, the factors that propped up plantations changed so that by the end of the 20th century, smallholders overwhelmingly dominated perennial crop exports, except possibly oil palm. Surprisingly, in the 21st century there has been a resurgence of investments in plantation agriculture in the frontier countries of Cambodia, Laos and Myanmar, driven by very similar factors to a century ago, especially access to cheap land combined with high commodity prices. As in the last century, this may be a temporary aberration from the long-run trend toward smallholders, but much depends on local political economy.

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Section: Rubber-a Quintessential Smallholder Cropmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Fall and Rise Again of Plantations in Tropical Asia: History Repeated?

Byerlee¹

2014

Land

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“…There were important exceptions such as in Ghana where the legal rights of communities to forest resources was successfully contested by strong organizations of indigenous peoples (See SI) or in other cases, where rights to use of forest resources, if not ownership, were recognized, such as in colonial Sarawak [36].…”

Section: The Role Of Land Institutionsmentioning

confidence: 99%

From Public to Private Standards for Tropical Commodities: A Century of Global Discourse on Land Governance on the Forest Frontier

Byerlee

Rueda

2015

Forests

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Globalization and commodity exports have a long history in affecting land use changes and land rights on the tropical forest frontier. This paper reviews a century of social and environmental discourse around land issues for four commodities grown in the humid tropics-rubber, cocoa, oil palm and bananas. States have exercised sovereign rights over land and forest resources and the outcomes for deforestation and land rights of existing users have been quite varied depending on local institutional contexts and political economy. In the current period of globalization, as land use changes associated with tropical commodities have accelerated, land issues are now at center stage in the global discourse. However, efforts to protect forests and the rights of local communities and indigenous groups continue to be ad hoc and codification of minimum standards and their implementation remains a work in progress. Given a widespread failure of state directed policies and institutions to curb deforestation and protect land rights, the private sector, with the exception of the rubber industry, is emphasizing voluntary standards to certify sustainability of their products. This is an important step but expectations that they will effectively address concerns about the impact of tropical commodities expansion might be too high, given their voluntary nature, demand constraints, and the challenge of including smallholders. It is also doubtful that private standards can more than partially compensate for long standing weaknesses in land governance and institutions on the forest frontier. OPEN ACCESSForests 2015, 6 1302

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“…For other crops, Goldthorpe quotes minimum economic sizes of 7,500 ha for oil palm, 6,000 ha for bananas, 3,000 ha for rubber and only 600 ha for tea. In rubber, trends in the technology of production in Malaysia quality guaranteed Malaysian rubbers (SMR) and crumb rubber favour larger production units (Courtenay, 1981). However, large-scale processing need not imply large-scale producing units if it is possible to integrate smallholders into catchment areas for factories of economic size.…”

Section: Capitalmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Nevertheless, a case for plantation estates is now being made on grounds of management efficiency: 'with the removal of the limitations that associated it with a colonial economy... plantations would seem to offer excellent bases for modernisation in rural areas' (Courtenay, 1981). The question that must now be addressed inefficient organisations.…”

Section: The Plantation Mode Of Managementmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In Malaysia, expenditure on inputs such as fertilisers, pesticides and weedicides, processing chemicals, hardware, building materials and services, fuel, transport and professional services flows into the local economy, having a significant impact on the growth of the urban system, even where wholesalers merely transfer the demand elsewhere (Courtenay, 1981). Elsewhere, the change to pre-packing bananas has generated a new demand for packaging materials in the producing countries.…”

Section: Upstream Linkagesmentioning

confidence: 99%

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