**4. Rethinking of agricultural commercialization**

Various discourses on agricultural commercialization provide background concept and the relation of the issue with regard to the definition of terms, process, and their relations. In this part, the interest is to reconstruct the agricultural commercialization to rethink how commercialization will lead to food security and gender role in agricultural commercialization.

A classical thought argues that the commercialization of agriculture is a cause of poor nutrition [3]. Others argue that subsistence agriculture may not be a viable activity to secure sustainable household food security [13, 36]. Agricultural commercialization is thus provision of both opportunities for food security and income earning. One of the pathways to food security is to promote food crop productivity [5] that is to enhance household food supply. Pathways to promote food crop productivity are improving access to credits and inputs, input cost management, high-value crop investment, and investment in infrastructure and human capital. The element of food security is related to accessibility, availability, stability, and utilization of food [4]. Measuring food security can apply concept of consumption or calorie intake method, expenditure, nutritional food sufficiency, coping strategies, and resources availability [37].

The most crucial question is to what extent the agricultural commercialization contributes to food security. The effect of agriculture commercialization on income and productivity seems positive, whether on the household level or for large scale producers; however, it depends on the allocation [2]. The allocation refers to resources management including land, labor, and capital toward production activities, which come to the decision of how to allocate or distribute these resources in order to achieve a greater benefit from this transformation. Since the household food availability and consumption depended on agriculture in many least developed and developing nations; the impact of agriculture commercialization should be evaluated for better application of the conceptual framework of agriculture commercialization. Despite the fact that the process of agriculture commercialization is positively affected, the income gains from selling crop in the market, which also enhancing household capacity to effort for food. However, food security and income have not yet shown a direct relationship. In terms of food security, there are still arguments for and in opposition to smallholder commercialization as a pathway for making sure household food security. Food security is also determined by farming activities, in which the shifting to cash crop may be led to the decrease of food crop cultivation. On the one hand, smallholder commercialization is assumed to have damaging outcomes on household dietary and food safety status.

Indeed, the adverse impact of the process of commercialization on food security is still debatable among scholars. For example, Von Braun [38] argued that "commercialization has a direct effect on household's earning degree which likely results in a rise in food and non-meals expenditure" ([38]: 187). On the other hand,

**99**

*Coffee Commercialization in the Bolaven Plateau in the Southern of Lao PDR*

the famous Engel's Law claimed that there is an inverse relationship between the proportion of food expenditure and overall earnings, which people are willing to spend more on food as their incomes increased [39]. Therefore, food security pushed further concern on the impact of agriculture commercialization; however, the correlation between the raise of income earning and nutrition can also make a

The second issue that needs to rethink of the agricultural commercialization is gender role in agricultural commercialization. Some scholars attempt to provide measurement and effect of commercialization of agriculture. Different degrees of agricultural commercialization are well defined. Primary characters of agricultural commercialization are farmers, technology, market and marketing, finance, institution, infrastructure, and consumers [26]. Among them, a group of factors that lead to project success are commercialization that needs involvement a large number of women [26]. However, different participation of stakeholders' involvement in agricultural commercialization leads to different magnitudes of agricultural commercialization. The high and advanced dimension of agricultural commercialization need lower involvement of farmers and need industrialization of agriculture,

Gender role is a decisive component to agricultural commercialization, particularly to commercialize of agriculture at the micro-level (household and company levels) that commercialize crop improves local livelihood. Women play crucial role in both commercialization of agricultural produce and secure household food supply. A study of Sørensen [40] found that commercial of food crop constructed a new gender relation. Men play role dominantly in food production which reflects of patriarchal practice. Also, the socio-economics lead to different bargaining power. Women from a better economic have better bargaining power when compare with other women who have not good economic conditions [40]. Gender power relation within households provides the benefits arena to women. It is expected that women gain cash income from commercialization, but whether or not women benefit depends on how decisions are made within the households [26]. In fact, labor wage is not equally distributed for women and men for the same amount of work. Instead, women are facing commercialization of agricultural work plus the burden of household chores. The benefit of smallholder commercialization on the gender dimension also depends on a specific commodity when gender-labor demand and on the decision to the income generated [13]. A confirmation is that commercialization of agriculture provides disadvantage for women because of gender inequality in access to productive resources unless they become membership of farmer

The most fundamental factor in agricultural production is land acquisition. The government of Lao PDR has the vision to promote the agricultural sector; the priority is to specify the existence of cultivated land expansion in the national framework. The survey and allocation of agricultural land have been carried out nationwide to allocate land to the district level. Land titles have been issued for farmers at the village level, equivalents to 43.2% of all villages across the country and cover 37.1% of the total districts [19] or about 800,000 pieces (Open Development Laos, 2019). Land classification and land title are required to take into account as the factor affecting agriculture production because the potential of arable land, particularly

**5. Productive resources for coffee commercialization**

**5.1 Land acquisition for coffee production**

*DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.90105*

positive difference.

for instance.

groups [41].

#### *Coffee Commercialization in the Bolaven Plateau in the Southern of Lao PDR DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.90105*

the famous Engel's Law claimed that there is an inverse relationship between the proportion of food expenditure and overall earnings, which people are willing to spend more on food as their incomes increased [39]. Therefore, food security pushed further concern on the impact of agriculture commercialization; however, the correlation between the raise of income earning and nutrition can also make a positive difference.

The second issue that needs to rethink of the agricultural commercialization is gender role in agricultural commercialization. Some scholars attempt to provide measurement and effect of commercialization of agriculture. Different degrees of agricultural commercialization are well defined. Primary characters of agricultural commercialization are farmers, technology, market and marketing, finance, institution, infrastructure, and consumers [26]. Among them, a group of factors that lead to project success are commercialization that needs involvement a large number of women [26]. However, different participation of stakeholders' involvement in agricultural commercialization leads to different magnitudes of agricultural commercialization. The high and advanced dimension of agricultural commercialization need lower involvement of farmers and need industrialization of agriculture, for instance.

Gender role is a decisive component to agricultural commercialization, particularly to commercialize of agriculture at the micro-level (household and company levels) that commercialize crop improves local livelihood. Women play crucial role in both commercialization of agricultural produce and secure household food supply. A study of Sørensen [40] found that commercial of food crop constructed a new gender relation. Men play role dominantly in food production which reflects of patriarchal practice. Also, the socio-economics lead to different bargaining power. Women from a better economic have better bargaining power when compare with other women who have not good economic conditions [40]. Gender power relation within households provides the benefits arena to women. It is expected that women gain cash income from commercialization, but whether or not women benefit depends on how decisions are made within the households [26]. In fact, labor wage is not equally distributed for women and men for the same amount of work. Instead, women are facing commercialization of agricultural work plus the burden of household chores. The benefit of smallholder commercialization on the gender dimension also depends on a specific commodity when gender-labor demand and on the decision to the income generated [13]. A confirmation is that commercialization of agriculture provides disadvantage for women because of gender inequality in access to productive resources unless they become membership of farmer groups [41].
