ICDD Annual Thematic Conference

4th – 8th July 2012

University of Kassel

The Food Crisis:

Implications for Decent Work

in Rural and Urban Areas

www.icdd.uni-kassel.de

Program

Panel Abstracts

� Opening Plenary Jacklyn Cock: Addressing food insecurity in South Africa Sue Longley: The right to food and rights for workers in the food chain Christian Hülsebusch: Agricultural Development and Job Creation – does science contribute?

� Panel I a: Decent Work and the Political Economy of Food

Chair: Sharit Bhowmik Edward Webster Christine Hobelsberger Subir Sinha Hariati Sinaga

� Panel I b: Political Ecology of Food Crisis: Land Grabbing and Resource

Conflicts from Below Chairs: Kristina Dietz, Bettina Engels Simone Rettberg Sergio Coronado Delgado

� Panel I c: Rethinking Linkages between labor Policies & the Informal

Economy in Latin America (in Spanish) Chair: Elisabeth Tuider Armando Barrientos

� Panel II a: Food Crisis and Agricultural Financialization

Chair: Jenny Simon Yaatsil Guevara González Michael Brüntrup Lisa Marie Gimsa

� Panel II b: Gender, Food Security and Decent Work in Times of Crisis Chair: Gülay Caglar Akua Opokua Britwum Parto Teherani- Krönner Alessandra Mezzadri

� Panel II c: Rethinking Linkages between labor Policies & the Informal Economy in Latin America (in Spanish) Chair: Hans-Jürgen Burchardt Fernando Groisman

� Plenary

Walter Belik: The Brazilian Fome Zero Program Frank Hoffer: Guaranteeing essential health care and basic income security - the

concept of the new ILO Social Protection Floors Recommendation

� Panel III a: Migration, Food Crisis and Agricultura l Workers Chair: Lisa-Marie Heimeshoff, Lisa Carstensen Xi Zhao Jenny Jungehülsing Paolo Gaibazzi

� Panel III b: Toward food security through agricultu re and employment

Chair: Christian Hülsebusch Ute Clement Lemma Yared Lars Thomann

� Panel IV a: Understanding Power Relations in the Political Economy of Food Chair: Christian Möllmann Sharit Bhowmik Chandra-Milena Danielzik Katherine Joynt Tom Lines

� Panel IV b: Food Crisis - examples of magnitude and determinants

Chair: Christian Hülsebush Thomas Ogola Jane Sawe Luis Sarmiento-Franco

� Plenary Armando Barrientos: The Growth of Antipoverty Transfer Programmes in the South

Andreas Bürkert: Conference Resumé and Research Outlook

Note: Abstract by Dheraaj Singh will not be presented at the conference.

Program

The International Center for Development and Decent Work (ICDD) Annual Thematic Conference

“The Food Crisis: Implications for Decent Work in Rural and Urban Areas”

July 4th – 8th, 2012, University of Kassel

Day 1: Wednesday, July 4th , 2012

12:00 Lunch Our recommendation: Mensa Cost: 2€-4€

13:15 or

13:45

14:00

Meeting point 1: In front of the ICDD or

Meeting point 2: In front of dOCUMENTA Halle at Friedrichsplatz

Visit of the arts fair dOCUMENTA

17:30 Meeting point for trip to Restaurant: Busparkplatz (between Ottoneum Museum and Schauspielhaus)

18:00 Welcome and Opening Dinner Welcome address: Prof. Dr. Bernd Overwien, Dean of Faculty of Social Sciences Venue: Kaskadenwirtschaft, Schlosspark 20, Kassel http://www.kaskaden-wirtschaft.de

Program

Day 2: Thursday, July 5th , 2012

09:00 Conference Registration

10:00-13:00 Opening Plenary Reception: Christoph Scherrer, Director ICDD, University of Kassel Welcome address: Prof. Dr. Rolf-Dieter Postlep, President of University of Kassel Julia Schwarzenberger, DAAD Keynotes: Jacklyn Cock (Wits): Addressing food insecurity in South Africa

Sue Longley (IUF): The right to food and rights for workers in the food chain Christian Hülsebusch (University of Kassel): Agricultural Development and Job Creation - does science contribute?

Venue: Gießhaus of the University of Kassel

13:00-14:00 Lunch Break

Panel I a: Decent Work and the Politi- cal Economy of Food Chair: Sharit Bhowmik (1) Edward Webster: The Decent Work

Deficit Amongst Farm Workers in the Province GAUTENG, South Africa

(2) Christine Hobelsberger: The Supermar- ket Revolution in Developing Countries: Implications for the Decent Work Agenda

(3) Subir Sinha: Rural Labour and the Chal- lenges for Political Organisation

(4) Hariati Sinaga: Exploring workers' situa- tions in Indonesian Oil Palm Plantation Sector

Discussant: Frank Hoffer

Panel I b: Political Ecology of Food Cri-

sis: Land Grabbing and Resource Con- flicts from Below

Chairs: Kristina Dietz, Bettina Engels (1) Introduction by Kristina Dietz

(2) Simone Rettberg: Enclosing commons:

The political ecology of land appropria-

tion in the Awash basin of Ethiopia

(3) Sergio Coronado Delgado: The land dis-

possession and territorial conflicts in Co-

lombia: The case of "Montes des Maria"

Discussant: Bettina Engels

Panel I c: Rethinking Linkages be- tween labor Policies & the Informal Economy in Latin America (in Span- ish) Chair: Elisabeth Tuider (1) Armando Barrientos: Labour Markets

and Social Protection in Latin America: Towards a fragmented integration?

Discussants: Friedrich Bossert, Lisa Car- stensen

14:00-15:45

Venue: Gießhaus Venue: Senatssaal Venue: Kolleg

Program

15:45-16:15 Tea Break

Panel II a: Food Crisis and Agricul- tural Financialization Chair: Jenny Simon

(1) Yaatsil Guevara González: Poverty and

rural financial policies in rural indigenous territories in Mexico

(2) Michael Brüntrup : Aren't High Agricul- tural Prices an Opportunity for Smallhol- ders and Rural Development?

(3) Lisa Marie Gimsa: The three driving forces of government’s cross-border in- vestments in land

Discussant: Christoph Scherrer

Panel II b : Gender, Food Security and Decent Work in Times of Crisis Chair: Gülay Caglar

(1) Akua Opokua Britwum : Women traders’ associations and food security in Ghana

(2) Parto Teherani-Krönner: Food Security or Meal Security? Gender Perspectives on Agriculture

(3) Alessandra Mezzadri: The complex politics of homeworking production in India: evidence from Uttar Pradesh

Discussant: Gülay Caglar

Panel II c: Rethinking Linkages between labor Policies & the In- formal Economy in Latin Amer- ica (in Spanish) Chair: Hans-Jürgen Burchardt

(1) Fernando Groisman: Informalidad

laboral y clases sociales en Argentina

(Informal work and social classes in Argentina)

Discussants: Ezequiel Bistoletti, Anne Tittor

16:15-17:45

Venue: Gießhaus Venue: Senatssaal

Venue: Kolleg

18:00 Plenary Keynote: Walter Belik (Unicamp): The Brazilian Fome Zero Program

Frank Hoffer (ILO): Guaranteeing essential health care and basic income security - the concept of the new ILO Social Protection Floors Recommendation

19:00 ICDD goes dOCUMENTA (13) – host: AND AND AND

Program

Day 3: Friday, July 6th , 2012

Panel III a: Migration, Food Crisis and Agri- cultural Workers Chair: Lisa-Marie Heimeshoff, Lisa Carstensen

(1)Xi Zhao: Return migrants and employment in ru-

ral China

(2) Jenny Jungehülsing: Climate Change and Migra-

tion: Gender-related differences in vulnerabilities

and migration strategies

(3) Paolo Gaibazzi: Food, agriculture and migration

in the Gambia valley

Discussants: Aishah Namukasa, Helen Schwenken

Panel III b: Towards food security through agriculture and employment

Chair: Christian Hülsebusch

(1) Ute Clement : Skill Enhancement for Sustainable Development

(2) Lemma Yared: Climate change and variability: implications for household food security in ag- ropastoral areas of Jijiga district, Eastern Ethiopia

(3) Lars Thomann (IFAD), Rural development through decent employment – the role of smallholder farming

09:00-10:45

Venue: Gießhaus Venue: Senatssaal

10:45-11:15 Tea Break

Program

Panel IV a : Understanding Power Relations in the Political Economy of Food Chair: Christian Möllmann (1) Sharit Bhowmik: Livelihoods, Food Security

and Urban Poverty (2) Chandra-Milena Danielzik: Governing

Hunger: Power Relations in developmental “North-South-Relations”

(3) Katherine Joynt: Understanding Power in the South African Wheat to Bread Value Chain

(4) Tom Lines: Peak Food or What? Evidence from long-term commodity price changes

Panel IV b: Food Crisis - examples of magni- tude and determinants

Chair: Christian Hülsebusch

(1) Thomas Ogola: Origins of & Remedies to the food crisis: the case of East Africa

(2) Jane Sawe: Assessing the scope of the food crisis: The case of East Africa

(3) Luis Sarmiento-Franco: Small animal species into the Milpa system as strategy for adding value to crops and improving food access for rural families in the Yucatan State of Mexico.

11:15-13:00

Venue: Gießhaus Venue: Senatssaal

13:00-14:00 Lunch Break

14.00-16:00 Plenary Keynote: Armando Barrientos: The Growth of Antipoverty Transfer Programmes in the South

Andreas Bürkert : Conference Resumé and Research Outlook Venue: Gießhaus

Program

Day 4: Saturday, July 7th , 2012

Steering Committee Meeting ICDD Chair: Christoph Scherrer, Birgit Fel- meden (1) ICDD members

Panel I: PhD Workshop Chair: Helen Schwenken (1) Luciana Hachmann : On Brazil’s new middle class (2) Kateryna Yarmolyuk : Ukrainian Labour Law and the

EU: Harmonization and Adaptation Issues (3) Ricardo Cifuentes: Family Grant Program and the effects on

youth unemployment

09:30-12:00

Venue: ICDD Venue: ICDD

12:00-13:00 Lunch Break

Panel II: PhD Workshop Chair: Christian Hülsebusch (1)Aisha Namukasa: Factors that influence temporary labour mig- ration policies to evolve with less human rights for migrant workers (2)Saadia Hanif: A Review on Working Conditions and Measu- ring Decent Work in Agriculture using Pluralistic Approach (3)Sabah Saleem: International Return Migration in Rural Pakistan

13:30-16:00

Venue: ICDD

Program

Day 5: Sunday, July 8th , 2012

Morning Possibility for ICDD working group, research cluster, communication with partner, etc. Venue: ICDD

Afternoon Departure

Picking up the Pieces without Trying to Stop the Breakage: Addressing Food Insecurity

in Gauteng, South Africa

Jacklyn Cock A right to ‘sufficient’food is entrenched in South Africa’s post-apartheid constitution but the extent of food insecurity is increasing. The paper focuses on poor, urban households in Gauteng and contextualizes food insecurity in the crisis of social reproduction in contemporary South Africa. Various state and non-state interventions to address food insecurity are described, but the paper concludes that these provide survival strategies rather than paths to empowerment.The core of the problem – both locally and globally -is the concentration of corporate power in the neo-liberal food regime. Access to food is not sufficient, people also need access to productive resources and – most importantly – to power. The paper concludes that the solution to food insecurity involves challenging existing power relations and establishing an alternative development path, rooted in the notion of food sovereignity.

You Entered through that Gate and You will Leave through that Gate: the Decent work

Deficit amongst Farm Workers in the Province of GUATENG, South Africa

Edward Webster & Mbuso Nkosi

South Africa ,it is argued, is facing a deepening food crisis with 40% of households described as “food insecure” and one in every four children under the age of six showing signs of stunted growth due to malnutrition ( Cock,2011:5) .In this paper we shift attention from food as a crucial item of consumption to a focus on the work and living conditions of those who produce the food. We use the metaphor of the “gate” in the title of the paper as a metaphor constantly evoked by farm workers as a symbol of the tight boundaries through which employers exercise their power over the entry and exit of employees on their private property. Drawing on a sample of 600 farm workers in the province of Gauteng , we present the findings of a questionnaire of the three types of agricultural activity in the province , field crops, livestock and horticulture.t In order to capture the experience of working life., we undertook parallel qualitative studies using in-depth interviews and focus groups among workers and – where possible – employers. Despite of the fact that there are an estimated 34 unions organizing in an agricultural sector with nearly 900 000 workers , union density is only 3.4% Some explain this lack of success to the unequal power dynamics suggesting that the rural farming sector in South Africa is characterised by feudalistic social and economic relations. ( SAHRC :2003: 172-175) In our interviews the metaphor of the “gate” was constantly evoked by farm workers as a symbol of the tight boundaries through which employer exercises their power of access and exit from their private property. Others argue that employment relations in commercial agriculture have undergone significant change under the impact of trade liberalization and withdrawal of the subsidizes provided by the apartheid government . “Historically the agricultural sector relied heavily on permanent workers that lived and worked on the farms. Farmers are increasingly

moving away from employing permanent (and resident) workers and instead are employing seasonal and temporary workers” (Clarke, Godfrey, and Theron, 2002:39). This paper explores the implementation of a sector-based diagnostic tool and policy instrument to assist the government of the province of Gauteng to progressively realise the goal of decent work amongst farm workers.. Nine of the ten ILO decent work themes were applicable, and each of them was covered in a questionnaire implemented throughout the province. Each theme comprised several questionnaire items. These were summed and the indicator for the theme was rescaled to run from 0 to 1, where 1 is the maximum for decent work and 0 is an absence of decent work, i.e. a decent work deficit. . The provincial government has committed itself to A strategy for Greening the Gauteng Economy that would promote large scale food production that could increase the current workforce from 30 000 to 500 000 . Our findings point towards a low paid, unskilled workforce without benefits or a voice , and ill equipped to meet the challenge of a dramatic increase in food production. . We conclude the paper by suggesting the need to link, as Cock argues, the notion of “green jobs” with that of “decent jobs”.

The Supermarket Revolution in Developing Countries: Implications for the Decent

Work Agenda

Christine Hobelsberger In recent decades, the global agri-food sector, say the collection of markets, firms and farms that work to produce and distribute food and agricultural products to the final consumer, has undergone profound changes in regards to its structure and organization. Among others, these changes comprise the increasing shift away from traditional wholesale markets towards tightly knit, highly coordinated networks of suppliers which are constructed and governed by powerful global buyers, such as international supermarket chains and branded manufacturers. These corporations have not only been the driving force behind the globalization of food systems, but also are the key actors in its governance. By virtue of their location at the narrowest point of the hourglass, these buyers command immense power, acting as gatekeepers between farmers and consumers. For a fairly long time, supermarkets have been principally viewed as retailers of rich countries or niche players for the upper urban income class in developing countries. However, in the light of the extremely rapid spread of supermarkets in many developing and newly industrializing countries, the so-called “supermarket revolution” (Humphrey 20071) has increasingly found its way on the agenda of the development debate. Here, it is perceived as a “two-edged sword.” On the one hand, it can lower food prices for consumers and create opportunities for farmers and processors to gain access to quality-differentiated food markets and raise incomes. On the other hand, it can create challenges for traditional retailers as well as farmers, and processors who are not equipped to meet the new competition and requirements from supermarkets. Against this background, the papers discusses the economic and political role of supermarkets in the global agri-food sector, with particular attention to the impact of the so-called

1 Humphrey, J. (2007): The supermarket revolution in developing countries: tidal wave or though competitive struggle? In: Journal of Economic Geography Vol. 7, pp. 433-450.

supermarket revolution on food security as well as working and living conditions in developing and newly industrializing countries.

Rural Labour and the Challenges for Political Organisation

Subir Sinha

The paper traces the processes of contemporary capitalist penetration of the Indian countryside and the ways in which it has a) altered existing forms of rural labour; b) produced new forms of rural labour; and c) weakened the border between rural and urban labour. It goes on to provide a regionalised account of the trajectories of labour flows, from supposed 'backward' areas of advanced capitalist ones. On the basis of this mapping I explore the tensions posed for existing forms of rural labour's political organisation, especially as it happens at a time to longterm decline of the left wing political parties. I end with a consideration of social movements as new forms of political organisation of rural labour, their potential as well as their limitations. Exploring Workers’ Situation in Indonesian Oil Palm Plantation Sector

Hariati Sinaga The oil palm plantation sector is one of some key sectors in Indonesia. Having the title as the world’s largest crude palm oil (CPO) producer, Indonesia counts on the sector not only for its foreign reserves, but also for poverty elimination and rural development. As for the latter, it is widely held that the oil palm plantation sector contributes significantly to the improvement of rural livelihood. It poses a question whether such improvement is also experienced by workers in the sector. Drawing from some preliminary results of the field research currently taken, the presentation will provide an overview of workers’ situation in the oil palm plantation sector in Riau, Indonesia. Enclosing the Commons: The Political Ecology of Land Appropriation in the Awash Basin of Ethiopia

Simone Rettberg

Based on an empirical case study within the Middle Awash Basin of Ethiopia the presentation explores the interface between the current crisis of mobile pastoralism, land conflicts between pastoral clans, ecological change and governmental development interventions. It situates the new phenomena of violent intra-ethnic land conflicts between pastoral clans along the Awash River in a context of increasing land scarcity and shifting land tenure regimes. Processes of land commodification of previously commonly used dry season pastures have gained speed in the 1990s and have been marked by a significant expansion of large-scale (governmental) irrigation agriculture for cotton and sugarcane and the increasing involvement of impoverished pastoralists into agriculture. It will be argued that land use conflicts between pastoralists and between pastoralists and the state not only reflect struggles over economic resources but that these conflicts have to be understood as social, economic and increasingly

political strategies of land appropriation and territorialization in which political power and identity are the main issues at stake.

The Land Dispossessions and Territorial Conflicts in Colombia. The Case of “Montes de

María”

Sergio Coronado Delgado

During the last decades, rural communities of Colombia have suffered a massive and systematic process of land dispossession. The main result of this process is the setting of a new territorial order. Although we are able to identify this process as a national trend, it is important to analyze it with a regional scope. The purpose of this paper is to characterize the causes and consequences of the territorial conflict in the region of “Montes de María”, located in the northern coast of the country. The conceptual framework of this paper takes ideas derived from theories of territorial conflicts and accumulation by dispossession.

To achieve this purpose, we will examine the relations between forced displacement of rural communities, their land dispossession and the changes in the use of soils, particularly based on the increase of palm oil monoculture and timber plantations in the region. Besides, we will study the role of legal and political institutions in the process of legitimation of a new territorial order. Within this analysis, it is important to place this conflict on the context of a rural development model built by the agrarian elites in the country. Finally, we will analyze the role of environmental action mechanisms in the process of legitimation and normalization of a new territorial order. Mercados de Trabajo y Protección en America Latina: Hacia una protección

fragmentada? (Labour Markets and Social Protection in Latin America: Towards a

fragmented integration?)

Armando Barrientos Mientras que las políticas de los 1990 se centraron principalmente en reformas a la seguridad social, la década del 2000 ha estado dominada por la expansión de la asistencia social, en general con resultados positivos. El trabajo formal ha dejado de ser la única puerta de acceso a la protección social. Sin embargo, hoy es necesario un reordenamiento de la tradicional seguridad social y las nuevas políticas de asistencia social, regidas por diferentes instituciones del Estado, a fin de maximizar los efectos de las transferencias públicas sobre el bienestar y evitar una excesiva fragmentación.

Food security and governance in Rurality:

Poverty and rural financial policies in rural indig enous territories in Mexico

Yaatsil Guevara González

During the last years food security has become a relevant issue for governmental institutions and the development banks in Mexico. Government investment has duplicated for food security projects and also specific public policies exist to promote mechanisms for financial-inclusion in the most marginal regions of the country (in Mexico, municipalities of high and very high marginalization are mainly inhabited by indigenous population). With the present work I intend to analyze the results from the implementation of these financial-inclusion policies within indigenous territories in Mexico, as a strategy to battle impoverishment in the country. Also, I hope to investigate if these policies (encouraged by the state through social programs and the development banks), contribute towards: a) the empowerment of campesinos, b) the equality in decision making and c) the inter-organizational practices with other actors; that is to say, if they promote rural governance.

Aren't High Agricultural Prices an Opportunity for Smallholders and Rural

Development?

Michael Brüntrup The prices of agricultural products have been high and unstable since the food price crisis of 2007/08. There are many reasons to assume that this situation will remain for the foreseeable future, since the underlying fundamentals do not seem to change, but rather get stronger, thereby halting and reversing a century-long trend of declining terms of trade against agriculture. The presentation resumes these fundamentals, and continues to argue that although for food security in general this is a problem at least in the short run, the situation also bears opportunities for smallholders and rural development, particularly in the long run. It is reminded that most food insecure people are (presently net-food purchasing) smallholder farmers. They not only suffer from higher food purchase prices but also profit from higher incomes through sales of agricultural goods. In addition, at present they experience very low land and labour productivity, induced by inter alia decades of artificially low agricultural prices and the neglect of the sector, but would be able to boost production provided they are supported appropriately. Finally, rural development will profit from higher agricultural prices and incomes, boosting the rural off-farm economy and employment and reducing the pressure to migrate to cities where the unfavourable terms of trade could arguably lead to stress for poor households and to less dynamic development. This line of argumentation is underlined with theoretical and empirical examples from the literature, but also limitations are discussed.

The Three Driving Forces of Government’s Cross-border Investments in Land and

Their Implications for Policy Design

Lisa Marie Gimsa Cross-border investments in land, or ‘land grabs’, concern investments in land by private and public actors outside their national territory for the growth of food and biofuels, with the purpose of exporting them into the investing country. Whereas private investments can be explained by the motivation of financial returns, the central question of this article scrutinizes the drivers of government investments. By developing a threefold typology, the existing explanations for investment are grouped according to the driving forces behind them. These can be either on the demand-side, structural factors, or on the supply-side. Whereas demand-side arguments refer to the food security motives of the investing country, structural explanations may concentrate on fundamental changes in, for example, the climate. Supply-side arguments focus on the countries that are receiving investments, either intentionally or through governance shortcomings. The analysis reveals that these hypotheses can only explain the emergence of cross-border investments in land to a limited extent. Four complementary hypotheses with a political and economic focus are thus developed and grouped in the three categories. The implications of this framework for the design of effective policies are of a fundamental nature. An analysis of the deals according to this threefold typology allows for the design of targeted policies that help to reduce their negative implications. In order to achieve this, as a first step, each investment deal needs to be analyzed individually to determine whether it has been made primarily due to demand-side, structural, or supply-side factors. In a second step, policies should be designed that build on that analysis. Women Traders’ Associations and Food Security in Ghana

Akua Opokua Britwum Women form the bulk of the informal economy labour force working mainly as traders in rural and urban markets. In the absence of formalised distribution systems, women traders ensure that food from the farm reaches consumers in both rural and urban communities. They often make media headlines for several reasons, not least is their control over prices and seemingly exploitative credit relations with farmers. Abandoned by state institutions women traders rely on self-help associations which embody support and regulatory practices to guide their trading activities in urban markets. Some seminal ethnographic studies have captured the economic and political import of such market-based trade associations. Others go on to contest their so-called exploitative relations and posit that they provide farmers ready markets by ensuring wide distribution of farm produce and play key role in food storage. There is a need therefore to interrogate from a gendered perspective the role market traders’ associations play in the connection between food prices and food security. Using results from a case study in the Cape Coast Municipality in Ghana the paper will explore the operations of tomato traders’ groups in the food price and food security dynamic. It is envisaged, that this study will point out how national development goals can generate equality of all irrespective of gender and other forms of social exclusion.

Food Security or Meal Security? Gender Perspectives on Agriculture

Parto Teherani-Krönner The food crisis has enforced the hardship of disadvantaged groups within the societies. I argue that the whole debate on ‘food security’ has to be engendered in order to tackle the crisis. The aim of the presentation is to challenge the term ‘food security’ by shifting the focus on—what I call—meal security. My concept of meal security draws on a human and cultural ecological approach from a gender perspective and emphasizes the importance of meal cultures. Our daily meals are part of our cultural habits deeply rooted in our socialization and communication structures and are, thus, much more complex than just the availability of some agricultural commodities. I propose to look at that what people eat on an everyday basis. People do not eat rice, wheat, potatoes etc. the agricultural raw products that are offered on the market; rather meals have to be cooked and prepared. The work that is needed to prepare these meals is mostly done by women whose work has remained invisible and thus seldom honoured fairly. All the activities and tasks needed to reach meal security have seldom been valued; they are not included to that what is defined as decent work. The food security debate and agricultural policies have to be engendered by taking account of the whole socio-cultural process of meal preparation, sharing and eating.

The Complex Politics of Homeworking Production in India: Evidence from Uttar Pradesh'

Alessandra Mezzadri

With an astonishing 93% of its total workforce engaging in informal activities (NCEUS, 2007), India stands out as the country with the highest registered share of informal employment. This figure comprises both employment in the so-called informal sector, as well as informal employment found in formal economic settings. Homeworking, which this paper focuses on, is effectively placed at the intersection of these two different types of informality. On the one hand, homeworkers can be classified as belonging to the vast world of informal sector workers. On the other, however, their work is often inextricably linked to formal production realms and spaces, thanks to a number of intermediaries, middlemen or contractors who organise this work on the basis of specific industrial requirements. This paper looks at the complex politics of homeworking production in Bareilly, UP, an important centre for embroidery activities linked to North Indian garment production, and highlights the role of contractors in managing different types of homeworkers and producing an intricate labour regime socially segmented by geographical area and gender. The analysis draws from preliminary findings gathered during an intense period of fieldwork spent in India between March and April 2010, and between January and April 2012, financed by SOAS and by the British Academy.

Informalidad Laboral y Clases Ssociales en Argentina

Fernando Groisman En esta ponencia se aborda el estudio de la estructura social de Argentina durante las últimas cuatro décadas. El foco de la investigación estuvo en identificar las transformaciones que experimentó la sociedad a partir de su estratificación en tres clases sociales: alta, media y baja. El documento realiza contribuciones en tres direcciones. En primer lugar se adentra en los renovados debates acerca de la cuestión metodológica respecto de los criterios más apropiados para lograr una adecuada demarcación de las clases sociales, en especial de la clase media. En segundo lugar, se documentan los cambios en la estructura social recurriendo a diversos enfoques con el propósito de identificar la existencia de tendencias comunes a ellos. Finalmente, se llama la atención sobre ciertos rasgos dominantes en el funcionamiento del mercado de trabajo que habrían dejado su impronta en la morfología social argentina. Return Migrants and Employment in Rural China

Xi Zhao

Through the national economic reform, China has achieved great progress toward economic growth and full employment since 1970s. However, with rapid urbanization and increasing income gap between rural and urban areas, more and more farm labor left agricultural sector and shifted to off farm sectors. It is stated by the national statistical office that in 1952 approximately 84 percent of China's workers were engaged in agriculture; in 1997 the figure had declined to 41 percent. It is estimated that by 2030 farm employment may account for only 10 percent of the total. Many scholars argue that the great reduction in farm employment is to endanger China’s food supply. With increasing population and natural disasters, but decreasing arable land, the large withdrawal of labor from agriculture has become a significant factor leading to food crisis in China. Since the global financial crisis in 2008, a large number of migrant workers lost their jobs in urban centers, they had to go back to their rural home villages. These returnees have different employment status after return. Based on the data from the field survey in 2011, we find that many return migrants have given up their original agricultural work and accessed into non-agricultural employment, while many of them were unemployed. This paper explores why return migrants chose non-farm work or unemployed, and what the major determinants of their employment status are. There is no much research in this field. This study contributes to the knowledge and put forward some policy recommendations to ensure food supply by promoting full employment in rural China.

Climate Change and Migration

Gender-related differences in vulnerabilities and migration strategies

Jenny Jungehülsing

This presentation outlines the results of an empirical study investigating the different ways in which women and men are affected by the impacts from climate change, and differences in the resulting migration strategies, in the southern Mexican state of Chiapas. The results point to important gender differences both in terms of vulnerabilities and impacts from climate change and in the migration strategies used by women and by men.

With regard to impacts from climate change affecting women and men, the results indicate that these impacts are associated with the traditional gender roles socially assigned to women and to men. Since males are assigned the role of maintaining the family and thus, generating income, they are affected by climate change primarily in economic terms, particularly in agriculture, on which the regional economy is based. The majority of males lost harvests and/or land plots due to the Mitch (1998) and Stan (2005) hurricanes, and due to severe rains and flooding in recent years, causing severe losses in their income. At the same time, climate change also severely affects males dedicated to non-agricultural activities, since the crisis in agriculture has repercussions in essentially the entire regional economy. This loss of income also causes severe problems for women, given their role as those responsible for the home and for feeding their families. The lack of resources to buy food, medicine and other items necessary in household reproduction generates severe difficulties and serious psychological stress. And women who must also generate income are directly affected by the difficult economic situation, just as males are. They also report diminished income primarily in commercial activities, the area in which most women tend to work. Nevertheless, in addition to the economic difficulties suffered by women, they are also directly affected by the impacts from climate change in their homes, with a considerable increase in their daily work load. Some particularly significant examples are: the constant flooding of their homes; the lack of clean water and firewood for cooking, associated with obstructed pipes, flooded wells and constant rain; an increase in illnesses due to the wet conditions and mosquitoes; and difficulties in access to stores and clinics in other com-munities, due to roads blocked by landslides and flooding.

With respect to the relationship between climate change and migration, it was found that—consistent with the fact that the most significant reasons for migration processes are generally economic in nature—migration in this case is a reaction to the economic impacts from climate change, primarily in agriculture. This implies an important difference in migration by women and by men in response to climate change. While migration is a strategy for adapting to climate change for both sexes, migration by women is less directly associated with its impacts. Most of the men in the case study whose migration is associated with climate change have migrated due to the direct impacts from climate change on agriculture—because they lost their land plots and/or harvests. Meanwhile, most women migrate in response to indirect impacts on the overall economy. Because agriculture is considered to be a man’s activity, and few women work in this area, women migrate primarily in response to the overall depressed economy, which provokes critical losses in their income, mostly in commercial activities. Less participation by women in agriculture is also the reason that, in general, impacts from

climate change play a lesser role in decisions made by women to migrate than those made by men. Another important difference between migration by women and by men in response to climate change is that in the case of married couples, women do not migrate. This is a case of household, not individual, strategies, in which, due to traditional gender roles, men are the ones who must respond to adverse economic impacts from climate change by migrating. Single mothers are the women most likely to migrate in response to climate change, since they must generate income to maintain their families. The loss of income from economic depression forces them to migrate in search of work, and the same is true for many young women who provide economic support to their parents.

Other interesting differences between migration by women and by men, in addition to those already mentioned—but not necessarily associated with climate change—are the following: Our study of migration by girls and boys aged 12 to 18 found gender-related differences in relation to the concrete reasons for migration and plans to return to their communities of origin. While most young people of both sexes have plans to migrate after finishing school, the objective of continuing to study is much more important for girls than for boys. For the latter, objectives other than studying, like working to save money and building their own home are also important. This difference is because young women do not believe they can obtain work, as women, without an education and a profession. Since agriculture, the region’s primary activity, is considered men’s territory, there are few economic activities “appropriate” for women. This also leads to differences in the planned duration of migration. Most girls are not interested in returning to their places of origin, and instead view migration as something definitive. In contrast, most boys, after having studied or worked to save money, want to return to live in their communities of origin. This difference is obviously associated with what has just been described. For women, there are few options in their places of origin other than marrying young and becoming housewives, something most of them are not willing to do. Still another interesting finding is that many women, unlike men, have a favorable view of their places of destination, which they associate with possibilities for them, as women, to work. In their places of destination there are not only more work opportunities for them, but as well, and unlike in their communities of origin, women’s employment is, in general, socially accepted. Associated with possibilities to work is also another important difference between women and men, in this case related to the destinations of migration. While the United States is almost the only destination for men, many women also migrate to destinations within Mexican territory. A likely explanation is that, for women, the primary reason for migration is to be able to work, something difficult in their places of origin. To achieve this goal it is not necessary, however, to migrate to the United States. Urban centers and the maquiladora industry at the country’s northern border also offer many work oppor-tunities for women.

Food, agriculture and migration in the Gambia valley: historical connections and

contemporary transformations.

Paolo Gaibazzi

The Gambia river valley has long been an interesting observatory for agricultural change, food politics and mobility. One of the main commercial routes of precolonial West Africa, after the demise of the Atlantic slave trade (mid 19th century), the valley was significantly transformed by the nexus between agriculture and migration. Villagers and new settlers invested in the cultivation of peanuts for export, while waves of seasonal migrants allowed commercial farmers to cope with labour bottlenecks and to boost production. Key to the system was the importation of food, especially rice, to supplement the decreasing proportion of food crops in household production and to feed incoming seasonal migrants. Indeed, throughout the colonial and postcolonial period, households have struggled to maintain a balance between producing for the market and for subsistence. Since the 1960s, however, ecological change and economic stagnation of the agricultural sector have led farmers to concentrate on subsistence production as well as to invest in long-distance migration in and out of the continent. Emigration has thus become a dominant livelihood strategy that enables rural dwellers to cope with multiple uncertainties in a context that has essentially been disconnected from the circuits of global capitalist production as well as from state support to the economy. Drawing on extensive fieldwork in the Upper River Region of the Gambia, the paper describes the arrangements by which migration and agrarian living are integrated in family structures. By countering simplistic causal models of migration based on mere economic calculus, the paper places migration within the shifting configurations of sedentary and mobile forms of livelihoods and investment throughout the 20th century. It then focuses on the socio-cultural linkages between sedentariness and migration, showing that the response (e.g. migration) of rural Gambians to changing ecological and market conditions (e.g. food production and prices) must be seen in the wider context of the reproduction of the agrarian social order. Competence Enhancement for Sustainable Development

Ute Clement Ideas of what competence could mean follow different logics: The logic of working and the logic of learning. I will point out the differences between these concepts and their consequences for development strategies in the field of Technical and Vocational Education. My presentation will also include a short overview of international donor strategies and policy trends.

Climate Change and Variability: Implications for Household Food Security in Agropastoral Areas of Jijiga Ditrict, Eastern Ethiopia

Yared Lemma, Fekadu Beyene & Bekele Hundie

Ethiopia is one of the most vulnerable countries of the world to the impacts of climate change and variability. The impact is even stronger in pastoral areas of the country. The present study took Jijiga district as a case and analyzed trends in local climate; status of household food security; the relative significance of climate related and other myriad causes of food insecurity; and household level determinants of food security. The study used rainfall and temperature data from the period 1952 to 2010 and primary data gathered from 140 sample households and focus groups. Using Mann-Kendall trend test, the study revealed existence of statistically significant declining trend in rainfall in the rainy season and increasing trend in temperature at annual and seasonal time scale. Moreover, respondents confirmed the presence of climate change, with increasing temperature, decreasing rainfall and increasing seasonality of rainfall in the past two decades. Based on USFSCM food security measurement technique, there is high prevalence of food insecurity in the district. Climate change related factors constitute the top ten most important causes of food insecurity except high food price which was rated seventh. These include drought, expansion of unwanted plant species (parthinium), low annual rainfall, high temperature, and water shortage. Using econometric model estimation, the study found out that perception of climate change, use of soil and water conservation practice, use of livestock feed management techniques, loss of livestock due to drought and/or disease, literacy level of household head, and dependency ratio are the important factors determining the food security of households in the area. Among others, the study suggested improving climate change awareness and strengthening the existing adaptation measures that have positive food security role to reduce the prevalence of high food insecurity and increase local resilience to climate change.

Rural Development through Decent Employment – the Role of Smallholder Farming

Rosemary Vargas-Lundius & Lars Thomann

The decent work agenda is particularly important in rural areas: smallholder farmers already play a significant role in addressing food security and in confronting the food crisis by producing a large share of the food in developing countries. Implementing the decent work agenda in rural areas offers the possibility for improving the productivity of smallholders, while at the same time attracting the young generation to find sustainable and profitable livelihoods in rural areas. However, even before the current food crisis, implementing the decent work agenda in the agricultural sector was a difficult undertaking: low degrees of organization and unionization, high levels of informal work and self-employment, the seasonal character of agricultural work, gender inequalities, and lacking infrastructure in rural areas are some of the structural reasons explaining the difficulties in achieving decent working conditions for the rural poor. Recent studies carried out by IFAD and the ILO show that the decent work agenda is clearly relevant for improving the livelihoods of smallholders in general, and of rural youth in particular. The proposed paper will show that the implementation of the decent work agenda actually has an impact on improving the living conditions in rural areas, for instance by strengthening social dialogue and workers’ and employers’ organizations. The paper is aimed at a broader

audience, comprising stakeholders, policymakers and academics alike. Ultimately, the paper will give clear guidelines, drawing on best practices, on how to further strengthen the pillars of the decent work agenda in rural areas, particularly for young rural women and men; as well as enable smallholders and landless peasants to become more resilient against the effects of the current and future food crises. Livelihood, Food Security and Urban Poverty in India

Sharit Bhowmik & Indira Gartenberg

India is a land of sharp contrasts. All our growth indicators show that we are at a high economic growth rate of 8% per annum. The formal economy was not affected by the recent international financial crisis as other economies in the world. It is said that the nationalised banks prevented excessive consumption and housing loans, which could not be repaid. According to the NCEUS (2007) report, India’s real income grew by 125% during the economic reform period of 1992-93 and 2005-06. The per capita income has increased by 77% during the same period. These indications show that people should supposedly have increased their living standards considerably. The above data shows that the economy is buoyant at the macro level. However, a closer examination shows a different picture. Around 77% of the population (836 million people) were living below Rs. 20 (30 cents) per day (NCEUS 2007: 1). In other words, along with high growth, the disparity between the haves and the have-nots has increased considerably. It is therefore quite clear that high growth rate alone cannot solve the problems of the working poor. What are needed are policies that are directed towards uplift of the poor. The main issue before the urban working poor is that of access to proper food and nutrition. The government tries to ensure that the poor had access to foodgrains at subsidised rates through specially demarcated shops, known as ration or modified ration (MR) shops. The public distribution system (PDS) functions through this chain of ration and MR shops. There are around 460,000 such shops all over the country. In this sense, PDS is one of the widest networks for serving the poor by giving them access to foodgrains at reasonable prices. Apart from foodgrains, PDS also provides for other essentials such as kerosene, sugar and cooking oil. There have been accusations of corruption and its inability to reach out to the targeted population. In many cases, the foodgrains supplied are substituted by inferior quality foodgrains. The actual foodgrains may be sold in the open market as also other items such as kerosene and cooking oil as they fetch much higher prices. The outreach of PDS has also been questioned. The PDS is supposedly most successful in the capital city of Delhi. A study conducted by SEWA Delhi in some of the poorest localities in the city shows that only 30% of the poor had access to this system. Cash Transfer The alternative suggested by SEWA is of cash transfers—a system that has been highly successful in Brazil and other countries of Latin America. The Bolsa Familia in Brazil has been the most effective policy for alleviating poverty. The policy aims at providing money directly to the affected families for certain entitlements such as food, children’s education and

health. The head of the household has to open a bank account and the money is transferred directly there. S/he also has to give an undertaking that the money would be spent for the purpose it has been allotted. Some obvious issues which arise here are that this money may be misused for other purposes such as alcohol or junk food. The studies conducted in these countries show that this is largely incorrect. The cash transfer system has been introduced in selected municipal wards in Delhi and Indore. It is still quite recent, but needs to be studied. For example, the chief minister of Delhi, Sheila Dikshit has appealed to the centre allow her to introduce the cash transfer scheme instead of other policies of food security. It may also be mentioned her that in the budget for 2011-12, the Finance minister has allotted some amount of funds for introducing the cash transfer scheme. This has not been implemented so far but is likely to be done perhaps in the next budget. National Food Security Bill The other major initiative of the government to combat hunger is the National Food Security Bill, 2011, which aims to provide 6 kilograms of foodgrains per weekat the rate of Rs.3 per kg to all BPL families. It also has special provisions for pregnant and lactating mothers and many other facilities for school going children. The programme is expected to cover 75% of the rural population and 50% of the urban population. Critiques have raised the issue that this is an extremely expensive programme which will harm the economy to a large extent. This increased food supply subsidy amounts to Rs. 10 billion and this is likely to increase over the years. Those who support this feel that this is not a heavy price to pay for providing basic entitlements to the working poor. The argument that we would like to offer is that anything that promotes a healthy population would also result in a higher productive labour force, which would in turn offset the subsidies provided. Governing Hunger: Analyzing Power-structures in International Development

Chandra-Milena Danielzik Global food and hunger issues are predominantly addressed through economic-technical approaches, such as early warning systems, the calculation of nutrition quantities to optimize labour power, or the improvement of agricultural techniques. Critical scholarship either takes a political economy approach (supply chains, financial speculation, land grabbing, and so on) or applies postcolonial cultural studies perspectives on, for instance, the transformation of culinary practices. Building on this critical work but taking a postcolonial meta-perspective this paper suggests that international food and hunger politics should be conceived of as a biopolitical power-knowledge complex with a colonial legacy. Such an approach allows for an investigation of the interplay of (neo-)liberal and capitalist-economic logics with processes of racialization. The way hunger is made sense of, the manner in which the control of hunger is configured, the solutions put forward and policies conceived, the kind of institutions made responsible, and subjectivities that are therefore presumed – in short: the way in which hunger is governed – generate a distinct network of power-knowledge. Here, this paper suggests that the two disciplines of economics and biomedicine dominate international policies and practices of organizations such as the Food and Agricultural Organization and the World Food Program. Their emergence in the context of North-South relations is traced back to colonial rule where they served to design and optimize bodies and populations and render

them susceptible to economic exploitation. This paper holds that economic and biomedical rationalities continue to be inscribed onto and into bodies (individual and societal) in the global South through hunger and food politics. Here, populations are governed through the translation of social norms into vital norms; in other words, social norms are translated into forms of bodiliness through hunger and food policies and thereby form societies and subjectivities in the global South.

Struggles around Bread: Understanding Power in the South African Wheat to Bread

Value Chain

Katherine Joynt

Agriculture and agro-processing in South Africa, embedded as it was during the apartheid regime, remains concentrated and controlled by white business for historical reasons. In the case of bread, this concentration in the hands of a few, aided by horizontal and vertical integration in the value chain, led to the highly controversial price-fixing of one of the staple foods of the poor. Drawing on interviews with key actors operating in the value chain for bread and documentary analysis, my paper focuses on three concrete struggles around bread in contemporary South Africa; the state regulatory body, the Competition Commission, fining the bread cartel for collusion; the ongoing class action law suit led by Human Rights nongovernmental organisation, Black Sash, to claim damages for consumers after the bread cartel was fined for price-fixing; and the African Centre for Biosafety against genetically modified seed and foods. This paper suggests that the power relationships in the value chain for bread, and what they may mean for consumers and workers in the chain, are best understood through the lens of these concrete struggles around bread.

Peak Food or What? Evidence from long-term commodity price changes

Thomas Lines

This paper explores the changes that have taken place in the world’s food economy in recent times by examining the movements in real prices of numerous commodities since the tail-end of the last big commodity price boom in 1979-81. The findings support these positions: 1. a fall in the terms of trade of farmers vis-à-vis the rest of the economy and agricultural

exporting countries vis-à-vis the rest of the world;

2. continuing support therefore for the Singer-Prebisch hypothesis that the real prices of agricultural commodities have a long-term tendency to decline;

3. evidence of a break in this trend for minerals, which supports a position of ‘peak metals’ and ‘peak fertilisers’, and possibly ‘peak oil’ too;

4. a crisis arising from this of high-input, intensive agriculture;

5. the need therefore to reorient agriculture away from mineral and chemical inputs towards agro-ecological methods and more traditional crops; and for developing countries to rely on domestic and regional supplies rather than global imports;

6. the harm done to most developing countries since the 1980s by advocating export orientation and seeking food security in imports from world markets; however, exporters of oil, copper and iron ore have benefited;

7. the influences on commodity price trends of supply management and corporate control of supply chains.

Origins of the Food Crisis: the Case of East Africa

Thomas Ogola & Isaac Kosgey The food crises in East Africa in 2008 and 2011 represent the latest in a series of crisis for a. region historically replete with such incidents. Needless to say, the spillover effects and the contagious spread of the crises seem in recent years to have become both more pronounced and far reaching. This has raised the risk to economic health, including increased unemployment, debt and low growth, threatening the gains achieved through the decent work agenda. Furthermore, these conditions have lead to heightened risks for conflict over access to water, land and other natural resources. Given the scope of this problem a reappraisal of the causes of this trend was carried out using the most recent literature review. After comparing and contrasting various articles it was established that, recurring prolonged droughts, climate change combined with population increase and a generalized breakdown of peace and stability as in Somalia made the crises more intense. Rising food prices around the world further compounded the situation. These findings call for sound economic, environmental and agricultural strategies to mitigate against future occurrences of the same. Remedies to the Food Crisis: the Case of East Africa

Thomas Ogola & Isaac Kosgey The food crises in East Africa lead to migration, heightened risks for conflict over access to water, land and other natural resources. It revealed serious deficiencies in quality of information base. Additionally, it affected the economic health of many countries, including increased unemployment, debt and low growth thereby threatened the gains achieved through the decent work agenda. Faced with these challenges, governments and other institution responded with a number of remedies, both short- and long-term. This paper reviewed initiatives adopted by countries within the East African region to address the food crisis as well as ensure that the vulnerable were well protected. As a result of this analysis some of the key initiatives identified in the short term included importation to bridge shortfall, purchase from other areas, enhancing reconciliation between conflicting factions, removal of tariffs, banning of food exports, direct food assistance long term strategies have been directed toward embracing biotechnology, putting more areas under irrigation and addressing regulation shortfall through various institutions. The review concludes that there is an increasing need to work in partnership and to share knowledge and skills in order to provide relevant intervention strategies.

The Scope of the Food Crisis: The Case of East Africa

Jane J. Sawe & Isaac S. Kosgey

The recent world food prices peaked in 2007/2008 and have remained high and volatile to date. This has caused a sustained deterioration in people’s access to food causing increased urban and rural poverty, thus reduced chances of achieving millennium development goal 1. A review of literature indicates that high food prices have pushed an estimated population of about 1 billion into poverty and hunger. The sustained food prices increase is as a result of rising price of oil, demand for biofuels, drought and climate change, declining agricultural productivity, low grain reserves, market speculation, changes in income, population growth, urbanization, export restriction and liberalized markets. The scope of high food prices has drastically affecting 37 countries; 21 in Africa, 10 in Asia, 5 in Latin America and Moldova in Europe. The response to high prices of food is a reduction in quantity and quality, diversity and frequency of foods consumed among vulnerable households. The urban poor (informal sector workers – non food producers), small scale farmers and agricultural workers, landless rural people and pastoralists have been impacted negatively. Small scale farmers form half of all food insecure people who produce food and due to cash needs, lack of storage capacity and lack of financial facilities, sell the food at low prices during harvesting and buy at very high prices during lean seasons. They get trapped in a poverty cycle as they have few coping mechanisms. Availability and access to food is determined by income and the prices of food. This is worsened by few opportunities for gainful employment, low wages, job losses and inadequate social security. The poor in developing countries spend 50 - 80% of their income on food while the middle income groups have food expenditure of 35 - 65% of their total income. High food prices have affected majority of population in developing countries. This paper analyses the scope of the recent food crisis on the rural urban divide, workers and small landholders and its implications to decent work.

Small animal species into the milpa system as strategy for adding value to crops and

improving food access for rural families in the Yucatan state of Mexico

Sarmiento-Franco, Luis., Sandoval-Castro, C. and Santos-Ricalde, R.

Milpa system in the south of Mexico has been the traditional source of food for rural families since many centuries ago. They get from that system some crops as maize, cabbage and some legumes. Legumes are usually the main protein source, however Mucuna pruriens legume is not consumed by people and it is sold as animal feed. Mucuna pruriens, an interesting crop, has demonstrated by research to be an excellent feed for several livestock species. Some areas at the south of Yucatan state are classified as the most poorest in the country, where people survive almost exclusively from the milpa crops and children lack of animal protein most times. The current project, supported by Kellogg Foundation, is aimed to improve food access for those families through the introduction of small animal (hens, pigs and sheep) species to the milpa system and feed them basically with Mucuna pruriens, some maize and forages. At the moment, two animal modules have been established, the first one, at Tahdziu community,

is growing creole pigs (Mexican hairless pig) and using boiled mucuna beans up to 30% in the diet; in the second one, at Chacsinkin community, hairy tropical sheep are fed whole mucuna fruit and forages. The communities are using the animal modules for both developing some experience in animal keeping and integrating the family members (women and children) to that activity. Next step will evaluate the impact of using mucuna as animal feed source, rather than being sold, on the family diet improvements, that is: Will pork and lamb meat be at those families table? Front Line Demonstrations: An Effective Extension Tool for Ensuring Food Security in

Rural Areas

Dheeraj Singh, M K Chaudhary & M M Roy

Improving the food security of small and marginal farmers is a major concern for the government of India. Over 80% of farmers owe less than 2 ha of land and this calls for effective utilization through a variety of diversification options for enhancing productivity, stability as well as sustainability.

In semi-arid regions of India, oil seed and pulse crops play an important role on account of being rich protein source, nutritious besides generating cash. As the farmers generally lack required knowledge and expertise in achieving higher production in this region; effective extension strategy is required. Front line demonstrations (FLDs) on practicing farmers field serve as an important extension tool for exhibiting superior technological package as well as feed backs from them for refinements in the technology package.

In one of the semi-arid districts of Rajasthan, Pali (located between 24.75 degree to 26.483 degree north latitude and 72.783 degree to 74.30 degree East longitude and altitude of 214 m with an average rainfall of 350 mm), 62 FLDs on oilseed crops (mustard and sesame) and pulse crops (gram and green gram) were organized during 2009-10 under real farm situations. The FLD package included improved varieties; balanced fertilizer use, including biofertilizers and integrated pest management. The farmers practice was used as control for the comparisons. The FLDs resulted in maximum yield gain in green gram (35%), followed by mustard (29%), gram (24%) and sesame (18%).

It is, therefore, concluded that in semi-arid zones of the country, investments on FLDs are expected to help in faster dissemination of technology packages. This in turn will ensure food security and rise in income level among the farming community in rural areas.

The Global ICDD Network

International Center for Development and decent Work

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