Contribution short abstract:

One strategy of global agribusiness to extend its control over land is the subordinate integration of family farming into its production chains. This works through a variety of more and less visible forms of power but is also contested as the example of the Ecuadorian corn sector shows.

Contribution long abstract:

In Ecuador, hard yellow corn for feed production has become the most important product for small family farming in terms of cultivated area. As part of the dominant global agri-food system, the monocultural production model is based on a high level of dependence on agrobusiness companies that import seeds and agrochemicals and also control the feed production market, which leads to a pronounced homogenization and financialization of production, dependence on credit and external inputs and, therefore, is accompanied by a loss of peasant autonomy.

The subordinate integration of family farming into these agroindustrial chains cannot be understood only in terms of top-down exercise of power but is strongly based on a series of "quieter registers of power" (Frederiksen & Himley, 2020), including modes of subjectification and knowledge regimes. For the analysis of the complexity of these relationships that generate transformations of landscapes, of ways of producing but also of understanding the world and oneself, the concept of dispositive is applied to examine the confluence of both material and immaterial aspects that guide transformations.

This paper builds on field research and the application of ethnographic methods in the Ecuadorian coastal and highland region. Its approach seeks to contribute to debates on land use change, the complexity of power relations at work between agrobusiness and family farming and on the search for alternatives in the face of the current socio-ecological crisis.

Contribution short abstract:

The apple fruit-growing areas in the Himalayan tracts of northern India are seeing an upsurge in organised movements against agribusiness, particularly Adani Agrifresh. This paper will study the impact of Adani and the nature of movements being led by small and marginal apple fruit growers.

Contribution long abstract:

Agribusinesses, both foreign and national, have entered the fruit and vegetable (F&V) sector in India in a major way after reforms in laws relating to agriculture in 2003. The apple economy was one of the first fruit value chains to be disrupted by agribusiness, with operations by giant firms such as Adani Agrifresh beginning in 2006 in Himachal Pradesh, a Himalayan state in northern India. The firms claimed to be 'revolutionising' the traditional value chains by bypassing the middlemen and intermediaries linked with the open markets, and buying the apple produce directly from the orchard gate of apple growers. Over the years, however, a central point of contention between small apple growers and agribusiness in Himachal Pradesh that has emerged relates to market distortion by the latter, whose announced prices seem to dictate the general prices in the open market, often negatively influencing them. These firms have also pushed many growers away from value-addition activities in the apple economy. The first tremors against agribusiness, particularly Adani, by small growers were felt in the 2021 harvesting season, which snowballed into a major movement in the 2022 harvesting season. Some 5,000 apple growers from hundreds of villages in the apple growing belt stormed the state capital demanding regulation of agribusiness and later picketed the procurement warehouses of Adani as well. This paper will bring throw light on the dynamics of Adani Agrifresh's presence in the apple economy, and the nature of agrarian resistance to its plans of expansion and domination.

Contribution short abstract:

This contribution presents some of the linkages between specialty coffee and commodity coffee markets, showing why it is not possible to disentangle these two production processes and how high prices coffees are being paid by low prices coffees, labour exploitation and land expulsion in the South.

Contribution long abstract:

Coffee. One of the most consumed beverages in the world, it has become part of the food culture of East and West, North and South. Although coffee has been receiving a lot of attention and been presented as a potent alternative of development for peoples and territories in the Global South, it´s global production network is made out of a an chain of inequalities which benefits mostly actors from the North. The present contribution presents results and analysis based on an extensive research on coffee´s global network. It aims to present some of the linkages between specialty coffee and commodity coffee markets, showing why it is not possible to disentangle these two production processes. In that sense, high prices coffees are ultimately being paid by low prices coffees, labour exploitation and land expulsion in the South.

Contribution short abstract:

The proposed paper explores the root cause of the historic farmers in the heartland of the green revolution region. Through a study of Bayer and its partners, it argues that the systemic impact of agri-business has led to changing class dynamics within the region and its politics.

Contribution long abstract:

The proposed paper is based on the results of a study about the strategies of penetration and expansion of the pesticide giant, Bayer International in Karnal District of Haryana. It is worth noting that the study area has been the heartland of green revolution and a hub of agricultural research since the 1970s. It was also the nerve centre of the historic farmers' protests and therefore serves as a good barometer to gauge the impact of the penetration of agribusiness on agrarian relations. Through field research conducted in the course of July-December 2020, we focus on the processes that have led to the development of Global Agricultural Value Systems in agricultural inputs. The focus on Bayer International shows that hegemonic discourse of 'integrated farming solutions' used to establish dominance over backward and forward linkages. This had severe adverse environmental, health, economic and social impact on the farmers and agricultural workers, and increased their dependence on corporate capital. This development needs to be seen in the context of policy, especially in the wake of the ascendency of neoliberal economic policies, the withdrawal of the state and third generation of policy reforms represented by the farm laws, against which the protests were directed. The systemic impact of these developments led to a wider alliance between all classes of peasants and agricultural workers and sustained the protests. This paper illustrates how larger macro-economic changes altered agrarian politics within this green revolution heartland.

Contribution short abstract:

I will present work that shows how land redistribution can deepen capitalism in new progressive ways, from below, fuelled by the labour power of classes of labour, as wage labour, and on the basis of self-exploitation for social reproduction, and accumulation from below.

Contribution long abstract:

Diverse social relations of production and reproduction in South African land reform seldom feature in pessimistic views about its impacts on farm labour. This work explores social relations of production, and reproduction on redistributed farmland by examining capital-wage relations, and the impact of land redistribution induced small-medium scale capitalist farming on the material base for social reproduction, and accumulation. The immigrant farm work phenomenon is engaged with, illuminating capital-wage relations, laying bare far-reaching social reproduction impacts of farm work, and access to land for petty commodity production by working class land beneficiaries via self-exploitation, and wage labour. Findings suggest that intensive labour absorption on recently subdivided small-medium scale farmland deepens capitalist relations in redistributive ways, widening the material base for social reproduction and accumulation from below. The paper ends with the Lesotho land question, the immigrant farm workers’ home country, and suggests reparative land restitution.

Contribution short abstract:

Using tobacco, cotton and sugar crops in Zimbabwe, this paper demonstrates how other various social groups who include wageworkers, women and unpaid household labor are also exploited by agribusiness leading to food insecurity and sub-human life standards.

Contribution long abstract:

Promoted by the World Bank (WB) and the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), agribusiness firm expansion through contract farming has been touted as a mechanism of promoting development. However, critics argue that the asymmetric powers between the firms and the farmers in contractual relationship may lead to exploitation of the latter. Despite the bourgeoning of literature in recent years highlighting the massive exploitation of landholders/peasants by agribusiness operations, scholarship has failed to articulate the various layers of exploitation among social groups beyond what is already known- between capital and the peasantry. The exploitation of hired labor, women and other members of household who provide agricultural labor remains under examined in contract farming. These aspects are important to explore given the manner and forms through which agribusiness operates, that remain deeply invisible and disguised.

Another key issue on agribusiness expansion through contract farming in Africa is the question of food security. Lacking has been an attempt to study the impact of contract farming on food security. Utilising qualitative and quantitative data, this study examines labor conditions and food security situation of landowners, wage-workers, women and unpaid agricultural workers in agricultural production for commodities which include tobacco, cotton and sugarcane in Zimbabwe. The study demonstrates how other various social groups who include wage-workers, women and unpaid household labour are also exploited by agribusiness leading to food insecurity and sub-human life standards.

Contribution short abstract:

This paper would attempt to examine the success of the Kudumbashree farm collectives in Kerala, India in creating secure livelihoods for landless women and new accumulation patterns at the local level, furthering the scope and potential of solidarity economies rooted in counter-hegemonic politics.

Contribution long abstract:

The peasantry in the global south has been subjected to an expropriation of their lands and livelihoods as an invariable consequence of global capitalist accumulation. The small and marginal farmers in countries like India, whose land holdings constitute the majority of all holdings, have been pushed into impoverishment and deprivation, accentuated by the adoption of the neoliberal growth model. The state of Kerala in India has faced deepening agrarian distress due to its linkages with the global economy and the ever-widening land inequality in the state. The precarity and misery have led to the rise of an alternative model of cooperation and solidarity from the grassroots in Kerala in the form of farm collectives. Through joint pooling of resources, labour and skills, the Kudumbashree, the state’s poverty eradication mission, has formed thousands of women’s collectives across the state. Kerala’s decentralized governance structure has been the fulcrum of this vast network of 65,000 collectives spread across the state. Through cooperation in production at the grassroots, technological advantage of economies of scale are being availed by the small and marginal farmers, at the same time, surplus labour scattered within individual farm households is being proactively engaged in capital formation and agro-processing activities. This study would attempt to examine the success of the collectives in establishing viable livelihoods and enhancing the socioeconomic position of women. The study would also engage with ideas that would further the scope and the potential of solidarity economies, strongly rooted in counter-hegemonic politics.

Contribution short abstract:

A number of international institutions have argued that technological change, as contrasted with the transformation of the agrarian structure, can be the prime mover of agricultural growth in Bihar. In this paper, we will try to respond to this argument.

Contribution long abstract:

The last few decades have witnessed the emergence of a new discussion around Bihar. The overarching element in this discussion is Bihar’s development since the year 2005 when Nitish Kumar became the chief minister of the state. Some scholars, such as Dasgupta (2010) and Nagaraj and Rahman (2010), have questioned the tall claims made by the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government. However, there has been another argument, especially related to the agrarian change and agricultural development in Bihar that has largely gone uncontested. A number of international institutions such as the World Bank (2005), Agha Khan Development Network (2007), and scholars like Avinash Kishore (2004, 2013) and Tushaar Shah (1999) have argued that technological change, as contrasted with the transformation of the agrarian structure, can be the prime mover of agricultural growth in Bihar. In this paper, we will try to respond to this argument by referring to the development trajectory of agriculture in Bihar over the last few decades.