The rigorous tobacco controls advocated by both international policy players and national government are foreseen to lowering demand in tobacco consumption, and consequently, the contraction of tobacco agriculture. This paper seeks to reveal why tobacco agriculture, albeit with the declining trend of tobacco farms, continues to persist. Theoretical guiding the investigation is based on the institutional arrangement of contract farming system, the idea that derived from New Institution Economics, and farmers’ striving to attain livelihoods. The study adopts qualitative methods, utilising purposive sampling, with 53 tobacco farmers recruited from four provinces, namely Phrae, Phetchabun, Roi-et and Nongkhai, who took part in four focus group discussions. In addition, in-depth interviews were conducted with two provincial agricultural promotion officers, three provincial excise officers and four staff members of the local office of the Thailand Tobacco Monopoly. The data was analysed using content analysis. This paper found that supportive institutional arrangements, the adaptation of communities and households creating a favourable environment and the emergence of new markets for roll-your-own cigarettes are contributing to the persistence of tobacco agriculture. In light of tobacco control, two policy measures are proposed. First, the regulations for roll-your-own cigarette industries – both smallholders and manufacturers – must be revised and instituted. Second, to encourage tobacco farmers to move away from tobacco growing, institutional support for alternative crops, such as price guarantees, inputs and technical support should be provided in the same manner that the tobacco growers currently receive.

This research article aims to study the impact of urbanization on its hinterlands, by focusing on the perceptions of the household heads in the hinterlands of a small city, which is the major type of the cities in the Mekong region. Khon Kaen city in the northeast region of Thailand was selected as a case study. A questionnaire survey was conducted with a sample of 409 households in 35 villages in the city’s hinterlands, defined as the areas of 5 kilometres lying further from a ring road surrounding the city. Data were analysed by descriptive statistics and mean ranking. The research found that the top ten most favorable impacts were on better access to health and educational services, better employment and educational opportunities, women’s decision making power and social status, as well as positive impact on local government. As for the negative impacts of urbanization, pre-marriage sexual relationship, co-habitation and inappropriate dressing of village youths were identified as major problems. Apart from youth’s problems, other social problems namely gambling and drug addiction were identified, as well as household economic problems including shortage of farm lands, higher household expenditure and debts. Among the top ten highest ranks of negative impacts, only one environmental problem, namely noise pollution, was identified. However, it is remarkable that environmental sector contained the highest numbers of unfavorable impacts that had mean value less than three. In other words, among the seven sectors explored, namely the household economy, the village economy, the society, the political and administration, the ideology and culture, the women and youths and the environment, the research found that environmental sector got the highest number of negative items of urbanization impacts. Based on a Multiple Regression Analysis, the research found that household heads’ age (Beta = 0.127) and monthly income (Beta = -0.175) were the factors that influenced their perceptions on the impacts with the R 2 = 0.073.

Laos is a socialist transition economy that has continued to increase its household characteristics, social assets, and human assets, all of which significantly influence livelihood security. The study sample generated 333 responses with confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) conducted using the LISREL software 9.30 for Window. The statistical model showed good fit with χ²/df = 62, CFI (comparative fit index) = 0.968, GFI (goodness-of-fit index) = 0.969, and RMSEA (root-mean-square error of approximation) = 0.0358, respectively. The findings confirmed that the standardized coefficients for household characteristics (β = 0.429, p < 0.01), social assets (β = 0.505, p < 0.01), and financial assets (β = 0.423, p < 0.01) positively influenced livelihood security. The implication of the current findings regarding the model will be discussed.

The objective of this research was to study the role of labour broker networks in fixing the price for Thai migrants to work abroad. In order to understand the role of these networks, it was necessary to focus on two specific research questions. The first question was how these labour broker networks are formed; and the second question was why, or for what purposes, are these networks being created. Data was collected through in-depth interviews as well as participatory and non-participatory observations with 37 key informants who were labour brokers belonging to legal labour agencies and labour sub-brokers. Key informants were selected by a snowball technique from Udon Thani, Nakhon Ratchasima, Khon Kaen, Chaiyaphum, and Nongkhai. Data analysis was done using the ATLAS.ti program. The study found that the labour broker networks in the north-east of Thailand are loosely established through ties formed via cultural or community activities without any formal organization. In the main, these networks are set up on the basis of personal relationships among members. The rationale behind the establishment of these networks is to maintain personal relationships and to exchange work-related information. The results of the study indicated that the social networks of labour brokers are informal, and that these networks are linked to other networks that exist among labour brokers and sub-brokers forming larger local and regional networks. The costs incurred by Thai migrant workers having recall to the services of labour broker networks forms part of the overall cost of working abroad. Moreover, it was found that in some cases labour sub-brokers had provided loans to Thai labourers to cover the costs of travelling abroad.