Conference 2023

Agriculture in India has been facing multiple crises. Aside from the economic crisis, the transition to industrial Green Revolution agriculture has left the rural world with a host of ecological problems. These included the loss of biodiversity, depletion of groundwater, and soil erosion—all compounded by the onset of climate change and its impacts in the form of floods, droughts, and rising temperatures. The high-input Green Revolution model of agriculture had resulted in a mounting fertilizer subsidy bill, alongside the dilemma of increasing productivity at the cost of nutrition and food security. These consequences were borne disproportionately by underprivileged socioeconomic groups across rural and urban India. The increasing numbers of landless and tenant cultivators, growing migration from Adivasi hinterlands, the distress of pastoralists, fishers, artisans, and the recurrent protests by farmers across the country had all highlighted the fissures and failures of this model.

Against this backdrop, calls for an alternate paradigm grew louder—one rooted in agroecology and an ecosystem view of production processes that moved beyond the dominant narratives of ‘productivity and populism’. Farmers and civil society organisations had already been experimenting with alternatives on the ground, and both the national and several state governments had pledged support for these paradigms. Yet, sustained engagement by the academic community with these pressing issues had remained limited.

The transition towards an agroecological paradigm was recognized as one that required research moving beyond conventional disciplinary boundaries. Engaged forms of multi- and transdisciplinary inquiry demanded investment in participatory and co-evolved processes. Networks like the Network of Rural and Agrarian Studies (NRAS) had, over the last decade, sought to keep alive academic interest in agrarian alternatives through a series of bi-annual conferences since 2010, while also building connections with networks on the ground such as the longstanding Revitalising Rainfed Agriculture Network (RRAN), as well as newer initiatives like the National Coalition for Natural Farming (NCNF) and the Small Farm Incomes project at the Institute of Rural Management Anand (IRMA).

Internationally, too, research networks and platforms have been engaging with questions of sustainability transitions, exploring their technical and social dimensions. These efforts recognized the importance of both innovations and social movements in steering agricultural sustainability. However, agriculture in emerging economies such as India had often remained at the margins of these discussions.

It was in this context that the conference on “Managing Sustainable Transitions in Agriculture: Newer Directions for Research and Civic Action” was convened in 2023. The gathering brought together researchers, practitioners, and policymakers on a common platform to deepen conversations across disciplines and practices. It served as a stock-taking of ongoing research, a space to weave together multiple streams of thought across the natural and social sciences, and an opportunity to foster a platform for deeper understanding and engagement. The conference not only helped articulate new directions for a socially just and ecologically viable agrarian paradigm but also sowed the seeds for a growing network of scholars committed to advancing agroecological alternatives in India.