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违背了普遍趋势。这一发展战略被誉为撒哈拉以南非洲有机革命的开端，具有巨大的前景，原因有两个：第一，以前的农业革命-绿色和生物技术革命-基本上避开了非洲大陆，特别是小农。第二，即使在长期失败和剥削的背景下，以农业为主导的发展仍然是减贫的主要途径。虽然有机农业的生态效益更为人所知，但缺乏关于有机出口生产对非洲农民的社会经济影响的学术研究。特别是社会经济不平等问题几乎没有得到任何关注，尽管以往的农业革命继续突出表明新农业技术在地球仪上传播的高度不均衡和意外影响。本博士论文研究项目通过研究撒哈拉以南非洲有机棉生产的主要地区Shinyanga的六个村庄的有机农业增长来解决这一关键遗漏。在第一阶段，对有机和传统农民进行了120次调查，特别侧重于空间和规模经济的重要性。在使用参与性和空间计量经济学进行定量分析后，研究结果将在第二阶段通过后续访谈和焦点小组进行分享和协作审查。在第三阶段，通过额外的档案研究评估和支持不平等和贫困的年度间变化，以将调查结果纳入坦桑尼亚殖民地棉花生产的复杂历史中。有机农业，特别是在化学密集型棉花生产中，具有明显的生态效益。本研究的结果将为有机农业对坦桑尼亚非洲棉农的经济影响提供独特的经验证据。鉴于政府减少农村贫困和不平等的目标以及国际社会对促进撒哈拉以南非洲有机生产的需求，这项研究的结果将为政策制定者提供有关这一最新农业革命的潜力和局限性的信息。通过将有机农业的推广和采用定位为一种创新，该研究将进一步分解这种农业增长对整个棉花种植区的个体农民和那些村庄的经济影响。该研究项目的重点是在事实上的有机环境中进行合同有机生产，可以进一步评估这种发展努力与发展中世界其他地区正在进行的类似努力，如西非的公平贸易棉花生产。作为博士论文研究改进奖，该奖项还将提供支持，使有前途的学生建立一个强大的独立的研究生涯。