Mobilizing Cassava Networks in Mondulkiri

This chapter examines the formation of contemporary cassava trading networks in the Cambodian border province of Mondulkiri, which neighbors Tbong Khmum. In response to a boom in global demand for derivatives of industrial—or “bitter”—cassava over the last decade, the chapter unfolds how large tracts of the Cambodia–Vietnam frontier have come under smallholder cassava cultivation to supply processing industries in Vietnamese border provinces. The chapter recounts how the subtle material and social variations in Mondulkiri have produced two distinct commodity networks circulating dried cassava chips and fresh cassava tubers. The chapter then distills the key actors and relationships in these networks and the negotiations and practices involved in mobilizing the cassava trade. It then turns to the specific role of migration in the development of new agricultural lands, where cassava has been a crucial pioneer crop. The chapter emphasizes that cassava networks have both adapted to and shaped diverse localities through related processes, such as migration and land claiming. The commodification processes that migration and cassava have set in train ensure that market formation continues even if cassava-specific networks are disrupted.