Doctoral Dissertation Research: Organic Justice: Non-Traditional Exports and Inequalities in Tanzania

博士论文研究：有机正义：坦桑尼亚的非传统出口和不平等

• 批准号: 1030509
• 负责人: Robin Leichenko
• 金额: $ 1.2万
• 依托单位: Rutgers University New Brunswick
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2010
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2010-09-01 至 2012-02-29
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1030509&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Doctoral; Dissertation; Research; Organic; Justice

Organic agriculture is booming. Despite the recent global food and financial crisis, the production and consumption of organic goods has defied common trends. Heralded as the beginning of an Organic Revolution in sub-Saharan Africa, this development strategy holds vast promise for two interrelated reasons: First, the previous agricultural revolutions - the Green and Biotechnology Revolution - have largely sidestepped the continent, particularly small-scale farmers. Second, even in the context of a long history of failure and exploitation, agriculture-led development remains a main avenue for alleviating poverty. While organic agriculture's ecological benefits are better known, scholarship has been lacking on the socio-economic impacts of organic export production on African farmers. Socio-economic inequality especially has received little to no attention, even though the previous agricultural revolutions continue to highlight the highly uneven and unintended impacts of the diffusion of new agricultural technology across the globe. This doctoral dissertation research project addresses this critical omission by studying the growth in organic farming across six villages in Shinyanga, the leading region of organic cotton production in sub-Saharan Africa. In the first phase, 120 surveys were undertaken of both organic and conventional farmers, with a special focus on the importance of space and economies of scale. After the quantitative analysis using participatory and spatial econometrics, the research findings will be shared and collaboratively examined in a second phase via follow-up interviews and focus groups. In the third phase, inter-annual changes in inequality and poverty are assessed and supported via additional archival research to situate the findings within the complex history of colonial cotton production in Tanzania. Organic agriculture, especially in chemically-intensive cotton production, has evident ecological benefits. The results of this study will provide unique empirical evidence of the economic impact of organic agriculture on African cotton farmers from Tanzania. Given the government's goal to reduce rural poverty and inequality and the international demand to boost organic production in sub-Saharan Africa, the findings from this research will inform policymakers on the potentials and limits of this latest agricultural revolution. By locating the spread and adoption of organic agriculture as an innovation, the research will furthermore break down the economic impact of this agricultural growth on individual farmers and the villages throughout the cotton growing region. Focusing on contracted organic production in a de facto organic environment, the research project may further the evaluation of such development efforts vis-à-vis similar ones underway in other parts of the developing world, such as Fair Trade cotton production in West Africa. As a Doctoral Dissertation Research Improvement award, this award will also provide support to enable a promising student to establish a strong independent research career.

有机农业正在蓬勃发展。尽管最近发生了全球粮食和金融危机，但有机产品的生产和消费却是共同的趋势。这一发展策略被视为撒哈拉以南非洲的有机革命的开始，具有两个相互关联的原因：首先，先前的农业革命 - 绿色和生物技术革命 - 在很大程度上却避开了大陆，尤其是小型农民。其次，即使在悠久的失败和剥削历史的背景下，以农业为主导的发展仍然是减轻贫困的主要途径。尽管有机农业的生态益处是更知名的，但奖学金一直缺乏有机出口生产对非洲农民的社会经济影响。尽管以前的农业革命继续强调了全球新的农业技术扩散的高度不平衡和意外的影响，但社会经济不平等尤其几乎没有引起关注。该博士学位论文研究项目通过研究Shinyanga的六个村庄的有机农业的增长，这是撒哈拉以南非洲的有机棉生产领先地区，以解决这一严重的遗漏。在第一阶段，对有机和常规农民进行了120次调查，特别关注了空间和规模经济的重要性。在使用参与和空间经济学进行定量分析之后，研究结果将通过后续访谈和焦点小组在第二阶段进行共享和协作。在第三阶段，通过额外的档案研究对不平等和贫困的年际变化进行了评估和支持，以在坦桑尼亚的殖民棉花生产的复杂历史中置于结果。有机农业，尤其是在化学密集型棉花生产中，具有生态益处。这项研究的结果将为有机协议对坦桑尼亚非洲棉花农民的经济影响提供独特的经验证据。鉴于政府的目标是减少巨大的贫困和不平等，以及国际对撒哈拉以南非洲有机生产的需求，这项研究的结果将为决策者提供有关这项最新农业革命的潜力和限制的信息。通过将有机协议的扩散和采用作为创新，这项研究将破坏这种农业增长对整个棉花生长区域各个农民和村庄的经济影响。该研究项目专注于事实上的有机环境中的有机生产，可以进一步评估发展中国家其他地区类似的开发工作，例如西非的公平贸易棉花生产。博士学位论文研究改进奖，该奖项还将提供支持，以使承诺学生能够建立强大的独立研究职业。