Doctoral Dissertation Research: Investigating Transitions in Agricultural Livelihoods: Global Change, Response Diversity, and Local Food Production

博士论文研究：调查农业生计的转变：全球变化、反应多样性和当地粮食生产

• 批准号: 1727800
• 负责人: Colin West
• 金额: $ 2.51万
• 依托单位: University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2017
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2017-06-01 至 2018-11-30
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1727800&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Doctoral; Dissertation; Research; Investigating; Transitions

Over the past thirty years, scholars and policymakers have become increasingly concerned with the negative effects of global change on the sustainability of rural livelihoods, both in the United States and around the world. We know from research that economic globalization and the integration of farmers into global commodity chains often has resulted in rising economic dependence and exclusion, food insecurity, and environmental degradation. These dynamics have been particularly damaging to the viability of smallholding family farmers, who nonetheless continue to produce 80 percent of the global food supply. In light of these global challenges, recent scholarship has identified farmer-led transitions toward local food production as a new and sustainable path for rural development. Understanding the factors that promote sustainable transitions to local food production is therefore critical for advancing effective programs and policies that support future rural development efforts. This research will contribute essential support to the PhD training of a female anthropologist. It will also build local research capacities by offering assistantships for three rural youth and will enhance international scientific collaboration. Collaborative engagement strategies will enable findings to inform planning efforts that will facilitate the delivery of more effective support to farming communities. Results will also be disseminated via academic conferences and publications in journals that focus on agriculture, environment, and rural development issues.Research will be conducted in Dominica, a rural island in the Eastern Caribbean. Dominica is a particularly apt research setting because since the 1990s, agricultural livelihoods there have transitioned from export commodity production to diverse forms of local food production. Although these transitions are associated with positive outcomes including high levels of food security and economic growth, there is currently little known about how farmers have been able to rework local relations and practices of production and exchange. The research will focus on smallholder farming households in three sites that allow for comparison of agricultural livelihoods in distinct social and environmental conditions. Investigators will assess how and why smallholders have responded to changing global conditions by shifting away from export production. Investigators will also assess the impacts of these responses by determining how variable access to resources, markets, and development support reflect diversity in agricultural practices and which of these factors promote sustainable livelihood outcomes for farming families and communities. Investigators will engage in long-term site visits to conduct surveys and interviews, and to participate in and observe agricultural activities. Findings from this research will provide a model for sustainable agricultural transitions; one that can be generalized to other contexts facing similar global dynamics.

在过去的三十年里，学者和政策制定者越来越关注全球变化对美国和世界各地农村生计可持续性的负面影响。我们从研究中了解到，经济全球化和农民融入全球商品链往往导致经济依赖和排斥、粮食不安全和环境退化。这些动态对小农家庭农民的生存能力造成了特别大的损害，尽管如此，他们仍继续生产全球80%的粮食供应。鉴于这些全球性挑战，最近的学术界认为，农民主导的向当地粮食生产的过渡是农村发展的一条新的可持续道路。因此，了解促进向当地粮食生产可持续过渡的因素对于推进支持未来农村发展努力的有效计划和政策至关重要。这项研究将为女性人类学家的博士培训提供必要的支持。它还将通过为三个农村青年提供助学金来建设当地的研究能力，并将加强国际科学合作。合作参与战略将使调查结果能够为规划工作提供信息，从而促进向农业社区提供更有效的支持。研究成果还将通过学术会议和在侧重于农业、环境和农村发展问题的期刊上发表的出版物传播，研究将在东加勒比的一个农村岛屿多米尼克进行。多米尼克是一个特别适合的研究环境，因为自1990年代以来，那里的农业生计已经从出口商品生产过渡到各种形式的当地粮食生产。虽然这些转变与积极成果有关，包括高水平的粮食安全和经济增长，但目前对农民如何能够重新调整当地关系以及生产和交换做法知之甚少。研究将侧重于三个地点的小农户，以便比较不同社会和环境条件下的农业生计。调查人员将评估小农如何以及为什么通过从出口生产转向应对不断变化的全球条件。调查人员还将评估这些反应的影响，确定如何可变获得资源，市场和发展支持反映了农业实践的多样性，以及这些因素促进农业家庭和社区的可持续生计成果。调查人员将进行长期实地访问，进行调查和访谈，并参与和观察农业活动。这项研究的结果将为可持续农业转型提供一个模型，可以推广到面临类似全球动态的其他背景下。