Livelihoods Strategies of Peasant and Indigenous Variety Rice Situation in Globalization

Abstract

This article intended to investigate the livelihoods of peasant and the situation of indigenous variety rice in globalization: a case study of Ban Nam Yen, Kok Saton Sub-District, Dan Sai District, Loei Province, Thailand on the issue that the reduction of indigenous rice varieties reflected to the food security and community culture. The results found that the indigenous rice varieties are cultivated for consumption and distribution in Ban Nam Yen. However, due to the economic conditions that come with a globalized society, farmers were forced to reduce the indigenous rice cultivation area and change the ways in which they used the land and how they cultivated the modified rice in the rice market. This meant that the use of indigenous rice variations were reduced - though there was an establishment of an indigenous rice peasant group. This has led to the transition from rice cultivation for private consumption to modern peasants in globalization society. All in all, this has devalued the indigenous rice and has caused Thai peasants to no longer be the foundation of Thai national identity. Instead, the reformed Thai economy has made Thailand a slave of commercial agriculture.