Overview

This publication explores the meaning of agriculture and guides the reader into new territory, where food, ecology, and culture converge. In the food systems of South Asia, the margin between cultivated and uncultivated biodiversity dissolves through women's day-to-day practice of collecting and cooking food, constituting a feminine landscape. The authors bring this practice to light, and demonstrate the value of food production and consumption systems that are localized rather than globalized. Based on extensive field research in India and Bangladesh, with and by farming communities, the book offers both people-based and evidence-based perspectives on the value of ecological farming, the survival strategies of the very poor, and the ongoing contribution of biodiversity to livelihoods. It also introduces new concepts such as the social landscape and the ethical relations underlying production systems relevant to key debates concerning the cultural politics of food sovereignty, land tenure, and the economics of food systems. The authors are leading activists and accomplished researchers with a long history of engagement with farming communities and the peasant world in South Asia and elsewhere.

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9788171886142

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Reviews

This book is an eye-opener. It compels us to rethink what constitutes food security, women's knowledge systems, and common pool resources. It makes us see much that we would casually walk past, that we might never taste, that we cannot purchase...Farhad Mazhar, Daniel Buckles, P.V. Satheesh and Farida Akhter, are not simply authors, however. They are activists and environmentalists with a deep respect for the knowledge embedded in the communities they work with and live among; with a strong commitment to empowering these communities, and especially the women; and a firm belief that ecological farming systems can be both efficient and sustainable.... I recommend this book not only to those interested in food policy and food security, or in agricultural systems and local knowledge systems, but also to those who are simply curious about other communities and food variety. And if you can, you should also visit these villages and savour this feast of diversity and delicacy, as I have done: there is a treat in store here not just for the eyes but also for the palate! - Bina Agarwal Professor of Economics, Institute of Economic Growth, University of Delhi; and author of A Field of One's Own: Gender and Land Rights in South Asia

Author Information

Farhad Mazhar is a founding member of UBINIG (Policy Research for Development Alternative) and is currently its Managing Director. Daniel Buckles is Adjunct Research Professor in the Department of Sociology and Anthropology at Carleton University in Ottawa, Canada, and former Senior Program Specialist at IDRC. P.V. Satheesh (India) is the co-founder and current Director of the Deccan Development Society. Farida Akhter is the Executive Director of UBINIG.

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