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Arora, Saurabh (2012) Farmers' participation in knowledge circulation and the promotion of agroecological methods in South India. Journal of Sustainable Agriculture, 36 (2). pp. 207-235. ISSN 1044-0046
Full text not available from this repository. (Request a copy)Abstract
In the context of widespread agrarian distress in rural India, finding ways to secure livelihood sustainability of small farm- ers have become urgent concerns. Agroecological methods (AEMs) are considered by some to be effective in solving structural prob- lems with farmers’ production processes engendered by the use of resource-intensive technologies. AEMs generally require exten- sive participation by farmers for further development through on-farm experimentation and collective learning. This article stud- ies learning through the lens of knowledge circulation between farmers and “experts” in a local innovation system. In particu- lar, it analyzes farmers’ participation in knowledge circulation using network data on problem-solving knowledge flows to and from an innovative south Indian village. The findings suggest that farmers’ participation was restricted by formal and infor- mal institutions governing the knowledge interactions between the development organizations that promoted AEM and the farm- ers. Any new ways of working (technological and institutional innovations) are argued to be filtered through the sediments of extant techno-institutional context, leading to the profusion of hybrid forms of technology and organization. However, despite this profusion, or perhaps because of it, epistemological and socio- cultural hierarchies continue to operate in avowedly participatory projects organized to promote AEMs based on farmers’ “traditional knowledge.”
| Item Type: | Article |
|---|---|
| Schools and Departments: | School of Business, Management and Economics > SPRU - Science Policy Research Unit |
| Subjects: | H Social Sciences |
| Depositing User: | Saurabh Arora |
| Date Deposited: | 02 May 2014 06:05 |
| Last Modified: | 02 May 2014 06:05 |
| URI: | http://sro.sussex.ac.uk/id/eprint/48332 |