Empowering Small Farmers in India through Organic Agriculture and Biodiversity Conservation

Conservation ” investigates how, through conversion to organic agriculture, with its postulated socioeconomic, environmental and health benefits, and through biodiversity conservation, by, for example, creating community seed banks, local farming organizations enable and empower small farmers to become independent and self-sufficient. Local farming organizations are defined as movements to improve the economic, health, and social status of independent farmers in the face of global agribusiness through the adoption of sustainable agriculture. I explore the philosophy of these organizations; the agricultural and political ideas they transmit; the challenges they face in involving small farmers; and how farmers who become involved assess this experience. Fieldwork for this study was carried out during 2007 and 2008 in the Indian states of Punjab, Uttarakhand, Tamil Nadu, and West Bengal. Living in villages in these states– approximately three months per state–I completed 89 in-depth and 16 focus group interviews with female and male farmers, and with the farming organizations ’ staff, for a total of 250 participants. Interviews and field observations, primarily those carried out i