Publication | Beyond agricultural sustainability: exploring the gendered impacts of conservation agriculture in Nepal

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A new study by Dawn Cheong, Bettina Bock & Dirk Roep examines how conservation agriculture affects gendered labour dynamics in Nepal’s Terai region.

While conservation agriculture is often promoted for its sustainability benefits, this research applies a feminist lens and the concept of social reproduction to explore its broader impacts. Using surveys, focus groups, and interviews, the study shows that conservation agriculture increases farmers’ workloads and reorganises agricultural labour at the individual level. However, it does not substantially restructure gendered roles in either productive or reproductive work.

Women experience greater empowerment and recognition as contributors to agriculture, yet their reproductive labour remains largely unchanged, creating a transitional space where traditional and new subjectivities of women coexist and negotiate. This highlights how agricultural innovations, if not carefully evaluated, can increase women’s labour burdens and deepen the feminisation of social reproduction crises.

The research underscores the importance of integrating gender perspectives in evaluating agricultural innovations to ensure truly sustainable and equitable development.

Access the publication here.


Dawn D. Cheong is a PhD in Rural Sociology from Wageningen University and Research in the Netherlands. She has about 15 years of experience in agriculture and rural development and climate adaptation, working as a planner, practitioner, and researcher with national and international organisations. Her research focuses on gender, labour, and processes of agricultural and rural innovation, with particular interest in how social dynamics shape technology adoption and rural change.

Bettina Bock is Professor of Inclusive Rural Development at the Rural Sociology Chairgroup at Wageningen University and a Professor of Population Decline and Quality of Life at the University of Groningen. Her research areas include inclusive rural development and social innovation, migration, sustainable agriculture and gender relations.

Dirk Roep is a former Assistant Professor and Research Coordinator at the Rural Sociology Chairgroup of Wageningen University and a Project Associate Professor at Kyoto University. He has expertise in place-based sustainable agricultural and rural development, sustainable modes of food provisioning, social learning and innovation, transition studies and rural transformation processes.

Ada Korteknie wint de CollectieveKracht Masterscriptieprijs 2025

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Tijdens de CollectieveKracht-eindejaarsbijeenkomst op 8 december zijn de winnaars van de Masterscriptieprijs 2025 bekendgemaakt. Met deze jaarlijkse prijs stimuleert CollectieveKracht vernieuwend academisch onderzoek dat bijdraagt aan het begrijpen en versterken van burgercollectieven.

Dit jaar werden maar liefst 38 scripties ingezonden, afkomstig uit verschillende disciplines en landen. De jury beoordeelde een breed en kwalitatief sterk veld van studies over thema’s als commons, collectieve actie, zelforganisatie, bewonersinitiatieven en maatschappelijke samenwerking. De variatie in theoretische invalshoeken en methodologische keuzes liet duidelijk zien hoe rijk en dynamisch het onderzoeksveld rondom burgercollectieven momenteel is.

Uit dit indrukwekkende aanbod selecteerde de jury drie scripties die zich onderscheidden in originaliteit, analytische kwaliteit, maatschappelijke relevantie en de mate waarin ze nieuwe perspectieven op collectief handelen bieden.

1e prijs voor Ada Korteknie

De eerste prijs ging naar Ada Korteknie (MSc Student Resilient Farming and Foodsystems, Wageningen University & Research) voor haar scriptie:

“On curiosities, nostalgia & futurities: A study on the practice of conserving heritage crops and varieties in the Netherlands”

In haar onderzoek richt Ada zich op het behoud van oude gewassen en rassen in Nederland, en op de cruciale rol die lokale communities spelen bij het ontwikkelen en onderhouden van commons-praktijken. Door een combinatie van interviews, participerende observaties en een experimentele focusgroep creëerde zij een rijk en toegankelijk verhaal dat inzicht geeft in hoe verschillende werelden – van boeren tot beleidsmakers – samenwerken aan gedeeld erfgoed en collectief beheer.

De jury prees met name de originaliteit, de methodologische creativiteit en de bijdrage die Ada’s werk levert aan het bredere denken over collectieve organisatie en gemeenschappelijk beheer.

De volledige scriptie is hier te lezen.

Bron: CollectieveKracht, 2025

New article co-published with RSO thesis student on the politics of food loss in Indonesian value chains

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!!New publication based on the RSO thesis of Astrid Olaerts!!

Food loss in horticultural values chains is a key challenge for regional development in Global South. Yet, existing literature tends to focus on the instrumental factors behind food loss, posing technical interventions. In this new article published in Australian Geographer, we argue that we need to understand food loss through a socio-political lens. Applying such a lens to a case study of horticulture values chains in Lembang, Indonesia, the article argues that food loss is shaped by the power dynamics between different actors in interconnected market channels, including the unfair quality standards and trading practices imposed by powerful firms like supermarkets. Producers and other less powerful actors demonstrate resilience in navigating these power imbalances, however they also struggle to mitigate food loss. The article suggests several strategies that could be adopted to empower marginalised actors and reduce and prevent food loss.

You can find the article here https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/00049182.2025.2597081

Congratulations to Astrid for the publication of this important work!

The Fabric of Convergence: Reflections from the Nyéléni Global Forum

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by Priscilla Claeys, Sylvia Kay and Jessica Duncan

In what ways can food sovereignty or agroecology act as a viable joint framing for systemic convergence? The third Nyéléni Global Forum in Kandy, Sri Lanka, brought together over 700 activists with the aim of weaving convergence and strengthening alliances between food sovereignty and social justice movements. The authors reflect on their experience at the Forum, highlighting successes in cross-movement collaboration as well as frictions in organising, representation, and frameworks. Looking ahead, the Kandy Declaration calls for actions to deepen dialogue, transform governance, and build collective capacity to advance systemic transformation.

Read the article here. 

Seeds of Sovereignty: Urban Agriculture and Agroecology in Cuba

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Levin Dalpiaz*

I’m writing this from the campus of the Agrarian University of Havana (UNAH), surrounded by students and researchers who move through their work with the practiced resilience of those for whom scarcity is part of daily life. Sitting in the dim light after a blackout, I reflect on these first weeks of fieldwork for my master’s thesis in international development studies. My research deals with the transformation of Cuba’s food system, focusing on urban agriculture in Havana, and how farmers’ experiences of belonging, dignity, and political agency influence their attachments to land.

Getting to campus yesterday morning wasn’t easy. I was confronted with suspended bus lines due to fuel shortages. Without the incredibly kind and creative support of my Cuban supervisors, I would not have made it—like many other students and researchers who had to stay home. The most striking thing is not the absence of electricity and other basic needs (water, gas, and fuel), but the presence of a stubborn, collective conviction that life continues, that work matters, and that another world is possible even in the grip of engineered crisis. Tomorrow, electricity will likely return for a few hours. People will charge their devices, fill up their water tanks, do their work, and prepare for the next blackout. It is a rhythm learned and adapted to.

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