Paper short abstract:

This study explores resilience policy and knowledge production in the contexts of British and Indian agriculture. In particular, it will focus on how 'resilience' is defined by whom, and what opportunities or challenges remain hidden across these national discourses.

Paper long abstract:

Resilience has emerged as a key theme in the discussions of sustainable development and climate action. The recent scholarship on resilience suggests policy actions for building resilience as sustainable when their impacts confer to the planetary boundaries. The challenge is that the conditions in which socio-ecological systems function are disparate across space. Therefore, achieving global action to tackle climate change is a challenge. For instance, while dense populations and increasing climate variability characterise the agricultural sector of the global south, mechanisation and loss of bio-diversity characterise the global north. Community participation and collective action is promoted for better resource management in the south, while land management and conservation at a scale is promoted in the north. Similarly, while mitigating climate shocks is at the core of policy action in the former, strategies for climate adaptation lie in the latter. Does this imply that the scope for collaboration for global climate action is inherently limited?

The central objective of this study is to identify opportunities for north-south and south-south collaboration, specifically in the agricultural sector. This is achieved through comparative analysis of knowledge production in Indian and British agricultural policies. Using semantic analysis of government policy documents, this study will trace how 'resilience' is defined in agricultural policies (and by who, for whom, and why). This will, in turn, be paired with insights from knowledge production from local actors working on resilience.