Explanation.
OPIUM PRODUCTION
RECEIVED IN REGISTRY No. 50
27 MAR 1975
Information on Shan State exists in various isolated cources,
but has never been integrated and made conveniently available to policy makers, researchers and the public. Preparation for an adequate social survey of the region requires the collection and analysis of existing information available from historical sources in order to provide sono baseline, however unsure, for future research.
Therefore, the project ashell locate, analyse, and make available existing information, from both written and oral sources.
Research Objectives,
This phase of the project will seck to determine answers to the following 6 questions:
1.
What are the ecological and environmental constraints on opium
What is production in the various sub-regions of Shan State? the total production of the region?
2+
What are the social, cultural and demographic determinents of specialization in opium agriculture?
3.
What are the labour (energy) inputs into opium production relative to other crops in the same ecological setting?
4.
To what extent is a model of 'rational economising' relevant to opium producers in Shan State?
5.
What socio-cultural factors favour or obstruct acceptance of
alternating crops?
6.
What sort of economic infra-structures are necessary to allow
the adoption of alternative crops?
Implementation.
The research objectives will be implemented through an integral sories of sub-projects combining extensive, macro-level social survey techniques tailored to isolated, often non-literate, populations with intensive micro-level participant observation studios:
1.
2.
3.
It.
When feasiblo, a detailed othno-linguistic survey of the peoples
of Shan State will be undertaken.
A detailed study will be carried out of the role of opium in the economy and social system of villages in Thailand which are ethnically and ecologically comparable to villages in Shan Stato.
There will be an analysis of the cconomic role of opium as both a cash crop and consumable currency in inter-village and inter- Group relations.
Factors in village level acceptance of agricultural innovation and crop substitution will be studied among various dìnic proMES
and Shar cke!