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Abstract
This paper analyzes how peasant movements scale up agroecology. It specifically examines Zero Budget Natural Farming (ZBNF), a grassroots peasant agroecology movement in Karnataka, India. ZBNF ends reliance on purchased inputs and loans for farming, positioning itself as a solution to extreme indebtedness and suicides among Indian farmers. The ZBNF movement has achieved massive scale not only because of effective farming practices, but because of a social movement dynamic – motivating members through discourse, mobilizing resources from allies, self-organized pedagogical activities, charismatic and local leadership, and generating a spirit of volunteerism among its members. This paper was produced as part of a self-study process in La Via Campesina, the global peasant movement.
Acknowledgements
The authors are grateful to the members and leaders of the ZBNF movement, KRRS and La Via Campesina for giving us the privilege of carrying out this research and for enthusiastically sharing their views. We also thank the members of LVC’s research team who helped with initial research – Stephanie Wang, Lionel Weerakoon, Basawreddy, Afsar Jafri and Alphaeus Moses. We thank the anonymous reviewers for the Journal of Peasant Studies for their valuable suggestions.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.
Notes
1 The research for this paper was carried out from 2012 to 2015 and included three team visits and one individual field visit by LVC members and allied researchers. The methods included a questionnaire administered to 97 farmers in 2012, four focus groups ranging from 10 to 40 farmers, and 31 in-depth semi-structured interviews with farmers, ZBNF leaders and KRRS leaders in seven districts of Karnataka, as well as participation in a five-day ZBNF training camp in 2012 in Tumkur district, Karnataka. Farmers were selected for interviews based on recommendations from KRRS and ZBNF leaders as well as referrals from farmers themselves. We also randomly selected and interviewed farmers at the ZBNF training camp. Focus groups were organized by local KRRS or ZBNF leaders who sent out an open invitation to neighboring ZBNF farmers interested in attending. We carried out semi-structured group discussions at these focus groups. Questionnaires were administered to farmers at focus groups as well as to farmers we encountered in ZBNF training camps. We also reviewed books, news articles, social media and academic literature.
2 The middle peasantry refers to the class of peasants that is economically independent, owns land and mainly depends on its own labor and resources (Alavi Citation1965; Wolf Citation1969).
3 The Amrita Bhoomi Center (http://www.amritabhoomi.org) is part of LVC’s global peasant schools network.
4 A ZBNF leader based this estimate on the number of training camps conducted in the last 10 years in the state. At least 60,000–100,000 farmers have attended training camps directly, which were, according to our interviewees, a key experience that motivated farmers to transition to ZBNF. While not every camp attendee switches to ZBNF, many farmers adopt ZBNF even without having attended the camp – what ZBNF leaders call ‘indirect conversion’. Many farmers adopt just one or two ZBNF practices to combine with other methods. Thus, a modest estimation could put the figure at 100,000. Even without the availability of an official number, ZBNFs popularity is evident. It is the subject of numerous books, blogs, photos, websites, and social and mainstream media coverage.
5 We have primarily looked at those documented cases of large-scale agroecology adoption where mass-based farmers’ movements have been the protagonists in the scaling-up process.
6 Originally initiated by the FAO to promote integrated pest management, these bring farmers together in regular study circles to carry out collective observation, analysis and reflection.
7 Two such programs are Programa de Adquisición de Alimentos (National Food Procurement Program), and the Programa Nacional de Alimentação Escolar (National School Feeding Program) (Nehring and McKay Citation2014).
8 The Landless Workers Movement of Brazil.
9 Government of India Citation2011.
10 Other renowned natural farming experts in India are Raju Titus, Shripad Dabholkar, the late Bhaskar Save and G. Nammalvar (Dabholkar Citation1998; Alvares Citation2009; Mansata Citation2015).
11 Interview with ZBNF leader.
12 In Nicaragua, CaC first spread through the peasant organization Unión Nacional de Agricultores y Ganaderos de Nicaragua, while ANAP was the medium for CaC in Cuba.
13 Our interviews indicated that a growing number of urban people are looking to start ZBNF. They found ZBNF to be accessible because of many training activities, and mentors among rural ZBNF farmers. Palekar also conducts special training camps for urban-origin farmers with no prior experience in farming.
14 ZBNF’s members have widely differing ideological stands, and many of them do not see eye to eye in political terms. While groups like KRRS stand on the socialist end of the spectrum, some from the Hindu Right are also promoting ZBNF. Palekar has a one-point agenda of promoting ZBNF, and does not seem to discriminate between groups that invite him to promote ZBNF, be they corporations, right-wing groups, or left-leaning socialists.
15 These newer ‘farmers’ movements’ are in contrast to the earlier ‘poor peasant’ movements, which had a more local character, and arose against feudalism in those states of India (e.g. Bihar) where feudal structures still dominate. Such poor peasant movements were traditionally supported by the various communist parties in India as well as the Maoist guerillas (Bhattacharya Citation2014).
16 Ram Manohar Lohia was a prominent Indian socialist. His so-called ‘New Socialism’ promoted among other things the abolition of caste, economic equality, freedom of thought, emancipation of women and national independence (Jain and Gupta Citation2012).
17 A caste is considered dominant when it has relatively large numbers and wields economic and political power over other castes. While Lingayats and Vokkaligas are not high on the caste scale, they are dominant because of their numbers and economic power.
18 In-depth interviews.
19 Unrefined cane sugar.
20 Palekar’s criticism is based on the fact that the Eisinea feotida is an exotic species, and there are no quality-control measures in India to test vermicompost sold to farmers at high costs, which has been found to contain toxic heavy metals. Instead he promotes increasing populations of native earthworms in situ (Palekar Citation2005, 177).
21 An anonymous reviewer of this paper raised the point that Palekar does not directly invite experimentation, or the altering of his prescriptions. Nevertheless, farmers routinely do both.
22 Farmers depend on earnings from agriculture to meet not just agriculture-related expenses but also other social expenses.
23 Including an anonymous reviewer of this paper.
24 Mathas are Hindu monastic institutions led by a guru; they are separate entities from temples (Ikegame Citation2012).
25 Kannada is the main language spoken in Karnataka.
26 There are 10 books in English; nine in Kannada; 15 in Hindi; 22 in Marathi; and 10 in Tamil, Malayalam and Telugu, respectively. They can be ordered via mail and are sold at training camps.
27 One ZBNF volunteer who worked for the state adult literacy department used his post to publish a series of more than 10 books, each written by the farmers themselves about their own ZBNF experiences, as part of their adult literacy classes. These books were used as textbooks for other farmers in the literacy program.
28 Personal communication.
29 Hindutva is a fundamentalist and elite form of Hinduism promoted by certain fundamentalist groups. They are intolerant of other religious minorities – e.g. Muslims and Christians. Violent atrocities like pogroms have been committed around the country in the name of Hindutva. Their political arm, the Bhartiya Janta Party (BJP), is now in power in New Delhi (Robinson and Upadhyay Citation2012).
30 Münster, in his work on ZBNF in Kerela (Münster Citation2016), has expressed concern over Palekar receiving an award during the World Conference on the Indian Cattle Breed, held at a Brahmin matha in Shimoga Karnataka, which was attended by Hindutva activists and organisations. The cow has become a central issue for Hindutva groups today.
31 Viswanathan, Krishnakumar, and Menon (Citation2004) highlight that the Tumkur, Siddaganga, Mysore Suttur, Chitradurga Sirigere, Sanehalli, Nidumamidi, Belimath, Gadag and Muragha have not endorsed the politics of Hindutva.
32 Support from Lingayat mathas was partially responsible for bringing the right-wing Bhartiya Janta Party to power in the state from 2008 to 2013. Analysts have noted that it was political pragmatism and not Hindutva ideology that led to this support (Vasavi Citation2008; Shivasundar Citation2012).
33 The Sarvodaya Karnataka Party has organized camps in the past.
34 There are many Facebook pages, with one official page, which has more than 19,000 members (https://www.facebook.com/groups/zbnfsubhashpalekar/). It is the site for many exchanges, especially for farmers who have cell phones, a commonly available service in rural India. Palekar himself responds to some questions posted on the page.
35 The framing literature points to the role of movement elites and leaders as ‘cultural producers’.
36 Tumkur Camp, 2012.
37 Personal observations.
38 Palekar’s speech at a ZBNF training camp in Tumkur, Karnataka, in 2012.
Additional information
Notes on contributors
Ashlesha Khadse
Ashlesha Khadse is part of the Coordination of the Amrita Bhoomi Centre, a peasant agroecology school in India affiliated with the Karnataka State Farmers Association (KRRS) and La Via Campesina. She formerly was at El Colegio de la Frontera Sur (ECOSUR) in Chiapas, Mexico.
Peter Michael Rosset
Peter Michael Rosset is a professor and researcher at El Colegio de la Frontera Sur (ECOSUR) in Chiapas, Mexico, where he is part of the research group on the massification of agroecology. He is also a member of the technical support team of La Via Campesina and co-coordinator of the Land Research Action Network (www.landaction.org). Website: http://www.ecosur.mx/academico/prosset/. Email: [email protected]
Helda Morales
Helda Morales is a professor and researcher at El Colegio de la Frontera Sur (ECOSUR) in Chiapas, Mexico, where she is the coordinator of the research group on the massification of agroecology. Website: http://www.ecosur.mx/academico/hmorales/. Email: [email protected]
Bruce G. Ferguson
Bruce G. Ferguson is a professor and researcher at El Colegio de la Frontera Sur (ECOSUR) in Chiapas, Mexico, where he is part of the research group on the massification of agroecology.Website: http://www.ecosur.mx/academico/bferguson/. Email: [email protected]