RICE IN COLONIAL AND POST COLONIAL SOUTHEAST ASIA: A FOOD REGIME ANALYSIS
ABSTRACT: This paper traces
the ways in which rice, as a global commodity, has been produced and sold in various regions
in Southeast Asia
from the colonial era
to the present
days. This paper employs a food regime analysis first
introduced by Harriet Friedmann (1982) and later developed together with Philip
McMichael (1989) to look at the global political economy of rice. In this
paper, it will be shown how various colonial and post colonial states
in Southeast Asia
(including Thailand who was
never formally colonized) through their policies have
practically divided the region where Burma (now Myanmar), Thailand and Vietnam
in the mainland have become major rice
producer and exporter,
while Indonesia Malaya (now
Malaysia), and the Philippines in the
archipelagic Southeast Asia
have become major rice importers
although at the same time producers
and exporters of
other agro-commodities (coffee,
sugar, rubber).
Author: Dias Pradadimara
Journal Code: jpsejarah&umumgg150002
