Rubber Plantation Land Grabs and Agrarian Change: A Political Economy Analysis of Livelihood Pathways of Ethnic Minority Groups in Northwest Vietnam

Luu Van Duy, Le Thi Thu Huong (), Hiroshi Isoda, Yuichiro Amekawa, Le Thi Thanh Loan and Do Kim Chung
Additional contact information
Luu Van Duy: Faculty of Economics and Management, Vietnam National University of Agriculture, Hanoi 12406, Vietnam
Le Thi Thu Huong: Faculty of Accounting and Business Management, Vietnam National University of Agriculture, Hanoi 12406, Vietnam
Hiroshi Isoda: Institute of Agriculture and Farmer Cooperative, Fukuoka 819-0022, Japan
Yuichiro Amekawa: College of International Relations, Ritsumeikan University, Kyoto 603-8577, Japan
Le Thi Thanh Loan: Faculty of Economics and Management, Vietnam National University of Agriculture, Hanoi 12406, Vietnam
Do Kim Chung: Faculty of Economics and Management, Vietnam National University of Agriculture, Hanoi 12406, Vietnam

Land, 2025, vol. 14, issue 6, 1-24

Abstract: This paper critically examines the consequences of land grabs for livelihoods and agrarian change, based on a case study of rubber plantations in ethnic minorities in the uplands in Northwest Vietnam. Building upon Scoones’ agrarian political economy of livelihood framework, an integrated conceptual framework of a ‘livelihood pathway’ is developed to analyze the impact of rubber plantation land grabs on livelihoods and the agrarian political economy. Drawing on qualitative analysis and survey data from 205 households across six villages inhabited by Thai, Hmong, and Kho Mu communities, this study finds that rubber plantation land grabs have led to differentiated livelihood strategies—ranging from subsistence farming and wage labor to commercial agriculture—shaped by each group’s socioeconomic status, political connections, and access to resources. Consequently, the land grabbing undertaken by a domestic state-owned enterprise has caused the emergence of a set of distinctive livelihood pathways within a complex web of intersections across class and ethnicity in the upland area. This study concludes by arguing that an integrated conceptual framework of a ‘livelihood pathway’ offers a useful tool for analyzing the long-term socio-political consequences of land grabbing in similar contexts across developing countries and beyond.

Keywords: land grab; rubber plantation; political economy of livelihood; livelihood pathway; Vietnam (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q15 Q2 Q24 Q28 Q5 R14 R52 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2025
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/2073-445X/14/6/1201/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/2073-445X/14/6/1201/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jlands:v:14:y:2025:i:6:p:1201-:d:1671468

Access Statistics for this article

Land is currently edited by Ms. Carol Ma

More articles in Land from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().