Beyond Monoculture: Agrarian Adaptation Strategies and Actor-Networks in a Changing Landscape of North Sumatra

Abstract

The global expansion of cash crops is frequently depicted as a totalizing force that transforms diverse farming systems. This study examines the agrarian adaptation strategies of the community in Sayur Mahincat Village, North Sumatra, Indonesia, within a changing landscape where oil palm has become prominent while rice fields, horticulture, rubber, and other crops remain part of everyday agricultural practice. Employing a qualitative ethnographic case study design, this research analyzes how households organize different land uses and agricultural activities. Data were collected through participant observation and in-depth interviews conducted during two fieldwork periods, from December 2025 to February 2026 and August to September 2026, and analyzed using thematic analysis interpreted through Actor-Network Theory (ANT). The findings reveal three connected dynamics: the coexistence of diverse land uses, divergent management rhythms between seasonal food crops and permanent plantations, and the role of human and non-human entities in shaping agricultural practice. Water availability and crop biology condition land-use possibilities, while Ramadan operates as a cultural-temporal arrangement that mediates the organization of agricultural labor. This study argues that agrarian change in Sayur Mahincat is not adequately understood as a linear replacement of diverse farming by monoculture, but as an ongoing reconfiguration of relations among people, land, crops, material conditions, and culturally structured time.