• Journal of the Economic Geographical Society of Korea
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• v.19 no.2
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• pp.360-377
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• 2016

Since after the 1986 economic reform policy(Doi Moi), the central highland in Vietnam has transformed into one of the largest coffee producing areas. The transformation had been supported by mass migration of ethnic Kinhs from the coastal lowland. It did not take long for the Kinh migrants to be the ethnic majority in the region. Meanwhile the growth of coffee industry entailed in socio-economic disparity, specially between Kinh migrants and native ethnic minorities. The disparity has becomed obvious not only between coffee farming Kinhs and non-coffee farming ethnic minorities but also between coffee farming Kinhs and ehtnic minorities. The previous literatures highlight the lack of human and social capital and the lagging modernization in ethnic minority societies. However, they fall short in showing the explicit processes why ethnic minority coffee farmers earn less than ethnic majority counterparts. With a case study of Dak Lak province, this research attempts to show the reason why there is income gap between Kinh and ethnic minority Ede coffee farmers by comparing their ways of producing coffee and selling their products. The results show that Ede's land productivity is significantly lower than Kinh's. It is because Ede farmers use less fertilizer due to the shortage of the capital. Also they often get into debt for coffee production and should pay it back right after the harvest. It deprives them of chance to raise earning by selling the coffee beans at a higher price.

• Journal of the Economic Geographical Society of Korea
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• v.16 no.3
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• pp.323-343
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• 2013

This study explores spatial and temporal evloution of Dak Lak as one of coffee frontiers in Vietnam. So far, many authiors have studied this region under the framework of global-local interactions and emphasized the impacts from global coffee market. However not only unique past situation as the underdeveloped frontier and also the interventions of Vietamese government for transforming her socioeconomic system have played not less pivotal role than the global market in forging the present geography of Dak Lak. Under this logic, this study have traced restucturing in production system of state farms and smallholders' particpation in coffee farming. This study shows that various and unique localities as a frontier and specific situation accrued from transitional process has reflected in the present geography of coffee production in Dak Lak. Finally, this paper can be arguable to contribute some useful insights for understanding the evolution of coffee frontier in Vietnam.

• Journal of the Economic Geographical Society of Korea
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• v.19 no.2
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• pp.378-398
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• 2016

This paper aims to clarify the process of institutionalization of customary land ownership along with the expansion of coffee plantation in Dak Lak Province, Vietnam. Vietnam is the second-largest coffee exporter in the world. Most of the coffee areas are concentrated in Dak Lak-a province of commercial agricultural production. The expansion of coffee plantation in Dak Lak have brought a severe competition of land resources, and resulted in the transition of land ownership scheme from customary commons by ethnic minorities to those of exculsive private assets which is secured by the state. Institutionalization of customary land ownership in Dak Lak, however, was differently happened according to the geography from the center of state power as well as the value of land resources. In this paper, the authors argue that institutionalization of customary land ownership in Dak Lak was a result of compromising between statemaking process in the frontiers and "everyday resistance" of ethnic minorities, comparing 3 geographically different ethnic minorities' communities.

• Journal of the Economic Geographical Society of Korea
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• v.16 no.3
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• pp.344-358
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• 2013

Vietnam's growth as the second largest coffee producer in the world has been fueled by domestic migration into central highlands. However, the detail migration processes have not been explicitly discussed. In particular, the existing literatures tend to describe the migration flow in a framework of planned migration versus spontaneous migration, paying less attention to the linkage between them. With a case study of Dak Lak province which is the leading robusta producer in Vietnam, this research investigates the linkage between planned and spontaneous migration in a multiscalar approach. The statistic data allow the researcher to know temporal association between the two type of migration in a provine scale. The survey and interview about two coffee-producing communes - Ea H'Ding in Cu M'gar district and Doan Ket in Krung Buk district - inform us that the linkage between planned and spontaneous migration is contingent to the local contexts including ethnic composition, timing of settlements, governement's development program, and timing of a large flow of in-migration.