Category Archives: Agriculture

PhD position on Political ecology of oil palm disease control: Human action, resource distribution, narratives, and institutions

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We have a vacancy for one PhD research project on the political ecology of oil palm in Indonesia. The PhD candidate will study the dynamics of social relationships, human actions, and human-pathogen-environment interactions that have an impact on Ganoderma disease outbreak and management in oil palm regions in Indonesia. The PhD candidate will develop a research proposal that will focus on one or more of the following issues: i) Shifts in government responses to disease outbreaks and farmers’ (collective) memories on disease incidence, remedies, and impact on livelihoods. ii) How social differentiation, resource distribution, and livelihood strategies condition oil palm cultivation and shape disease outbreak and management options. iii) The narratives that have developed around plant diseases in policy documents, knowledge exchange events, media, and local knowledge and how has this influenced storytelling about effectiveness of proposed treatments. iv) The institutional landscape, i.e. how institutions (as dynamic structures of rules) such as state regulations, sustainability certification schemes, and local cultural arrangements, shape disease related actions of growers and other actors. The PhD candidate will develop an approach that denaturalizes the disease and, instead, contextualizes the disease and its management by exploring social and political dynamics. For more information on the project, job qualities, and how to apply:

https://www.wur.nl/en/vacancy/phd-on-political-ecology-of-oil-palm-disease-control-human-action-resource-distribution-narratives-and-institutions.htm

Deadline: 30 November 2024

Het verhaal van Josette

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Marleen Buizer*

Met plezier stel ik Josette aan u voor. Josette heeft het bedrijf van haar ouders kunnen overnemen. Niet te groot, niet te klein, met 70 hectare voldoende om van te leven. Josette is trots, op de flinke koppel Blaarkoppen en MRIJ-dubbeldoel koeien die ze op haar land houdt. De sterke dieren kunnen het ruwvoer afkomstig van het ruige grasland goed verteren, en hoewel haar koeien niet véél vlees produceren, worden ze alom gewaardeerd voor de heerlijke smaak van hun vlees. Dat geldt trouwens ook voor de melk en de kaas, de belangrijkste producten van Josettes bedrijf. Ze probeert met haar gezin het bedrijf draaiende te houden op een manier waarvan ze denkt dat die toekomstbestendig is.

“Pleeg geen roofbouw”, was altijd het pleidooi van haar ouders, en “geef je ogen altijd goed de kost”. Dat soort uitspraken blijven hangen. Dat “geef je ogen altijd goed de kost” heeft Josette héél letterlijk genomen. Ze kijkt trouwens niet alleen met haar ogen, maar ruikt ook aan de grond en voelt hoe kruimelig van structuur en droog of vochtig die is. Geregeld gaat ze op haar knieën in het gras, schraapt de grond een beetje om, onderzoekt wat voor beestjes ze tegenkomt, graaft een beetje verder en laat de grond door haar handen gaan. Ze bewondert dan de kruiden, en ziet dat ze gezond zijn. Eén van de blaarkoppen komt vandaag lekker tegen haar aan staan, dat kriebelt en ze duwt een beetje terug. Ze kan zich niet herinneren dat dit specifieke dier dit eerder heeft gedaan – ze is zeker in een aanhankelijke bui. Maar toch maar even voelen aan de horens, zou er iets zijn? Maar alles voelt goed, en even later ziet Josette het dier vreedzaam wat gras herkauwen. Ze gaat weer op haar knieën, en constateert tevreden dat er heel wat kruiden in haar gras staan. Géén strakke lappendeken van Engels raaigras hier. En geen Heermoes of Jacobs Kruiskruid te bespeuren! Ze heeft wat geëxperimenteerd, vorig jaar, door nieuwe kruiden te zaaien. Dat had te maken met het grondwaterpeil dat in overleg met het waterschap omhoog is gebracht. Ze was door de vernatting toch wat huiverig voor leverbot en maagdarmwormen. Vanwege de kosten en het risico op resistentie weigert ze chemische middelen te gebruiken tegen de parasieten. Vandaar de experimenten met kruiden. En verdorie, het werkt!

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Decolonization Agriculture – New Article in Third World Quarterly

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This article, authored by Necmettin Türk from Critical Geographies of Global Inequalities at the University of Hamburg and Joost Jongerden from the Rural Sociology Group at Wageningen University, discusses agriculture in the context of colonization and the debates it has sparked. The authors examine the colonial homogenizing policies of the Syrian Ba’ath regime and the subsequent decolonization processes that led to the emergence of Rojava as a pluriverse.

The Ba’ath regime, in power since 1963, implemented nation-state colonialism in the predominantly Kurdish region, using agricultural modernization as a tool for its colonization efforts. This modernization bolstered the central state, perpetuated the underdevelopment of the region as a periphery, and asserted control through the settlement and land distribution to Arab families loyal to the regime. Following the regime’s collapse in Rojava in 2012, the communities that comprise the Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria (AANES) dismantled the colonial agricultural system. They developed a decentralized governance and agrarian development approach, referred to here as the decolonization of agriculture.

Based on interviews and fieldwork in the region, the article explores the interplay between agricultural development and colonial politics, as well as the critical role of agriculture in the broader struggle for decolonization. The authors conclude that in the anti-colonial struggle, people and the rhizomatic governance structures they develop challenge colonial submission to the central state, exploring life beyond the nation-state, which is crucial for a decolonial shift.

The article is published open access under this link: https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/01436597.2024.2374521?src=exp-la

Democracy in Agriculture and Food Provisioning: A Citizenship Lens

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Spring School-PhD course May 19-23, 2025

With daily seminars by Engin Isin and contributions by Cristina Grasseni, Robin Smith, Joost Jongerden, and Han Wiskerke

Fair and just agriculture and food systems have been central issues in policy and practice for much of the 20th and 21st centuries. Peasants, consumers, and social movements have been fighting for rights such as land ownership, access to healthy food, and the right to determine our agricultural and food futures for many decades, if not centuries. Few have conceptualized this in terms of citizenship. Yet by questioning what is fair, just, and right, challenging the working of our agrarian and food systems, and practising alternatives people establish themselves as citizens, and more specifically as agrarian and food citizens.

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Taxing tradition in Istria, Croatia

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Robin Smith

On its face, taxation is not the most alluring subject for those of us studying rural farming communities. However, taxation touches much of what we care about in these spaces. Taxation fundamentally shapes the economic structure of rural areas, influencing the viability of family businesses and the ability of rural entrepreneurs to establish themselves in the formal economy. Taxes can make and unmake markets, sometimes in dramatic fashion.

: Taxing tradition in Istria, Croatia Continue reading →