Lindsay Falvey
From hunters and gatherers through agro-cities, State-religious Empires infiltrated by migrating Tai persons with a wet glutinous rice technology, evolved to produce a sustainable agriculture. Rice culture determined administrative structures in a pragmatic society which regularly produced a saleable surplus. Ayutthaya’s ascendancy, continuing today, consolidated the importance of rice agriculture to national security and economic well-being, as Chinese and European influence benefited agribusiness and initiated the demand which would expand agriculture through population increase until accessible land was expended. The resulting central interest in the spoils of agriculture more than its producers pervaded decision-making until recently, and was supported by narrow economic development advocates. As agriculture declined in relative financial importance, it continued to provide the benefits of employment, crisis resilience, self-sufficiency, rural social support, and cultural custody. Technical and economic globalisation forces which assumed a cultural uniformity were eventually revealed to require modification, but had meanwhile allowed unregulated exploitation of community resources and excesses in economic activity, all with at least the tacit approval of development financiers. Agricultural institutions evolved from a taxation and dispute resolution base to provide research, education, and technology transfer at levels below potential as they supported commercial agriculture funded by credit. Agribusiness, both private and government, expanded from the 1960s and small-holders were partly viewed as a past relic which agribusiness could modernise. However, small-holders’ intensive integrated production systems continued to offer efficiencies uncounted in narrow financial analyses, including social benefits which have now caused agriculture to be treated as both a social and financial sector in planning, with increased cognisance of environmental and cultural value
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