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Abstract
In this paper, I examine the interplay among gender, labour, and technology within an emerging, alternative, rice-growing technique called the System of Rice Intensification (SRI) to understand how in situations of agrarian transition, technology affects and influences social dynamics. The technology under consideration in this paper is a small, labour-saving device, called the weeder, seemingly suitable for smallholder farmers, and often projected as a gender-friendly device. The purpose of this paper is two-fold. First, to discuss and demonstrate how intersections of gender, caste and class issues even within agro-ecological farming practices can result in experiences that can be highly differentiated. Second, to question and argue against the naturalization and/or apparent lack of problematization of production of such social difference and material outcomes. The paper draws theoretical insights from feminist political ecology (FPE) and feminist technology studies (FTS) and is based on an extended ethnographic fieldwork in Bihar, India.
Notes
Acknowledgements
Many thanks to the anonymous reviewers at Gender, Technology and Development for their comments and suggestions. I would also like to thank Dr. Emma Mawdsley for reading many earlier versions of my draft and providing very helpful comments.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.
Notes
1 Conventional agriculture methods referred here is the standardized, Green Revolution models of farming.
2 Dalits are at the bottom of the Hindu caste system, and formerly known as the ‘untouchables’ castes. They constitute as one of the most marginalized communities in socio-economic and political terms.
3 Mahadalit is a sub-group within the dalits and constitutes the poorest and most marginalized within this group.
4 At the time of research, the only mechanism the weeder was available to the farmers was through a subsidized distribution of ‘SRI Kit’ during an annual government organized event of Kharif Mahotsav, in which the weeder is one of the many items in the kit.
5 National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (NABARD) is an apex development bank in India.
6 Also see studies on opportunity cost of men’s labour time in the market and gendered difference in intra-household time allocation (e.g., Evans, Citation1991).
7 The period between sowing and harvesting of paddy, is the lean period especially for the poor, where income opportunities are few; and experiences of disease, illness, and poverty are the highest. It is a trade-off therefore, between having the opportunity to work somewhere even if stressful, to no work. No work can mean no food in some households, as wages are paid in kind (mostly rice).
8 This is important within the context of ‘feminization of agriculture’ in much of the global South.
Additional information
Notes on contributors
Regina Hansda
Regina Hansda is a Research Fellow at the Centre for Rural Economy, Newcastle University. She graduated from University of Cambridge, looking at questions of gender, labour, technology, food security in an agro-ecological method of farming in India. Her broad interests are on gender, environment, development, food security/food sovereignty and sustainability issues.