ล้งจีนกับการเปลี่ยนแปลงวิถีดำรงชีพของชาวสวนลำไยในจังหวัดลำพูน

Abstract

The thesis aims to study changing the Livelihoods of Longan Farmers in Ban Muang Ton Phueng village after the entry of Lhong Jin. Moreover, this study also focuses on the use of Lhong Jin's Guanxi system after Lhong Jin became part of longan production and sale. The study was conducted by looking through the concept of Guanxi, Livelihoods, and Cross-border trade. The study was conducted by using documentary research, using focus group discussion, participatory observation, and interviewing longan farmers and Chinese traders in Ban Muang Ton Phueng village. The research has two main questions. Firstly, when Lhong Jin did longan business in Ban Muang Ton Phueng village, how have longan farmers changed their production relations such as land use, labor, and tools? How does this change affect the livelihoods of longan farmers? Secondly, how has Lhong Jin built a network of "Guanxi" relationships with longan farmers? The research found that since Lhong Jin came to do longan business in the Ban Muang Ton Phueng community and Lhong Jin expanded its longan business, the villagers had the opportunity to export their longan to China. Lhong Jin's entry has had an impact on longan farmers, causing longan farmers to lose longan cultivars, resulting in the monopoly of Lhong Jin. Longan farmers have been forced to take risks and change their livelihoods. For example, longan farmers faced a labor shortage in the period 2014-2015. Longan farmers in the third group changed their working hours and became laborers on the longan plantation. Instead of hiring workers, they shifted working hours from day to night. Longan farmers in the second group switched from employing local laborers to migrant workers. From 2016 to 2020, was a period when longan farmers lost the power to negotiate with Lhong Jin. Longan farmers in the second group have shifted from relying on the Chinese market to finding other markets during the period. For example, longan farmers have changed their method of finding markets to online longan trade, finding the Vietnamese market, Malaysian market, Indonesian market, and merchants in Chiang Mai directly. Instead of being monopolized by Lhong Jin, longan Farmers in the first group and longan Farmers in the third group undergo different livelihood changes, risks are reduced in the longan trade by diversifying into a variety of occupations. In addition, longan farmers in the village also cultivate organic longan to live a good and sustainable life. More interestingly, Lhong Jin has used the Guanxi system to build various types of relationships in longan business operations. The first type is that the use of Guanxi is a form of helping family members through trust. For example, Lhong Jin's dried longan factory management was a modern organizational management model. And Lhong Jin allows trusted family members to manage important sections. The second type is the use of Guanxi in the form of expanding the relationship between friends to middlemen. In Lhong Jin's case, it was found that Lhong Jin paid more attention to the use of Guanxi with trusted business friends. Lhong Jin's Guanxi system has been used among trusted business friends in the longan business. Lhong Jin uses Guanxi with business friends who are Thai nationals of Chinese descent. Then Lhong Jin would rely on the relationships of the business friends and could meet with middlemen to expand the longan market.