The return of the plantation? Historical and contemporary trends in the relation between plantations and smallholdings in Southeast Asia

Following the 2007-2008 surge in international land deals, many analysts have portrayed this moment of agrarian history as a manifestation of the re-emergence of large-scale capitalist farming. However, official national-scale figures concerning key cash crops in Malaysia and Indonesia rather show the growing importance of smallholders. Although these figures must be read with caution, they nevertheless point to a contradiction. This incites us to revisit the debate on the relation between large and small farms using two important sectors, rubber and palm oil, two major plantation crops increasingly cultivated by smallholders. Then, with regard to the cultivation of rubber in Malaysia and Indonesia, we provide a historical perspective on the institutional and economic contexts in which smallholders have managed to cultivate a growing share of plantation crops. For comparative purposes, we attend to the more recent expansion of oil palm in the region, and to how it has led to the emergence of an important population of smallholders, despite policies biased in favor of large-scale plantations. For both crops, we are paying particular attention to national agricultural policies and their impact on the development of smallholder plantation crop production, and to how they influence the respective weight of large and small farms.