Paper short abstract:

This study investigates African agriculture's multifunctionality based on economic, social, and environmental dimensions using the AMAI and k-means clustering. Findings identify four groups, offering insights for sustainable development, tailored policies, and Korea-Africa collaboration.

Paper long abstract:

The compounding challenges of polycrisis—including climate change, conflicts, energy crises, and political instability—are intensifying, transcending borders, and impacting nations globally. These crises, encompassing socio-economic inequalities and food insecurity, demand holistic and adaptive approaches to sustainable development. Agriculture, while traditionally viewed as a source of food production, also fulfills multifunctional roles across economic, social, and environmental dimensions. This study evaluates the multifunctionality of African agriculture across three dimensions: the economic dimension, focusing on food security, rural economy, and agricultural R&D; the social dimension, emphasizing rural population, cultural values, infrastructure, and women and youth; and the environmental dimension, addressing sustainability, biodiversity, and climate change adaptation. Utilizing expert assessments, the Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) was employed to prioritize these dimensions—economic (0.497), environmental (0.303), and social (0.194). Based on these priorities, the African Multifunctional Agriculture Index (AMAI) was developed to assess 54 African countries between 2016 and 2020. Using AMAI scores, k-means clustering identified four distinct groups: Social Resilience Prioritizers, Ecological Sustainability Improvers, Balanced Development Seekers, and Capacity Development Challengers. Each cluster highlights unique capacities and priorities for addressing interconnected agricultural crises, without implying a hierarchy among them. These findings provide a robust framework for tailoring policy recommendations and development strategies that emphasize economic resilience, social equity, and environmental sustainability. This study further offers critical insights for designing inclusive and systematic rural development strategies, particularly for advancing Korea-Africa collaboration and fostering adaptive responses to the polycrisis.

Paper short abstract:

This paper explores how climate change and natural disasters impact the prevalence of child marriage in rural Bangladesh. We aim to examine the mechanisms of this impact and find a causal linkage with policy variables to analyse the relevance of policy prescriptions for rural Bangladesh.

Paper long abstract:

Child marriage is a crucial challenge, particularly in the developing world. The socioeconomic drivers of child marriage are well-studied in the literature. However, the link between child marriage and climate change is less established. We use the Bangladesh Integrated Household Survey, a nationally representative household panel data from rural Bangladesh, to fill this gap. We use robust econometric methods to find a significant positive association between child marriage and natural disasters and deviations in Bangladesh's historical temperature and precipitation data in individual and household-level data. Other important factors include the age and sex of the household head, the education level of females at the time of marriage, and household size. We use geographic information to check for spatial autocorrelation at the union level. We also incorporated significant control factors at the union level for our model's specification and robustness checks. Our goal is to examine the mechanisms of this impact and find a causal linkage with policy variables such as access to social protection to analyse the relevance of policy prescriptions for climate-vulnerable people of rural Bangladesh.

Paper short abstract:

The paper analyzes capitalist development in agriculture through a longitudinal study in North India. Using data from 2006–2024, it examines how sugarcane commercialization reinforces caste-class inequalities, with state and market interventions benefiting dominant groups disproportionately.

Paper long abstract:

This paper examines the deepening capitalist dynamics in Indian agriculture through a longitudinal study of a village in Western Uttar Pradesh, India’s largest sugarcane-producing state. Drawing on quantitative data from the Foundation for Agrarian Studies (2006–2023) and the author’s ethnographic fieldwork (2022–24), as well as secondary sources, it analyzes the socio-economic impacts of the sugarcane boom driven by high-yield seed varieties (Co 0238), the growth of private sugar mills, and modernized marketing structures.

Sugarcane cultivation has expanded across castes and classes, with Scheduled Caste (SC) and Other Backward Class (OBC) land-poor households leasing land from dominant caste landowners. While commercialization has improved access to land and markets for tenant farmers, structural barriers persist. SC and OBC cultivators face lower returns due to high rents and limited access to formal procurement channels, forcing sales in informal markets at lower prices. Dominant caste-class landowners, in contrast, leverage state-regulated procurement systems, subsidies, and private networks to maximize profits. This paper highlights how commercialization is accompanied by unequal exchanges, interlinked transactions, and infrastructural improvements that disproportionately benefit owner-cultivators.

The research reveals how caste and class intersect to shape uneven outcomes, perpetuating economic vulnerability among marginalized groups. The findings demonstrate how the growth of agrarian capitalism in India, while expanding market participation, reinforces socio-economic hierarchies. Through the lens of sugarcane cultivation, the study finds the ways and mechanisms in which state and private interventions facilitate surplus extraction, intensifying inequalities in agricultural commercialization across social groups.

Paper short abstract:

This paper examines Nepali migration experiences by drawing on meanings and imaginative aspects of migration and development among Nepalis, which are continually (re)shaped through everyday commitments, and pursuits within (re)imagined spaces of the rural, urban, and bidesh (abroad or elsewhere).

Paper long abstract:

This paper examines Nepali migration by analysing notions of space and bikas (development) to understand how it shapes the everyday experience of migration among Nepali migrants and their families within (re)imagined spaces of the rural, urban, and bidesh (abroad or elsewhere). It discusses localised meanings and understandings of bikas that extend on migrant experiences and aspirations, and examines how it underlines migratory undertakings and intersect within spaces of rural, urban and bidesh. While space is a difficult concept to grasp– often full of abstractions (Creswell, 2008) and increasingly understood in conjunction with power and knowledge (Lefebvre, 1991), investigating complex meanings of difference and interconnectedness of multiple spaces within migration experiences offer a useful lens for analysing migration and development in Nepal. Migration as a social phenomenon sets distant places in closer relation to each other, thus creating specific relational spaces, which unfold at the crossroads between individual agency, collective imagination, and global migration (Bruslé and Varrel, 2012). Hence, this paper also extends on social imaginaries and imaginative future(s) related to migration and spaces to ascertain complex meaning making processes to glean understandings of development. By espousing migration as a collection of experiences in diverse spaces, this paper highlights how localised ideas of development are interwoven within migratory aspirations and undertakings in Nepal, and how movements between these spaces ongoingly shape and reshape one another.

Paper short abstract:

Explore the ecological and livelihood outcomes of Indigenous cultural burning practices in the Rupununi, Guyana. By integrating community perspectives with ecological data, we aim to inform sustainable fire management policies that enhance biodiversity, resilience, and local livelihoods.

Paper long abstract:

Indigenous practices help protect biodiversity, mitigate climate change, and promote ecological resilience. However, Indigenous voices and Traditional Ecological Knowledge have been largely ignored in national fire management and land use policies, with fire suppression often leading to more intense wildfires in fire-prone regions. This research explores the role of Indigenous cultural burning practices in land management in the Rupununi, Guyana, amidst the challenges of rural tropical regions facing environmental degradation, economic instability, and social inequities. Using ecological data on vegetation recovery and insights from Indigenous communities, the study evaluates the effectiveness of cultural burning in improving biodiversity, supporting livelihoods, and enhancing ecological resilience. This research aims to integrate Indigenous knowledge into sustainable fire management policies, addressing both ecological recovery and community needs. Key objectives include understanding the impact of fire intensity on vegetation structure and regeneration, and identifying community indicators of effective burns, such as improved hunting, crop growth, and wildfire prevention. By co-developing recommendations with Indigenous communities in Guyana, this research seeks to promote fire management strategies that respect local cultural values and ecological balance in the context of global crises.

Paper short abstract:

Insights as to why and how even after recognition of rights from the government and intentional support from donors and resource providers the indigenous organizations especially youth groups struggle to meet their socio-economic needs while also being custodians of their indigeneity.

Paper long abstract:

Despite constitutional recognition of indigenous land ownership and cultural rights in Nagaland, India, since 1964, indigenous communities and their youth face significant challenges in achieving sustainable development. While policymakers and conservation experts acknowledge the role of indigenous governance and youth movements in biodiversity conservation and climate change mitigation, the reality tells a different story. Nagaland remains economically dependent, with 88% of its revenue coming from government and external aid, alongside having the second-highest unemployment rate in India. Pressured by economic insecurity, youth are driven to convert forests into monoculture palm and rubber plantations, degrading ecosystems and exacerbating vulnerabilities such as water shortages, soil erosion, and landslides. These conditions force many to migrate to cities, where they face hardships as urban poor, leading to a decline in both youth and community well-being. The paper will examine examples of both successes and failures among indigenous communities and youth organizations as they combat this systemic decline. It will highlight locally led, research-based solutions, efforts to reinvigorate traditional physical spaces for reclaiming indigenous knowledge and practices, and the initiation of economic activities within their territories that engage and employ local youth. By delving into scenarios where systems failed these communities, as well as instances where they leveraged their agency to own both the problem and the solution, the paper will provide insights into the post-rights reality. This will demonstrate that autonomy and rights, while critical, are insufficient without systemic support to address the intertwined socio-economic and environmental challenges faced by indigenous communities.

Paper short abstract:

This study explores how urban expansion and resource extraction impact local ecological knowledge (LEK) among fisherfolk on Talim Island in Laguna de Bay, Philippines. Utilizing participatory rural appraisal, this study advocates for integrating LEK into policies for sustainable resource governance.

Paper long abstract:

Laguna de Bay, the Philippines’ largest freshwater lake, is undergoing significant socio-ecological transformations driven by metabolic flows from Metro Manila, the country’s capital region. This phenomenon positions the lake as an urbanizing frontier serving as a crucial resource to the capital’s city-making. Urban demands influence rural livelihoods, ecological systems, and resource governance contributing to the degradation of the lake ecosystem. Among those affected are the fisherfolk who depend on the lake for their livelihood, but possess local ecological knowledge (LEK) that offers practical, time-tested solutions that sustain the lake environment. However, there is a significant gap in understanding how the lake’s transformation due to frontier-making reshapes knowledge systems like fisherfolk’s LEK.

Hence, this study examines the impact of unsustainable resource extraction driven by Laguna de Bay’s role as an urban frontier on the LEK of fisherfolk communities on Talim Island, the largest island within the lake situated in the municipality of Cardona, Rizal. Employing a qualitative approach, this study utilizes participatory rural appraisal (PRA) techniques, such as resource mapping, seasonal calendaring, and trend analysis, to collaboratively weave dynamic grassroots narratives of LEK. This is toward mainstreaming how these communities leverage their knowledge systems as a tool for adaptation and resistance against metabolic rifts created by the lake’s frontier-making. Integrating these into national and local policy structures recognizes the intrinsic value of fisherfolk LEK, thus complementing scientific approaches to Laguna de Bay’s conservation and management. This is to strengthen rural livelihood resilience, inform equitable resource governance, and foster ecological justice.

Paper short abstract:

The paper investigates the potential of traditional agricultural knowledge in Southern Africa for increasing food sovereignty in contexts of an accelerating climate crisis and asks how local practices can be scaled up and become politically influential.

Paper long abstract:

The productive capacity of African smallholders is increasingly under threat from climate change as well as the global food regime dominated by industrial monocultures and few large corporations. To increase food sovereignty on the continent thus remains of utmost importance – as one step towards a transformation of the global food regime, and to address the yield gaps that remain vast in many countries in the region. So far, existing government and international support schemes for smallholder farmers are tied to a “Green Revolution” approach through the provision of chemical fertilisers and hybrid seeds, underpinned by the promotion of industrial technologies. These, however, are ill-suited to make farming more environmentally sustainable or farmers more independent. Locally adapted, less commercialised methods and inputs would be better suited for this but are often crowded out.

Against this background, my paper investigates the role that traditional knowledge can play in increasing food sovereignty in Southern Africa, a region that has been hard hit by recurring droughts over the past few years. Various small-scale initiatives exist that aim to work with, and promote, Indigenous agricultural knowledge and my paper asks how these practices become politically influential; how they are shared, scaled up, and can possibly instigate macro-level change. Based on ongoing research in Botswana and Zambia, and using a prefigurative politics framework, the paper discusses emerging findings and presents a larger research agenda of interdisciplinary collaboration with participatory methodologies, in order to also bring practical benefits to the farming communities themselves through mutual learning.