Potato contract farming and ‘privileged spaces’: preliminary insights from rural Maharashtra

The emergence of modern value chain schemes such as contract farming in rural India is exposing households to new forms of agricultural production. Evidently, the spread of such schemes in India will have spatial implications for rural development. This short communication offers preliminary insights of the contours of these spatial implications from a case study of potato contract farming in three villages in Maharashtra, India. It is proposed that studies that combine a local-scale livelihoods approach with global value chain analysis can strengthen understanding of agricultural change and rural development by grounding value chain analysis in the place-based everyday realities of rural households. Using this approach to adopt an evolutionary view of livelihoods and value chains will lead to a much deeper understanding of possible future development pathways for rural households under conditions of agricultural transformation

Potatoes, Peasants and Livelihoods: A Critical Exploration of Contract Farming and Agrarian Change in Maharashtra, India

The spread of contract farming in rural India in recent years has provoked a polarised and often ideological debate in the literature. The dominant, micro-economic view of contract farming positions it as a ‘win-win’ for rural development, benefitting both agribusiness and small farmers. Critical observers, on the other hand, emphasise the exploitative effects on rural households, viewing contract farming as ‘win-lose’. The critical weakness of both these approaches, however, is a failure to ground interpretations of contract farming schemes in the broader agrarian contexts in which they appear. Little is known about how different households in different contexts come to engage, or not, with contract farming, and what this might mean for future livelihood pathways in spaces where contract farming operates. This thesis punctures these debates through a critical exploration of potato contract farming, rural livelihoods and agrarian change in three villages in Satara district, Maharashtra. The primary research question for this study is: how is potato contract farming incorporated into rural spaces in India, and what does this mean for patterns of advantage and disadvantage? In addressing this question, I make three core contributions. First, mainstream presumptions that contract farming engages with a homogenous, undifferentiated livelihood landscape need to be recast. In Satara, I find that patterns of agrarian differentiation are not characterised by ongoing dynamic processes of agriculture-led differentiation into classes of capitalist farmers and rural labour, as is imagined by a classical understanding of agrarian transition. Rather, the agrarian structure in my study sites is characterised by a diverse group of ‘middle farmers’, or petty commodity producers, who often struggle to reproduce themselves through a combination of on and off-farm activities. Second, I argue that firms use contract farming as an institutional solution to the procurement challenges associated with traditional agricultural markets in India. In Satara, the spread of potato contract farming is symptomatic of changing governance structures in modern agricultural value chains. My third key argument is that patterns of social and economic differentiation arising from contract farming must be understood as co-produced at the intersection of these existing livelihood landscapes and the dynamics of contract schemes. In Satara, this intersection results in a complex mosaic of winners and losers amongst rural households, meaning that contract farming cannot be easily generalised as ‘all good’ or ‘all bad’. Importantly, I argue that potato contract farming is a ‘middle farmer’ activity. However, while many middle farmers accrue some benefits, these are unevenly distributed and truncated by the powerful position of the contract firm. As a result, I argue that for most households, contract farming does not represent a viable accumulation pathway. In fact, contract farming is just one activity among many in a crowded livelihood landscape where accumulation through agriculture is increasingly difficult. Finally, rather than leading to dynamic patterns of accumulation from below, contract farming reproduces an agrarian structure of petty commodity producers who lack access to alternative livelihood opportunities. In fact, sites of accumulation and differentiation have moved off the farm, where better-off households ignore contract farming and increase their advantage through highvalue non-farm activities. This suggests that agrarian change in Satara district is intimately connected to processes of livelihood diversification and agrarian questions of labour. These findings provide an important counter-note to current hegemonic understandings of contract farming as a ‘win-win’ solution for rural development, emphasising the importance of situating the impacts of such schemes within the livelihood landscapes in which they operate

Potatoes, Peasants and Livelihoods: A Critical Exploration of Contract Farming and Agrarian Change in Maharashtra, India

The spread of contract farming in rural India in recent years has provoked a polarised and often ideological debate in the literature. The dominant, micro-economic view of contract farming positions it as a ‘win-win’ for rural development, benefitting both agribusiness and small farmers. Critical observers, on the other hand, emphasise the exploitative effects on rural households, viewing contract farming as ‘win-lose’. The critical weakness of both these approaches, however, is a failure to ground interpretations of contract farming schemes in the broader agrarian contexts in which they appear. Little is known about how different households in different contexts come to engage, or not, with contract farming, and what this might mean for future livelihood pathways in spaces where contract farming operates. This thesis punctures these debates through a critical exploration of potato contract farming, rural livelihoods and agrarian change in three villages in Satara district, Maharashtra. The primary research question for this study is: how is potato contract farming incorporated into rural spaces in India, and what does this mean for patterns of advantage and disadvantage? In addressing this question, I make three core contributions. First, mainstream presumptions that contract farming engages with a homogenous, undifferentiated livelihood landscape need to be recast. In Satara, I find that patterns of agrarian differentiation are not characterised by ongoing dynamic processes of agriculture-led differentiation into classes of capitalist farmers and rural labour, as is imagined by a classical understanding of agrarian transition. Rather, the agrarian structure in my study sites is characterised by a diverse group of ‘middle farmers’, or petty commodity producers, who often struggle to reproduce themselves through a combination of on and off-farm activities. Second, I argue that firms use contract farming as an institutional solution to the procurement challenges associated with traditional agricultural markets in India. In Satara, the spread of potato contract farming is symptomatic of changing governance structures in modern agricultural value chains. My third key argument is that patterns of social and economic differentiation arising from contract farming must be understood as co-produced at the intersection of these existing livelihood landscapes and the dynamics of contract schemes. In Satara, this intersection results in a complex mosaic of winners and losers amongst rural households, meaning that contract farming cannot be easily generalised as ‘all good’ or ‘all bad’. Importantly, I argue that potato contract farming is a ‘middle farmer’ activity. However, while many middle farmers accrue some benefits, these are unevenly distributed and truncated by the powerful position of the contract firm. As a result, I argue that for most households, contract farming does not represent a viable accumulation pathway. In fact, contract farming is just one activity among many in a crowded livelihood landscape where accumulation through agriculture is increasingly difficult. Finally, rather than leading to dynamic patterns of accumulation from below, contract farming reproduces an agrarian structure of petty commodity producers who lack access to alternative livelihood opportunities. In fact, sites of accumulation and differentiation have moved off the farm, where better-off households ignore contract farming and increase their advantage through highvalue non-farm activities. This suggests that agrarian change in Satara district is intimately connected to processes of livelihood diversification and agrarian questions of labour. These findings provide an important counter-note to current hegemonic understandings of contract farming as a ‘win-win’ solution for rural development, emphasising the importance of situating the impacts of such schemes within the livelihood landscapes in which they operate

Constructing the eastern european other: The horsemeat scandal and the migrant other

The Horsemeat scandal in the UK in 2013 ignited a furore about consumer deception and the bodily transgression of consuming something so alien to the British psyche. The imagination of the horse as a noble and mythic figure in British history and sociological imagination was invoked to construct the consumption of horsemeat as a social taboo and an immoral proposition in the British media debates. This paper traces the horsemeat scandal and its media framing in the UK. Much of the aversion to horsemeat was intertextually bound with discourses of immigration, the expansion of the EU and the threat in tandem to the UK. Food as a social and cultural artefact laden with symbolic meaning and national pride became a platform to construct the ‘Other’ – in this case the Eastern European Other. The media debates on the horsemeat scandal interwove the opening up of the EU and particularly UK to the influx of Eastern European migration. The horsemeat controversy in implicating the Eastern Europeans for the contamination of the supply chain became a means to not just construct the ‘Other’ but also to entwine contemporary policy debates about immigration. This temporal framing of contemporary debates enables a nation to renew and contemporise its notions of ‘otherness’ while sustaining an historic social imaginary of itself

Conserving traditional wisdom in a commodified landscape : Unpacking brand Ayurveda

As Ayurveda continues to gain global recognition as a sanctioned system of health care, the essence of Ayurveda's identity has become prey to commoditization and commodification for commercial undertakings in the holistic health milieu of India, but also in emerging markets such as Europe. This paper critically assesses the commodification of Ayurveda as a cultural signifier within Europe that separates the indigenous artefact from its Vedic origins. Often presented as an elite commodity in Western settings, Ayurveda has become embedded as a cultural artifact within consumer society as the epitome of holistic care with an emphasis on its spiritual attributes, yet simultaneously isolating it from the customary elements that motivated its inception. The paper argues that Ayurveda's discursive detachment from its ontological tenets facilitates its rearticulation as a malleable experience as it crosses national boundaries, and in this process fosters the misinterpretation of the ancient healing tradition. This process may provide Ayurvedic treatments and principles with increased visibility in Europe's health sector. However, brands are exploiting this niche with push-marketing strategies to capitalize on the budding Ayurveda industry, turning traditional medicines into emblematic commodities. To advance this argument, we examine product diversions in the commodification of classical Ayurvedic medicines in the Netherlands and Germany, focusing on the over-the-counter (OTC) segment. We present an interpretive analysis of the processes that are (de)constructing traditional practices and principles as Ayurveda travels beyond India, and how this complicates issues of authenticity and expertise as herbal medicines diverge from the indications ratified in Ayurveda's classical compendiums

Rethinking rural development in Myanmar's Ayeyarwady Delta through a historical food regimes frame

Recent strategies to address rural poverty and food insecurity in Myanmar's Ayeyarwady Delta emphasize the scope for market-based and smallholder-led agricultural development to catalyze broader positive change for rural populations. This paper challenges the appropriateness of this development model for the Ayeyarwady Delta. Assumptions of latent growth potential among an emerging smallholder capitalist agricultural class fundamentally misinterpret how farming is embedded within the Delta's regional economy. Using a long historical perspective informed by the food regimes approach, as well as household-level data from a recently completed livelihoods survey in two townships, we reveal a contemporary situation in which medium-sized and large landholders control most agricultural production. We argue that this is a path-dependent legacy from how the Delta has been successively incorporated into the politics of food production and trade at global and national scales. These arrangements have left the Delta without a broad smallholder base, meaning that policies that prioritize smallholder-led market development will not generate the type of pro-poor outcomes required to address the Delta's pervasive rates of food insecurity and poverty. Instead, a rural development agenda for the Delta should focus on its actually existing social and economic dynamics that are a legacy of its history.</p

The importance of non-farm livelihoods for household food security and dietary diversity in rural Myanmar

Recent processes of socio-economic change in rural Myanmar are etching significant shifts to the social distribution of advantage and disadvantage, with implications for patterns of food security and dietary quality. This paper uses original repeat cross-sectional household survey data to identify emergent relationships between land and livelihoods on the one hand, and food security and dietary quality, on the other. The paper concludes that although land ‘matters’ (landholding households are more likely to be food secure and have higher dietary diversity than landless households), this association is strongly conditioned by livelihood and seasonal circumstances. Households with livelihood arrangements articulated to the non-farm economy, whether they were landholders or landless, exhibited superior food and nutritional outcomes compared to those with livelihoods only in farming. Hence, while access to arable land remains an important factor in shaping food security and dietary diversity, of greater importance is the capacity for households to supplement their land assets with livelihood activities in the non-farm economy. This finding reinforces broader arguments that emphasise the importance of the non-farm economy as a vital shaper of wellbeing for rural households in the global South

How does the ownership of land affect household livelihood pathways under conditions of deagrarianization? 'Hanging in', 'stepping up' and 'stepping out' in two north Indian villages

In rural parts of the global South, livelihoods are diversifying away from agriculture. Nevertheless, agriculture typically still remains the backbone of rural life and is usually considered the prime source of economic security, social prestige and self-identity. The task of narrating these somewhat contradictory processes in a conceptually coherent fashion has proven a major challenge for research. This paper responds to this problem by deploying an adapted version of Andrew Dorward's schema of households 'hanging in, stepping up or stepping out' of their landed interests. Dorward's middle-ground theory provides an appropriate analytical vehicle for capturing the vagaries and situated complexities of the land-livelihoods nexus. However the theory fails to fully appreciate the extent to which household livelihood decision making rests on complex entanglements that leverage land-based and nonfarm activities against one another. We demonstrate the critical importance of these processes through the results of in-depth interviews with 32 households in two north Indian villages. These interviews lead us to propose that land factors in livelihood aspirations in three fundamental ways: an arena for interpenetrated agrarian and nonagrarian livelihood streams; a base for social reproduction; and a bulwark of food (and by extension, livelihood) security through own-production capabilities

New aesthetic regimes : The shifting global political ecology of aroma hops

This paper argues that aroma hops are a neoliberal crop par excellence, shaping new political ecologies and economies of hops production and marketing globally. The value of aroma hops has grown significantly over the last decade. The aesthetic and chemical properties of new aroma varieties are central to the new cultural and political milieu of the rapidly expanding craft beer brewing sector. In response, some hop-growing regions are expanding their production, while others are re-orienting to new market dynamics or attempting to maintain their existing production traditions. This paper will draw from qualitative fieldwork in the USA, Aotearoa (New Zealand), the UK, and Germany to explore the political, social and economic effects of the massive and rapid growth of aroma hops production. Developing the concept of an aesthetic regime, we will consider how the botany of hop plants have influenced the development of new power dynamics around distinction and control of aroma hop varieties. This generated a new aesthetic regime that reshapes regional infrastructures in breeding, cooperative marketing, and trade, while bringing regions into new relations with each other

Global production networks, regional development trajectories and smallholder livelihoods in the Global South

Recent advances in global production network theory, known as GPN 2.0, provide a theoretically sophisticated framework for understanding the articulation of global production systems with regional development trajectories. However, this framework was largely derived from lessons out of empirical analyses of the strategic coupling and value capture trajectories of firms in certain manufacturing and service sector ‘hot spots’, primarily in East and Southeast Asia, and its wider applicability for other contexts remains uncertain. This paper aims to address this lacuna by examining the potential for GPN 2.0 to understand regional development trajectories in agricultural production landscapes in the Global South dominated by smallholder-based farms that generate outputs for national and international markets. The distinctive characteristics of smallholders throw up significant challenges for the explanatory applicability of GPN 2.0 for rural development, at least as it has been developed so far. A key challenge is that smallholders cannot be considered equivalent to ‘firms’ as conceived in GPN 2.0. To overcome this problem, this paper argues for bringing a livelihoods perspective to bear on GPN 2.0. We illustrate the usefulness of this approach through reference to a case study of potato contract farming in Maharastra, India