Details

Subject(s)

• Agrobiodiversity—South Asia [Browse]
• Nutrition policy—South Asia [Browse]
• Food supply—South Asia [Browse]
• Agricultural systems—South Asia [Browse]
• Women and the environment—South Asia [Browse]
• Poverty—South Asia [Browse]
• India—Foreign economic relations [Browse]
• India—Economic policy—1991- [Browse]

Related name

• International Development Research Centre (Canada) [Browse]
• Majahāra, Pharahāda [Browse]

Summary note

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. The print edition of this publication includes a DVD entitled Diversity and Food Sovereignty, which presents three farmer-made films. Their message is loud and clear: food sovereignty means the conservation of biological diversity and revitalization of ethical community relations.

Notes

Description based upon print version of record.

Issuing body

Issued by: Academic Foundation.

Language note

English

Contents

• ""Contents ""; ""Foreword""; ""Introduction""; ""1. Our Crops Our Selves""; ""What is Agriculture?""; ""2. Diversity on the Flood Plains of Bangladesh""; ""3. Diversity on the Dry Lands of the Deccan Plateau""; ""4. The Politics of Weeds and the Decline of Farming Systems""; ""5. Why Do Dry Land Farmers Practice Ecological Farming?""; ""6. Penta Pooja Worship of the Manure Heap""; ""Biodiversity and the Technology of Cooking""; ""7. Uncultivated Foods and the Technology of Cooking""; ""8. Uncultivated Greens the Nutritional Values""; ""9. Uncultivated Foods and Daily Diets""
• ""Cultivating the Social Landscape""""10. Survival Strategies of the Very Poor""; ""11. Poverty and the Social Landscape""; ""12. Toward a New Economics of Agriculture""; ""Politics and Culture""; ""13. The Cultural Politics of Food Sovereignty""; ""About the Authors""; ""Acknowledgements""

ISBN

• 81-7188-558-6
• 1-280-76338-8
• 9786610763382
• 1-55250-337-2

OCLC

191818640

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