Envisioning agribusiness: Land, labour and value in a time of oil palm expansion in Indonesia by Jean-François Bissonnette A thesis submitted in conformity with the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy Graduate Department of Geography University of Toronto © Copyright by Jean-François Bissonnette 2012 Envisioning agribusiness: Land, labour and value in a time of oil palm expansion in Indonesia Doctor in Philosophy - 2012 Jean-François Bissonnette Deparment of Geography, University of Toronto Abstract The thesis examines the social and economic implications of large-scale agribusiness expansion in Indonesia by analyzing how this economic system, as it is envisioned and materialised, reshapes livelihood possibilities. Based on original interviews with oil palm plantation workers, plantation company officials, smallholders, and on secondary research, this thesis scrutinises the forms of knowledge and practices that constitute large-scale oil palm agribusiness. While oil palm agribusiness produces economic opportunities for groups of individuals from certain social categories, it constrains the prospects of others in systematic ways. Oil palm agribusiness, as a project and as a set of practices, is deployed by a broad range of economic actors at different scales in an attempt to govern access to resources. However, the power of oil palm companies and investors over land, labour, and value is contested and negotiated by workers and smallholders who engage creatively with this economy. The thesis shows that oil palm agribusiness forms a field of power that produces specific subjectivities which transform the meanings and constraints related to this mode of production. The first part of the thesis (chapters 2 and 3) identifies the objectives pursued by those who plan and envision oil palm agribusiness. I emphasise that oil palm agribusiness serves a number of often competing and shifting aims that range from capital accumulation to welfare provision. The second part of the thesis (chapters 4 and ii 5) demonstrates how the modes of visioning examined in the first part of the thesis produce a broad set of material conditions for populations. I analyse the ways in which these conditions are constantly reshaped by everyday power relations and articulated around the value of labour and land. Based on ethnographic fieldwork that I conducted in West Kalimantan, Lombok, and Nias, these chapters shed light on the lived geographies of labour and the livelihood strategies used by individuals and social groups in the space of oil palm agribusiness. iii Acknowledgements This project would not have been possible without the guidance and support of many people. I hope that all those who have contributed to this research find in these pages the expression of my most sincere gratitude. First and foremost, I would like to express my gratitude to all the members of my thesis committee. My sincerest gratitude goes to Rachel Silvey, my supervisor, whom over the years during countless hours of meetings and correspondences, has been providing encouragements, intellectual stimulation and guidance, crucial networking opportunities and emotional support. I am also infinitely grateful to Tania Li, who has consistently provided thoughtful consideration of my work and precious advices, and who has on many occasions, graciously invited me to join her field courses and seminars in Indonesia. I would also like to thank Katharine Rankin, for her encouragement, challenging comments, and sustained engagement with my project. I am obliged to Matthew Farish for his sage advice, intellectual openness, and enthusiasm in supporting me through this project. And finally, I am grateful to Johan Lindquist for his engaging and considerate evaluation of my work in his role of external appraiser. Carrying out this project was also made possible by the assistance of those who helped me conduct fieldwork in Indonesia. Thank you to Pujo Semedi at the University of Gajah Mada, who welcomed me in Indonesia and provided institutional support for fieldwork activities at different stages of the project. During my trips into the rural areas of Indonesia, I greatly benefitted from the support and assistance of graduate students, Fuad Abdulgani and Frans Prasetyo. I would also like to thank Trisnu Brata Nugroho from the Universitas Negeri Semarang, and Odit Budiawan from the Universitas Gajah iv Mada; working closely with these individuals greatly enhanced my research opportunities and insights in West Kalimantan. I must also thank some of the organisations that generously opened their doors to me and helped me with my work, including Sawit Watch in Bogor, Akatiga in Bandung, and Institute Dayakology in Pontianak. I also wish to express my gratitude to all the informants who participated in my research and openly shared with me their views, life stories, and work experiences. Their stories of life and work in oil palm plantations form the basis of this project and have never ceased to inspire me. All remaining mistakes or inaccuracies are mine. This project has been funded by the Fonds québécois de recherche sur la société et la culture (FQRSC) and subsequently by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC). Additional funding for fieldwork was provided by the Dr. Chu Scholarships in Asia Pacific Studies and the Challenges of the Agrarian Transition (ChATSEA) project. The funds provided were crucial in aiding the completion of this study. Finally, this project would not have been possible without the support, love and encouragement of my partner, Vivien Lee, and of my parents, Nicole and Robert, as well as my sisters Joëlle and Élise who have been present throughout the process. v Table of contents CHAPTER 1. INTRODUCTION: VISION AND POWER IN A TIME OF OIL PALM EXPANSION 1 Introduction 1 Beyond the state 3 Vision and power 9 Life, labour and power 15 Geographies of oil palm agribusiness 24 Outline of the thesis 30 CHAPTER 2. A CROP FOR THE FUTURE: PLANNING FOR OIL PALM AGRIBUSINESS 36 Introduction 36 Envisioning plantation agriculture 39 Oil palm as a plantation crop 43 Malaysian oil palm agribusiness 49 The plantation model in Indonesia 54 Envisioning sustainable palm oil 59 Conclusion 63 CHAPTER 3. THE GOVERNMENT OF POPULATION, TERRITORY AND WEALTH THROUGH OIL PALM AGRIBUSINESS 66 Introduction 66 Governmentality and political economy 68 Colonial and post-colonial political economies 71 Shifting postcolonial political economies 74 Oil palm smallholding shcemes as a development device 79 Smallholding schemes in the New Order 79 Subjects of agribusiness in the post-New Order era 87 The political economy of possibilities 93 Conclusion 101 CHAPTER 4. SUBJECTS OF AGRIBUSINESS: VALUING LAND AND LABOUR 104 Introduction 104 Reshaping land and labour markets 107 Social and technical experiments 107 The Social contours of land accumulation 117 Valuing labour in oil palm agribusiness 126 Questions of gender 126 Changing labour regimes, strategies and tactics 134 vi Questions of status 141 Conclusion 144 CHAPTER 5. MIGRANT PLANTATION WORKERS: TENSIONS OF MOBILITY AND IMMOBILITY 148 Introduction 148 Recent and ancient histories of migrant plantation labour 151 Spaces of coercion and welfare 151 Making use of mobility 160 Migrant plantation work in Lombok 165 Searching for labour 165 Merantau and limits to mobility 171 Placing home in plantation work 176 Plantation work and mobility in Nias 182 Conclusion 186 CHAPTER 6. CONCLUSION: THE CONTOURS OF OIL PALM AGRIBUSINESS 189 Introduction 189 The dynamic field of oil palm agribusiness 190 Scales of visions of agribusiness 194 BIBLIOGRAPHIE 199 vii List of Tables Table 1: Oil palm area (ha) by type of ownership in Indonesia, 1980-2008 85 Table 2: Work status official terminology in two estate companies, 2011 134 List of Figures Figure 1. Fieldwork site locations in Indonesia 27 Figure 2. Aerial view of an oil palm plantation 55 Figure 3. Current oil palm monoculture areas and concessions in Indonesia 94 Figure 4. Potential land for oil palm expansion in Indonesia 99 Figure 5. Representation of the PIR oil palm smallholding scheme 113 Figure 6. Representation of the PIR oil palm smallholding scheme and perimeter of expansion fo independent smallholders 123 Figure 7. Plantation labour migration patterns 167 List of Appendices Appendix 1. Glossary of Indonesian terms 217 Appendix 2. Glossary of acronyms 219 Appendix 3. Basic characteristics of respondents by geographical location 220 Appendix 4. Population characteristics of Desa Sola, East Lombok 223 Appendix 5. Population characteristics of Nias, North Sumatra 224 Appendix 6. Population characteristics of Desa Buaya, Kalimantan Barat 225 viii 1 Chapter 1 Vision and power in a time of oil palm expansion Introduction The environmental changes caused by oil palm agribusiness expansion in Indonesia in the past decades are unprecedented in speed and scale in the history of the country. From 2000 to 2011, the area allocated to the sole cash crop of oil palm has more than doubled from 4 million to 9 million hectares. Many Indonesian government officials plan that oil palm agribusiness will spread over 20 million hectares in the near future, forming the basis of a vast agro-industrial sector. Oil palm agribusiness has been deployed by political and economic actors as a technique to produce specific economic and social conditions in Indonesia. A number of programmes have been designed by the colonial and post-colonial governments of Indonesia which have allowed large populations of smallholders and workers to take part in the oil palm economy. There were over 500 000 households participating in oil palm smallholding schemes in 2010, and up to one million permanent or temporary workers on oil palm plantations across Indonesia 1. This does not include the independent smallholders growing oil palm outside estate schemes which account for 250,000 hectares and include up to 100,000 households. Large populations have become subjects of agribusiness in Indonesia, whether as workers or landowners. These figures reflect complex and often contingent power relations that determine the possibilities of large populations and territories.