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- Convenors:
-
Paola Tine
(Victoria University of Wellington)
Jagjit Plahe (Monash University)
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- Discussant:
-
Graeme MacRae
(Massey University)
- Format:
- Panel
- Stream:
- Food
- Location:
- B2.24
- Sessions:
- Thursday 8 June, -
Time zone: Europe/Prague
Short Abstract:
Following the COVID-19 breakout, dramatic reversals of long-standing socio-economic trends have been observable at the nexus of agriculture, food security and labour around the world. This panel discusses experiences of small farming and their role in mitigating global crises.
Long Abstract:
Following the COVID-19 breakout, dramatic reversals of long-standing socio-economic trends have been recently observable at the nexus of agriculture, food security and labour in Asia and around the world. During this crisis, agriculture gave refuge to millions of people who migrated back to villages. It was family farms rather than agribusinesses that protected the most vulnerable, preventing more severe political and social unrest. And yet very little is known about how rural livelihoods absorbed such a large inflow of labour. In view of an escalating climate crisis and the structural marginalisation of the rural sector, this gap in knowledge must be closed urgently. This panel welcomes contributions from researchers and practitioners on the topic of small farming across the globe. We are particularly interested in discussing ways to promote their role in mitigating global crises. Contributions might consider for example whether disruptions of mobility patterns following the COVID-19 pandemic (including reverse migration with its new food demands and economic needs) caused an increase in small farming; and how is small farming undertaken and are these practices economically, socially and politically sustainable.
Accepted papers:
Session 1 Thursday 8 June, 2023, -Kishor Subba Limbu (ICS-ULisboa)
Paper short abstract:
Keywords: Nepali Migration, Portuguese agriculture, Residency Card, COVID-19 Impact
Paper long abstract:
Abstract
In this ethnographic-based research, I will explore the influencing factors of Nepali migration to Portugal and follow the trajectories of migrant Nepali agriculture workers in pursuing the Portuguese residence card. Cardko Lagi is a project and a prospect; the card is perceived as a 'magic key' for a better future and expanded opportunities for the next generation. Achieving it involves identified and unidentified trajectories; among them is the option for performing unskilled work in the Portuguese intense-agriculture business. This project will address the experience of Nepali migrants in Portugal who work or have worked in agriculture as manual labourers and discuss the personal, physical, emotional, and social costs of their endeavour: the harshness of agricultural work, the negotiation of their living conditions while at the farms, the experience of racism, xenophobia and increased health vulnerabilities, including (COVID-19). Research results will also contribute to understanding current trends in intensive agriculture and migrant labour recruitment in Southern Portugal.
Keywords: Nepali Migration, Portuguese agriculture, Residency Card, COVID-19 Impact
Simon Halberg (Lunds University)
Paper short abstract:
The current state of world agriculture is the result of a long-term adaptation of peasants to industrial logics since ‘the green revolution’. Through the notion of ‘extended subsumption’, ethnographic theory is invited to widen our political imaginary in the Plantationocene.
Paper long abstract:
Based on historical examples from Scandinavian, this paper seeks to translate the comparative view on peasant adaptation in the Anthropocene into a theoretical discussion of the relation between (small scale) agriculture and the industries. In the global comparison of peasantries, it is argued, the notion of modes of production and modes of subsumption are of renewed analytical value. As a supplements to Marx’ theory of formal and real subsumption, this paper suggests a notion of extended subsumption as a framework for understanding how the peasant modes of production is subsumed under the logic of fossil capital through a series of economic and technological interventions without eliminating the relative autonomy of the modes of livelihood of the small-scale peasants.
Firstly, theorising how the introduction of machinery, artificial fertilisers and expertise into agriculture since the ‘Green Revolution’ shows that there are profound social contradictions at work between small scale peasants and the wider industry. Secondly, by analysing the process of extended subsumption as one in which social values and political strategies are united in their opposition, the paper invites for a discussion of the how ethnographies of the peasantry may widen our political imaginary in the Capitalocene.
Levente Szilágyi (HUN-REN Research Centre for the Humanities)
Paper short abstract:
The paper discusses the conflict between small farmers and agricultural associations in the Swabian villages of the Satu Mare region, Romania from the regime change to the present day.
Paper long abstract:
The economic transformation following the regime change in Romania resulted in the impoverishment of a significant part of society. The closure of non-profitable communist industrial facilities has resulted in increased urban-rural migration, as a result of which the previously vacated countryside has been repopulated. The immediate abolition of collective farms after the change of regime – a typical phenomenon in Romania – also forced the rural population towards repeasantization. The peculiarity of the Swabian villages of Satu Mare, which are the sites of my research, is that they were able to act effectively against the processes listed above and were much less vulnerable to macroeconomic processes. Perhaps the most important reason for this was the establishment and effective operation of agricultural associations, successors organizations to collective farms. These associations provided a stable basis for the everyday life of the community, sometimes taking over public tasks from the dysfunctional Romanian state, and also providing basic food supplies to their members especially when it was most needed, during the transition period. The price of this was the abolition of multi-legged, diversified farming and the rise of industrialized monocultures. Moreover, exploiting their monopoly position prevent the emergence of a new wave of individual and family farmers. Which model is going to prevail? In my paper, through three examples, I outline the possible scenarios and their social and economic consequences.