Cash Crops

Gradual processes of land formalisation, opening borders and improving transportation infrastructure, as well as the establishment of regulatory incentives for land investments and commercial production, have combined to accelerate the expansion of cash crops across Laos since the 2000s. This chapter explores the diversity of pathways through which cash crops are expanding across Laos and to the diversity of actors involved. Taking the examples of rubber and banana, the authors investigate the ways in which cash crops are introduced, the actors involved and division of costs and benefits among them, the pace of transformation, and the implications for the reorganisation of labour, land access, livelihoods and rural development.