Labour used in rubber plantations and labour movement in rural, sub-urban and urban communities: a case study in Songkhla Province, Southern Thailand

Tongkaemkaew Uraiwan, Chambon Bénédicte. 2016. Labour used in rubber plantations and labour movement in rural, sub-urban and urban communities: a case study in Songkhla Province, Southern Thailand. In : CRRI and IRRDB International Rubber Conference 2016, Siem Reap, Cambodia. CRRI, IRRDB. Siem Reap : CRRI-IRRDB, 50-60. International Rubber Conference, Siem Reap, Cambodge, 21 Novembre 2016/25 Novembre 2016.

Résumé : Since 2012, rubber prices have been gradually decreasing with no signals of improvement. This situation probably leads to labour migration from rubber production to industrial or service sectors which may cause lack of labour in rubber production sector. The study aims at analyzing the source of labour and movement of labourers working in rubber plantations in the context of decreasing rubber price. We selected 3 areas representative of rural, sub-urban and urban communities in Hat Yai district, Songkhla province. Rubber holding owners were the target group for the survey and individual interviews were conducted. We collected data between March and July 2015 with 207 owners. The results showed that, family labour and hired labour were widely used in rubber plantations in the three communities. Local hired labourers and labourers coming from other provinces were the main source of labour for rubber plantations particularly in sub-urban communities. While foreigners were source of labour for all communities especially rural. Family labour was the main source of labour for small rubber holding size in all three communities especially for the urban and sub-urban areas; while hired labour was used in all rubber holding sizes in rural and sub-urban communities and was very common in the small rubber holdings in the urban areas. This shows that rubber production sector creates employment for local people and for foreigners. Besides, the low rubber price situation did not impact significantly on movement of labour in rubber plantations. However, rubber plantations in urban and sub-urban communities lacked of labourers due to its proximity to the big city (Hat Yai city). Therefore, to keep up the natural rubber production of Thailand, officers should try to increase labour productivity, encourage and train farmers to use tapping systems with low tapping intensity and generate diversified source of income to attract young labour generation to work on the farms.

Classification Agris : E12 - Travail et emploi
E80 - Économie familiale et artisanale
E70 - Commerce, commercialisation et distribution
E51 - Population rurale
F01 - Culture des plantes

Auteurs et affiliations

• Tongkaemkaew Uraiwan, Thaksin University (THA)
• Chambon Bénédicte, CIRAD-PERSYST-UPR Systèmes de pérennes (THA) ORCID: 0000-0002-2436-4058

Source : Cirad-Agritrop (https://agritrop.cirad.fr/582498/)

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