Presentation short abstract

Territorial approaches illuminate agroecological practices, governance, and social relations shaping food system transformation. This paper examines households' agroforestry responses to climate, migration, and markets in Eastern Indonesia, considering the possibilities for transformation.

Presentation long abstract

While territorial approaches have become central to agroecology and food system transformations in the Global South, most Southeast Asian literature prioritizes technical and farm-level issues over territorial-political concerns. Territorial frameworks can illuminate the practices embedded in specific places, the governance processes, and the social relations that shape who benefits and loses from agroecological change, as well as the prospects for transformation. This paper analyses community livelihood strategies in Flores, Eastern Indonesia, exploring the opportunities and the structural barriers to developing territorial strategies. Flores faces intersecting crises: climate variability undermines dryland farming, out-migration depletes rural labour, and market integration subjects smallholders to volatile prices, while gender intersects with social differentiation to squeeze the space available for social reproduction. The paper examines how households, relying on agroforestry and migration, craft autonomous responses to these threats. It examines both the possibilities and limitations of these strategies for navigating external pressures and local social relations. Finally, the paper considers the prospects for territorial strategies that address interlinked pressures— including governance challenges, policy fragmentation, and stakeholder exclusion—to reduce nutritional insecurity and climate precarity, identifying lessons relevant for agroecology and food system transformation agendas across Southeast Asia.