Food and Population under Subsistence Rice Farming in Three Villages in Yasothon, Northeast Thailand

Abstract

In all of three villages studied in Amphoe (District) Kham Khuan Kaeo, Changwat (Province) Yasothon, rice was cultivated almost exclusively for subsistence till the late 1970s. The paddy area per person showed a similar pattern of change from the 1920s in all three villages; it declined until hitting bottom a few decades ago, and remained little changed from then till the 1970s, although there are substantial inter-village differences in when it reached the bottom as well as in acreage per person at that level. The former reflects the length of village history : the earlier a village was founded, the earlier the per capita paddy area hit bottom. The latter reflects differences in the average yield of rice per unit area, which is largely determined by the soil and water conditions. The actual per capita rice supply remained at a similar level in all three villages till the late 1970s regardless of the varying area per person. Rural-rural emigration (leaving one's village permanently for frontier lands elsewhere) and the reclamation of inferior land within villages were common till the early 1960s, being the only means to relieve population pressure. The former was more common in the oldest village, where the acreage per person shrank earliest. Temporary employment in off-farm jobs in urban areas, mostly in the Bangkok metropolitan area, began in the 1950s. In the late 1980s, the labor force engaged in temporary out-of-village jobs accounted for 10 to 16 percent of the village's total labor force. Permanent emigration to urban areas is also observed since the 1970s, and its frequency is roughly proportional to that of temporary emigration. The existence in a village of uplands to grow cash crops such as kenaf and cassava appears to have had least effect on the rural-rural emigration but to have suppressed the temporary and, thence, permanent emigration to Bangkok. In sum, the villages were able to accommodate increases in population as long as potential paddyland was available. Once it was exhausted, however, the excess population had to leave the villages. Till the early 1960s, most migrants made for frontier lands. The maintenance of self-sufficiency in rice thereafter should be attributed more to a likely decrease in the birth rate than to rural-urban migration. The principle of self-sufficiency in rice for those remaining in a village applied throughout the period under study, and the extra cash income either from upland farming or off-farm employment did not become an important determinant of the village population but contributed to the increased cash income.