Doctoral Dissertation Research: Maize Cultivation and the Politics of Agricultural Modernization

这一博士论文研究项目将通过研究墨西哥中部三个关键类别的参与者的实践和看法，关注农业现代化和传统之间的复杂关系。自绿色革命以来，农业现代化(通过机械化、化学投入和高产作物品种强化农业生产的过程)一直是世界各国政府和发展机构的首要任务。墨西哥致力于培育高产玉米品种的研究机构自20世纪40年代成立以来，已成为开发和传播现代化玉米技术的世界领先者。然而，这些项目在刺激墨西哥农民采用这种技术方面收效甚微。尽管政府几十年来一直在推广高产玉米，但墨西哥绝大多数玉米农民仍在继续种植他们自己培育的传统玉米品种。关于传统农业系统持久性的现有研究集中在农民的角度，试图解释为什么他们采用或不采用现代玉米品种，而不是在发展机构内工作的行为者，他们在现代化进程中同样关系到生计。该项目将探索墨西哥中部高地地区的农业科学家、推广代理商和小规模玉米农民如何参与和谈判农业现代化。博士生将寻求以下几组研究问题的答案：(1)那些直接和间接参与玉米生产的人如何构思和参与特定的发展机构、农业技术和实践以及农业变化的过程？(2)这些关系在生计内部和之间是如何变化的？(3)这些关系如何塑造现有的发展机构，以及它们作为结果服务于谁的目的？利用口述历史、半结构化访谈和参与者观察相结合的方式，学生将研究参与者对特定农业实践和合作伙伴关系的理解和动机是如何随着时间的推移而发展的。学生将确定在发展机构内部和外部工作的参与者是否从事以部分但重要的方式颠覆农业现代化的谋生做法。项目结果将通过填补对涉及农业变化的参与者网络的基本理解的空白，提供对农业系统现代化投资和坚持传统耕作方法的重叠影响的洞察。该项目还将提供对墨西哥中央高地农业现代化应急情况的见解，该地区拥有一些世界上最重要的玉米研究中心，也是全球玉米多样性中心。更好地了解谈判发展的关系进程将有助于保护农业生物多样性，并将提高旨在满足该地区农民需求的发展政策的有效性，因为玉米种植是粮食安全、生计和文化特性的来源。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研究生涯。

This doctoral dissertation research project will focus on the complex relationship between agricultural modernization and tradition by studying the practices and perceptions of three key categories of actors in central Mexico. Agricultural modernization (the process of intensifying agricultural production through mechanization, chemical inputs, and high-yield crop varieties) has been a top priority of governments and development agencies around the world since the Green Revolution. Mexican research organizations dedicated to breeding high-yield maize varieties have become world leaders in the development and dissemination of modernized maize technologies since their founding in the 1940s. These programs have had limited success, however, in stimulating the adoption of such technologies among Mexican farmers. Despite decades of government policies promoting high-yield maize, the overwhelming majority of maize farmers in Mexico continue to cultivate traditional varieties that they have bred themselves. Existing research on the persistence of traditional agricultural systems has concentrated on farmer perspectives, seeking to explain why they do or do not adopt modern maize varieties, to the exclusion of actors working within development institutions who likewise have a livelihood stake in the process of modernization. This project will explore how agricultural modernization is engaged and negotiated by agricultural scientists, extension agents, and small-scale maize farmers in the Central Highland region of Mexico. The doctoral student will seek answers to the following sets of research questions: (1) How do those involved in maize production directly and indirectly conceive of and engage particular development institutions, agricultural technologies and practices, and processes of agricultural change? (2) How do these relationships vary within and across livelihoods? (3) How do these relationships shape existing development institutions, and whose purposes do they serve as a result? Using a combination of oral histories, semi-structured interviews, and participant observation, the student will examine how participants' understandings of and motivations for engaging in particular agricultural practices and partnerships have developed over time. The student will determine whether actors working both inside and outside of development institutions engage in livelihood practices that subvert agricultural modernization in partial yet significant ways.Project findings will provide insight into the overlapping effects of investment in modernizing agricultural systems and adherence to traditional cultivation methods by filling in gaps in basic understanding regarding the network of actors implicated in agricultural change. The project also will provide insights into the contingency of agricultural modernization in Mexico's Central Highlands, a region that hosts some of the world's foremost centers of maize research and is a global center of maize diversity. Greater understanding of the relational process through which development is negotiated will aid in the conservation of agricultural biodiversity and will increase the effectiveness of development policies designed to serve the needs of farmers in a region where maize cultivation is a source of food security, livelihood, and cultural identity. As a Doctoral Dissertation Research Improvement award, this award also will provide support to enable a promising student to establish a strong independent research career.