From Feminization to Symbolic Feminization of Northern Thai Garlic Production amid Import Liberalization from China

<p>Despite the continuous drop in the number of agricultural workers in Thailand for a half-century, its percentage in the total Thai employed workforce remains over 30% even today. Garlic production, which is the focus of this article, shows the same tendency. Garlic, an essential spice for Thai cuisine, has been produced as a cash crop by small-scale garlic farmers in northern Thailand for over 40 years. Since the China-Thailand Free Trade Agreement (FTA) was concluded in October 2003, however, large quantities of Chinese garlic began to be imported to Thailand. Chinese garlic is cheaper, about one-half to two-thirds the price of Thai garlic. As a result, the production, distribution, and consumption of Thai garlic declined by about half within five years. Thus, many scholars lamented that there would be no future for garlic farmers in Thailand at that time.</p><p>After tracking changes in the structures, volume, and labor processes of garlic production and processing in northern Thailand from the early 2000s to the present, and summarizing the fluctuation of import volumes of Chinese garlic and the current state of retail garlic in the local markets of northern Thailand, the article explores and examines the transformation of northern Thai garlic production in the face of unilateral changes in the distribution system of garlic in the context of Thailand’s economic globalization and liberalization, and how garlic production persists.</p><p>The primary focus of this article is on women farmers, who are sometimes overlooked in economic research, and the concept of “feminization of agriculture” is identified in the process of agrarian transformation, namely the de-agrarianization process. Traditionally, both women farm family members and women laborers have been heavily involved in the garlic production labor process in northern Thailand. The transformation of labor structures from traditional local exchange labor to present day immigrant labor gives reason to safely assume that agriculture has been de-feminized there. However, this paper contends that the scenario of feminization of agriculture persists even in 2023 in the form of symbolic feminization, a subsequent form of the concept of feminization, by focusing on the exploitative working conditions of migrant agricultural laborers.</p><p>This article is based on a revisit of the author’s research for the doctoral thesis, which primarily involved socio-anthropological research from 2007 to 2008. One revisit occurred, in 2023, and additional data were obtained through documentary research. The research site is Si Dong Yen sub-district, Chai Prakan district, Chiang Mai province.</p>