In-Person Panel PS7.4

Sustainable Agriculture and Digital Frontiers: Perspectives from Southeast Asia

Trajectories of Local Tropical Fruit Network in Taiwan and Thailand to Global Fruit Market 

Anisara Sungchuai

Globalisation urges the locals to change themselves from growing agriculture products for consumption in households toward selling it in domestic markets and gaining more potential to export tropical fruits to global markets. An increasing demand of tropical fruits in the global fruit markets makes Taiwan and Thailand well-known as a “Paradise of Fruits”. The study aims to broaden understandable into the trajectories of local tropical fruit network in Taiwan and Thailand that drive Golden Diamond Pineapple and Monthong Durian as the number one fruit export to global markets. In-depth interviews were used as a methodology to collect data as well as useful information from literature reviews in 2021 to 2023. Taitung and Kaohsiung Counties in Taiwan and Surat Thani and Chumporn province in Thailand were selected as the sampling areas. The results present that local agriculturalists who grow Golden Diamond Pineapple in Taiwan and Monthong Durain in Thailand push more effort to make a high quality of products according to customer’s requirements and international standards. Moreover, the fruits collectors or the middlemen play an important role to make the flow of tropical fruits supply chain go on smoothly by providing proper international markets.

Multi-Species Caring on Organic Durian Farms in Malaysia 

Gaik Khoo 

Malaysia has been scaling up durian production from traditionally 3-acre family orchards to 10,000-acre plantation to meet the insatiable China demand for its premium durian, Musang King since 2015. This has come at the cost of deforestation and concomitant social and ecological problems: decreased biodiversity, displacing Orang Asli (the Indigenous Peoples of Peninsular Malaysia), increasing flash flooding and intensifying human-wildlife conflict. However, turning away from the monocrop plantation where the durian is commodified and loses its personality and anthropomorphic status as children, this paper delves into the small to mid-sized durian orchards and farm stays in Peninsula Malaysia to discuss ‘the worlding’ and multi-species relationships fostered between ecologically-oriented farmers, the durian and trees, pollinating agents, pests, soil and microbes. How might such a web of interconnected actants alleviate some of the issues that dog the large-scale plantation? Focusing mainly on organic durian cultivation on Penang island, it argues for a practice that relies on preserving durian diversity, agritourism (durian tastings, farm stays) and small-scale production with a view of theorizing the possibility of an alternative more sustainable form of agriculture.

Circulating Waste and Economising Lives in Cambodia: A Tale from Global South 

Justin Lau

In recent years, the circular economy has gained traction globally. Designed to eliminate waste and regenerate nature, this model is viewed as a promising solution to climate change and environmental transformations. An expanding body of literature has brought attention to the implication and potential of the circular economy in Global North. Comparatively little attention has been paid to how the circular economy is adopted by Global South countries. Drawing on year-long ethnographic fieldwork, this paper explores the materialisation of the circular economy in Phnom Penh, Cambodia through the lens of various waste-handling enterprises. I highlight how the circular economy offers a hopeful promise for young Cambodian entrepreneurs to gain freedom and mobility in the increasingly stratified society. Juggling what I term the ethics of environmental stewardship with the entrepreneurial ethics of risk-taking, they also internalise and reproduce the very waste governance that precipitates social stratification. I argue that the concept of the circular economy not only falsely assumes that all objects can be regenerated within a container world, but it also produces hope and disillusionment, promising an Edenic future of circulation while delivering to a few.