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Ambivalences of collective farming: feminist political ecologies from eastern India and Nepal

Author

Listed:
  • Leder, S.
  • Sugden, F.
  • Raut, Manita
  • Ray, D.
  • Saikia, P.

Abstract

Collective farming has been suggested as a potentially useful approach for reducing inequality and transforming peasant agriculture. In collectives, farmers pool land, labor, irrigation infrastructure, agricultural inputs and harvest to overcome resource constraints and to increase their bargaining power. Employing a feminist political ecology lens, we reflect on the extent to which collective farming enables marginalized groups to engage in smallholder agriculture. We examine the establishment of 18 farmer collectives by an action research project in the Eastern Gangetic Plains, a region characterised by fragmented and small landholdings and a high rate of marginalised and landless farmers. We analyze ambivalances of collective farming practices with regard to (1) social relations across scales, (2) intersectionality and (3) emotional attachment. Our results in Saptari/ Eastern Terai in Nepal, Madhubani/Bihar, and Cooch Behar/West Bengal in India demonstrate how intra-household, group and community relations and emotional attachments to the family and neighbors mediate the redistribution of labor, land, produce and capital. We find that unequal gender relations, intersected by class, age, ethnicity and caste, are reproduced in collective action, land tenure and water management, and argue that a critical feminist perspective can support a more reflective and relational understanding of collective farming processes. Our analysis demonstrates that feminist political ecology can complement commons studies by providing meaningful insights on ambivalences around approaches such as collective farming.

Suggested Citation

  • Leder, S. & Sugden, F. & Raut, Manita & Ray, D. & Saikia, P., 2019. "Ambivalences of collective farming: feminist political ecologies from eastern India and Nepal," Papers published in Journals (Open Access), International Water Management Institute, pages 13(1):105-1.
  • Handle: RePEc:iwt:jounls:h049381
    DOI: 10.18352/ijc.917
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    Cited by:

    1. Leder, S. & Shrestha, Gitta & Das, D., . "Transformative engagements with gender relations in agriculture and water governance," Papers published in Journals (Open Access), International Water Management Institute, pages 5(1):128-15.
    2. Karolin Andersson & Katarina Pettersson & Johanna Bergman Lodin, 2022. "Window dressing inequalities and constructing women farmers as problematic—gender in Rwanda’s agriculture policy," Agriculture and Human Values, Springer;The Agriculture, Food, & Human Values Society (AFHVS), vol. 39(4), pages 1245-1261, December.
    3. Gregory L. Simon & Cody Peterson & Emily Anderson & Brendan Berve & Marcelle Caturia & Isaac Rivera, 2021. "Multiple Temporalities of Household Labour: The Challenge of Assessing Women's Empowerment," Development and Change, International Institute of Social Studies, vol. 52(2), pages 289-315, March.
    4. Leder, Stephanie & Upadhyaya, Rachana & van der Geest, Kees & Adhikari, Yuvika & Büttner, Matthias, 2024. "Rural out-migration and water governance: Gender and social relations mediate and sustain irrigation systems in Nepal," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 177(C).

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