Living on the Edge: Women, Agrobiodiversity and Livelihood

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Living on the Edge: Women, Agrobiodiversity and Livelihood

USD 12.00 Publisher: Green Foundation and Third World Network
ISBN: 978-967-0747-08-8
Year: 2015
No. of pages: 120
Size of book: 14.5cm x 21.5cm
Author:

About the Book

The predominance of commercially marketed crop varieties and the supporting policy and legal frameworks in modern industrial agriculture are displacing indigenous varieties cultivated over the ages and which have been the mainstay of local farming systems the world over. This loss of agricultural biodiversity puts at risk both food security and the livelihoods of farmers who now find themselves tied to a corporate-controlled supply chain.

To counter this threat to sustainable food production, there is a need to turn to the enduring custodians of agricultural biodiversity – small farmers, in particular women farmers, who are the repositories of traditional knowledge of seed conservation and the providers of food for their households and communities. Drawing on the author’s over 20 years of work with Indian women farmers in on-farm conservation, Living on the Edge makes it clear that efforts to safeguard agricultural biodiversity must go hand in hand with the protection and promotion of farmers’ rights everywhere.

Contents

Foreword

Preface

The Beginning

The Green Revolution and After: The Advent of Neoliberalism and Globalization

Safe Food: Myth or Reality?

Farmers’ Rights: A Top-Down or Bottom-Up Approach?

Farmers’ Movement: Seeking to Fight Back

On-Farm Conservation: The Key to Preserving Agricultural Biodiversity

Seed Production by the Formal Sector: A Telling Story of Today’s Reality

The Experience of GREEN Foundation: A Bird’s-Eye View

Portraits of Courage, Faces of Strength