Small is beautiful? Rural Transformation and Production Networks of Tea Smallholders in Assam, India

印度茶业正在发生重大变化，小农种植在一定程度上增加了工业种植园的茶叶产量。这些过程可以解释为对不断变化的框架条件的适应。该研究项目旨在对阿萨姆邦小型茶叶种植部门的生产网络进行实证分析。与当地伙伴合作，旨在探索阿萨姆邦区域农业转型的独特模式，研究不断变化的当地农业实践和农业关系及其对当地冲突格局的影响。该项目有三个总体目标：1)研究茶叶种植部门的小农生产网络，这是更好地了解区域转型和农业变化的关键。在茶叶生产对大型种植园的重要性日益降低、小规模种植急剧增加的背景下，在阿萨姆邦索尼特普尔地区进行的历史实证研究旨在评估和重建当地农业实践和土地关系的转变，并调查其在小农生产景观中的当地动态。2)小农茶叶种植生产的社会实践实证研究。在对Sonitpur当地生产集群的详细案例研究中，对阿萨姆邦小型茶叶种植的社会和经济实践进行了调查，并分析了它们对相关群体当地生计安全的影响。该分析基于对当地生产和劳动关系、土地使用变化动态、不同规模的市场关系和法规、茶叶生产的上下游增值以及政府机构和当地小型茶农组织的作用的评估。3)对农业关系与和平地理学联系的理论贡献。在博德兰运动的冲突和往往暴力的社会关系的背景下，在乌达尔古里地区进行了经验案例研究，目的是阐明小农户通过将前战斗人员纳入小茶叶生产，对维持当地和平条件的贡献。在这方面，该项目旨在为当地关于和平、土著和土地变化的辩论中出现的和平地理学领域作出贡献。这些观点允许对阿萨姆邦茶叶生产的小农转变作为一种最近的现象进行全面评估。对当地生产关系及其在当地社会、文化、经济和冲突中的嵌入性的经验了解，为讨论商品链和生产网络及其与农村生计和和平地理的关系提供了新的概念见解。这种理解也有助于评估全面农村转型的政治、社会和经济影响。

Significant changes are transforming the Indian tea industry, where tea production in industrial plantations is partly augmented by smallholder cultivation. These processes can be interpreted as an adaptation to changing frame conditions. The research project aims to perform an empirically informed analysis of the production networks in the small tea-growing sector of Assam. In cooperation with local partners, it aims to explore the distinct patterns of regional agrarian transformation in Assam, to examine changing local agricultural practices and agrarian relations and their impacts on local conflict configurations. Three overarching goals structure the project: 1) The examination of smallholder production networks in the tea-growing sector as key to better understand regional transformation and agricultural change. In the context of a diminishing importance of tea production on large plantations and a sharp rise in small-scale cultivation, historically rooted empirical research in the Sonitpur District of Assam aims to assess and reconstruct the transformation of local agricultural practice and agrarian relations, and to investigate its local dynamics in smallholder production landscapes. 2) Empirical research about social practice in smallholder tea cultivation and production. The social and economic practices of small tea-growing in Assam are investigated in a detailed case study of a local production cluster in Sonitpur and analysed in terms of their effects on local livelihood security for involved groups. The analysis is based on an assessment of local production and labour relations, of the dynamics of land-use change, of market relations and regulations on different scales, of up- and downstream value adding in tea production, and the role of governmental institutions and local small tea-grower organisations.3) Theoretical contributions to the nexus of agrarian relations and peace geographies. In the context of conflictual and often violent social relations in the context of the Bodoland movement, empirical case studies in the Udalguri District have been designed to shed light on the contributions of the smallholder turn to sustaining local peace conditions by means of the inclusion of former combatants in small tea production. In this respect, the project aims to contribute to the emergent field of peace geographies within local debates about peace, indigeneity and agrarian change.These perspectives allow for a holistic assessment of the smallholder turn in Assam tea production as a recent phenomenon. An empirically informed understanding of local relations of production and its embeddedness in local society, culture, economy and conflict promises new conceptual insights into the discussion on commodity chains and production networks and their relations to rural livelihoods and peace geographies. Such an understanding also helps to assess the political, social and economic repercussions of a comprehensive rural transformation.