檳榔樹冠下的層疊園圃：現代性農業體制邊界的屏東檳榔民族誌

Abstract

檳榔是臺灣經濟起飛的黃金年代中崛起的消費品，並且在1970年代水稻沒落後成為屏東平原主要的作物之一。然而，由於公衛和環保爭議，檳榔長年未被國家納入正規農產品，進而擁有著和主流作物截然不同的農業生命史。本研究以屏東的客家農村為田野場域，觀察檳榔產銷體系如何透過靈活的交易網絡，流通農政體系標準化工程之外的檳榔果實；接著進一步探討檳榔園圃如何與屏東平原的熱帶環境、城鄉關係與全球供應鏈相互交織，發展出適合當前處境的家庭型態與物種混作的共生關係。 藉由這本屏東檳榔農業的民族誌，我希望指出：即便檳榔被排除於現代性農業體制之外，缺乏農業輔導、育種改良與正式運銷體系的支持，卻允許相當多元且開放的農業體系，使不同經濟規模與勞動條件的從業人，以及無論是物種種類或個體性狀都具有多樣性的植物，得以共存於檳榔園圃之中。這樣多元的園圃世界，一方面凸顯出臺灣「小農」難以被清楚界定的一面，也展現了小尺度園圃在面對農業市場轉移、氣候變遷等多重風險時所具有的韌性。

Betel nut emerged as a major consumer commodity during The period of rapid economic growth in Taiwan, and became one of the major crops of the Pingtung Plain following the decline of rice cultivation in the 1970s. However, due to controversies surrounding public health and environmental concerns, betel nut has long remained outside the category of officially recognized agricultural products, giving rise to an agricultural trajectory markedly different from that of mainstream crops. Based on ethnographic fieldwork conducted in Hakka villages in Pingtung, this study examines how the betel nut production and marketing system circulates areca fruits beyond the standardized framework of state agricultural administration through flexible trading networks. It further explores how betel nut gardens have become intertwined with the tropical environment of the Pingtung Plain, rural–urban relations, and global supply chains, thereby fostering distinctive family arrangements and multispecies forms of symbiosis adapted to contemporary circumstances. Through this ethnography of betel nut agriculture in Pingtung, I argue that although betel nut has been excluded from the institutions of modern agriculture and lacks the support of agricultural extension services, breeding programs, and formal marketing systems, this marginal position has nevertheless allowed for a remarkably diverse and open agricultural system. Such a system enables cultivators operating under different economic scales and labor conditions, as well as plants characterized by diverse species compositions and individual traits, to coexist within the same garden landscape. This plural world of betel nut gardens not only highlights the difficulty of clearly defining “peasant” in Taiwan, but also demonstrates the resilience of small-scale gardens in the face of multiple risks, including shifts in agricultural markets and climate change.