Recent strategies to address rural poverty and food insecurity in Myanmar's Ayeyarwady Delta emphasize the scope for market-based and smallholder-led agricultural development to catalyze broader positive change for rural populations. This paper challenges the appropriateness of this development model for the Ayeyarwady Delta. Assumptions of latent growth potential among an emerging smallholder capitalist agricultural class fundamentally misinterpret how farming is embedded within the Delta's regional economy. Using a long historical perspective informed by the food regimes approach, as well as household-level data from a recently completed livelihoods survey in two townships, we reveal a contemporary situation in which medium-sized and large landholders control most agricultural production. We argue that this is a path-dependent legacy from how the Delta has been successively incorporated into the politics of food production and trade at global and national scales. These arrangements have left the Delta without a broad smallholder base, meaning that policies that prioritize smallholder-led market development will not generate the type of pro-poor outcomes required to address the Delta's pervasive rates of food insecurity and poverty. Instead, a rural development agenda for the Delta should focus on its actually existing social and economic dynamics that are a legacy of its history.

中文翻译：

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通过历史食物制度框架重新思考缅甸伊洛瓦底江三角洲的农村发展

最近在缅甸伊洛瓦底江三角洲解决农村贫困和粮食不安全问题的战略强调了以市场为基础和小农主导的农业发展的空间，以促进农村人口发生更广泛的积极变化。本文对伊洛瓦底江三角洲的这种开发模式的适用性提出了挑战。对新兴小农资本主义农业阶层潜在增长潜力的假设从根本上误解了农业是如何嵌入三角洲区域经济的。使用食物制度方法提供的长期历史视角，以及最近完成的两个乡镇生计调查的家庭层面数据，我们揭示了大中型土地所有者控制大部分农业生产的当代情况。我们认为，这是三角洲如何在全球和国家范围内连续纳入粮食生产和贸易政治的路径依赖遗产。这些安排使三角洲没有广泛的小农基础，这意味着优先考虑小农主导的市场发展的政策不会产生解决三角洲普遍存在的粮食不安全和贫困率所需的扶贫成果。相反，三角洲的农村发展议程应侧重于作为其历史遗产的实际存在的社会和经济动态。这意味着优先考虑小农主导的市场发展的政策不会产生解决三角洲普遍存在的粮食不安全和贫困率所需的扶贫成果。相反，三角洲的农村发展议程应侧重于作为其历史遗产的实际存在的社会和经济动态。这意味着优先考虑小农主导的市场发展的政策不会产生解决三角洲普遍存在的粮食不安全和贫困率所需的扶贫成果。相反，三角洲的农村发展议程应侧重于作为其历史遗产的实际存在的社会和经济动态。