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Paper Short Abstract:

How are indigenous farmers ‘being resilient’ in the face of the increasing precariousness brought about by climate change and expansion of industrial agricultural systems? How far have politics of food sovereignty been able to respond to these emergent challenges?

Paper Abstract:

This paper explores the lacunae in Northeast India between the strategies of food sovereignty activists which are aligned with global conversations around Indigenous food systems, the state-led initiatives which seek to empower indigenous farmers through livelihoods and market linkages and food security, in the context of the multifaceted aspirations of Indigenous farmers in the region. Based on ethnographic fieldwork conducted between January 2022 and December 2023, the paper considers the diverse significations that heritage food crops (such as buckwheat and millets), traditional agricultural systems (subsistence based shifting cultivation) and livelihood options come to accrue as Indigenous farmers, especially small and marginal farmers, navigate the emergent challenges of climate change, changing food preferences, youth migration, ever-expanding reach of industrial agricultural systems and global markets. The central question for the study has been: what makes an Indigenous farming community ‘resilient’ (Monica M. White, 2018) in the present context and have the received notions of food sovereignty been able to accommodate and respond to the present needs of the communities?