Jan Douwe van der Ploeg

Rural Development: From Practices and Policies towards Theory

Both in practice and policy a new model of rural development is emerging. This paper reflects the discussions in the impact research programme and suggests that at the level of associated theory also a fundamental shift is taking place. The modernization paradigm that once dominated policy, practice and theory is being replaced by a new rural development paradigm. Rural development is analyzed as a multi-level, multi-actor and multi-facetted process rooted in historical traditions that represents at all levels a fundamental rupture with the modernization project. The range of new quality products, services and forms of cost reduction that together comprise rural development are understood as a response by farm families to both the eroding economic base of their enterprises and to the new needs and expectations European society has of the rural areas. Rural development therefore is largely an autonomous, self-driven process and in its further unfolding agriculture will continue to play a key role, although it is a role that may well change. This article provides an introduction to the nine papers of this ‘special issue’ and the many reconfiguration processes embodied in rural development that they address.in rural development

Revitalizing Agriculture: Farming Economically as Starting Ground for Rural Development

Many of the attempts to construct sustainable rural livelihoods involve a shift away from agriculture’s traditional ‘core’ activities by means of a diversification with new on-farm activities or ‘conversion’ to quality modes of production. This raises the question of how we should conceptualize the role of those enterprises that fall into the vast category of ‘main-stream’ farms within the process of rural development. By discussing the style of ‘farming economically’ in Friesian dairy farming, this paper argues that rural development should not be seen as a contradiction between conventional and alternative farming systems. Farming economically is considered an integral part of the newly emerging model of rural development, since it entails a particular model for the mobilization, combination and utilization of resources at farm level that contrasts sharply with the modernization paradigm. At the level of the rural region, farming economically allows for higher income and employment levels, factors that are fundamental for a healthy, rural social fabric. The paper concludes that for the rural development potential of farming economically to be developed further,a favourable ‘rural district’ is needed that strengthens the innovativeness and specific developmental trajectory embedded in the practice.

Reconnecting Nature, Farming and Society: Environmental Cooperatives in the Netherlands as Institutional Arrangements for Creating Coherence

An important implication of agricultural modernization has been the break-down of interlinkages between farming, ecology and society. Historically, farming systems evolved from the specific responses of farming communities to local ecological conditions. The totality of regionalized farming systems arising out of this co-production moulded the countryside into an ‘archipelago’ of differentiated ruralities. During the period of agricultural modernization, the nature of co-production changed thoroughly. The natural elements in co-production were increasingly artificialized or replaced by industrial artefacts. This paper analyses the emergence of environmental cooperatives in the Netherlands as a movement towards a renewed embedding of farming in its local environment. Environmental cooperatives are local farmers associations that promote activities related to sustainable agriculture and rural development and claim to be actively involved in effectuating rural policies in their locale. Since the foundation of the first cooperative in 1992, numbers have rapidly grown to over 100. This paper examines the genesis and practices of environmental cooperatives and assesses their socio-economic and ecological impact. The importance lies most of all, so the authors contend, in that they represent valuable ‘field laboratories’ for building stimulating and supportive institutional contexts for remodelling Dutch farming along the lines of environmental and economic sustainability. Copyright

Impact and potential : a comparative review of European rural development practices

Rural development practices are found throughout Europe and cover a wide range of different types of activity. At first sight there does not seem to be much similarity between these different practices. This paper presents the results of a comparative analysis of some 30 cases of rural development from the different tracts of European countryside studied in the first phase of the impact research programme. The paper summarizes several of the communalities that were revealed in the analysis and goes on to consider differences that may be relevant to policy, especially in relation to the levels of socio-economic impact generated by rural development practices in terms of extra income and employment. By means of clustering sets of cases according to regional and farm level impact data, a number of underlying factors in successful rural development and its translation into socio-economic impacts are identified. Important factors relate the dissemination of activities by integrating new participants and repetition by others, the unleashing of synergy effects within clusters of compatible and mutually reinforcing rural development activities,and the construction of regional ‘protected spaces’ within the dominant technological regime that favour rural development.

Peasant-driven agricultural growth and food sovereignty

The concept of food sovereignty presents us with an important theoretical and practical challenge. The political economy of agriculture can only take up this gauntlet through improving its understanding of the processes of agricultural growth. It is very difficult to address the issue of food sovereignty without such an understanding. Developing such an understanding involves (re)combining the political economy of agriculture with the Chayanovian approach. This paper gives several explanations (all individually valid but stronger in combination) as to why peasant agriculture results in sturdy and sustainable growth and also identifies the factors that undermine this capacity. The paper also argues that peasant agriculture is far from being a remnant of the past. While different peasantries around the world are shaped and reproduced by todays capital (and more specifically by current food empires), they equally help to shape and contribute to the further unfolding of the forms of capital related to food and agriculture. It is important to understand this two-way interaction between capital and peasant agriculture as this helps to ground the concept of food sovereignty. The article argues that the capacity to produce enough food (at different levels, distinguishing different needs, and so on) needs to be an integral part of the food sovereignty discourse. It concludes by suggesting that peasant agriculture has the best potential for meeting food sovereignty largely because it has the capacity to produce (more than) sufficient good food for the growing world population and that it can do so in a way that is sustainable.The concept of food sovereignty presents us with an important theoretical and practical challenge. The political economy of agriculture can only take up this gauntlet through improving its understanding of the processes of agricultural growth. It is very difficult to address the issue of food sovereignty without such an understanding. Developing such an understanding involves (re)combining the political economy of agriculture with the Chayanovian approach. This paper gives several explanations (all individually valid but stronger in combination) as to why peasant agriculture results in sturdy and sustainable growth and also identifies the factors that undermine this capacity. The paper also argues that peasant agriculture is far from being a remnant of the past. While different peasantries around the world are shaped and reproduced by todays capital (and more specifically by current food empires), they equally help to shape and contribute to the further unfolding of the forms of capital related to food and agriculture. It is important to understand this two-way interaction between capital and peasant agriculture as this helps to ground the concept of food sovereignty. The article argues that the capacity to produce enough food (at different levels, distinguishing different needs, and so on) needs to be an integral part of the food sovereignty discourse. It concludes by suggesting that peasant agriculture has the best potential for meeting food sovereignty largely because it has the capacity to produce (more than) sufficient good food for the growing world population and that it can do so in a way that is sustainable.

The road towards sustainable rural development: issues of theory, policy and research practice

Developing a more widespread diffusion of sustainable agricultural practices as part of progressing rural sustainable development is being hampered by different modes of environmental social thought. This introduction to this special issue on ‘Reconstituting of nature through rural development practices’ argues for a realignment of social theory and empirical practice in considering the real potentiality of alternative and emergent rural development cases. The social science of agro-ecology is introduced as an initial framework within which to assess such alternatives and emerging tendencies. Copyright

Differentiation: old controversies, new insights

There is a long-standing debate about the nature, impact and significance of processes of differentiation in driving agricultural development. This contribution discusses three ways in which such processes have been conceptualized: modernization theories that put markets centre stage, Marxist theories that focus on class, and Chayanovian approaches that highlight the dynamics within farming families. The empirical evidence for testing these concepts is normally derived from agricultural censuses. This paper uses a different database that covers all Dutch farms between 1980 and 2006 and enables us to follow the changes on individual farms. Examination of this data reveals that the actual processes of differentiation that have occurred in this 25-year period differ greatly from the classic conceptualizations. It also challenges the conventional wisdom that agricultural development is mostly driven by larger farms.There is a long-standing debate about the nature, impact and significance of processes of differentiation in driving agricultural development. This contribution discusses three ways in which such processes have been conceptualized: modernization theories that put markets centre stage, Marxist theories that focus on class, and Chayanovian approaches that highlight the dynamics within farming families. The empirical evidence for testing these concepts is normally derived from agricultural censuses. This paper uses a different database that covers all Dutch farms between 1980 and 2006 and enables us to follow the changes on individual farms. Examination of this data reveals that the actual processes of differentiation that have occurred in this 25-year period differ greatly from the classic conceptualizations. It also challenges the conventional wisdom that agricultural development is mostly driven by larger farms.

Influence of habitat and seasonal variation on wild mammal diversity and distribution with special reference to the Trypanosoma brucei gambiense host-reservoir in Bipindi (Cameroon)

To evaluate the role of wildlife in the resurgence and perenisation of human African trypanosomiasis (HAT), we investigated the influence of habitat and seasonal variations on the diversity and spatial distribution of wild mammals, with special reference to those recognised as potential host-reservoirs of Trypanosoma brucei gambiense in Bipindi (southwestern Cameroon). To achieve this, we carried out transect surveys in four habitat types over two years. A total of 31 mammal species were recorded, of which 14 occurred in the undisturbed forest, 9 in cocoa plantations, 11 in farmlands and 11 in village-adjacent gallery forests. Among them, six species (Cephalophus monticola, Cephalophus dorsalis, Atherurus africanus, Cricetomys emini, Nandinia binotata and Cercopithecus nictitans), known as reservoir hosts of T. b. gambiense, occurred in all kinds of habitats suitable or unsuited to Glossina palpalis palpalis and in all seasons. These species are the most involved in the transmission cycle (human being/tsetse flies/wild animals). Cercopithecus cephus, Miopithecus talapoin and Heliosciurus rufobrachium host Trypanosoma brucei spp.; however, only C. cephus does not occur permanently in the suitable habitat of G. palpalis palpalis. In general, some species (C. monticola, Tragelaphus spekei and C. emini) showed a slight density increase from the long dry to the heavy rainy season within the undisturbed and farmland habitats, and a slight decrease within cocoa plantations and village-adjacent forests in the same period. The density of A. africanus increased greatly from the long dry season to the heavy rainy season in the undisturbed forest while, the density of primates in this habitat decreased slightly from the long dry season to the heavy rainy season. These variations indicate a permanent movement of wild mammal reservoir or feeding hosts from one biotope to another over the seasons. Thryonomys swinderianus needs to be investigated because it occurs permanently in the suitable habitat of G. palpalis palpalis and Potamochoerus porcus for its genetic similarities to domestic pigs, favourable feeding hosts of G. palpalis palpalis.

Forum: Fifty years of debate on peasantries, 1966–2016

The idea for this discussion originated in a wooden cabin in the Dutch polders in the late summer of 2015. Harriet Friedmann responded enthusiastically to my observation that the International Rural Sociology Association (IRSA)’s 2016 conference in Toronto would coincide with the 50th anniversary of the publication of two landmark books which had defined new poles of debate in peasant studies: Peasants (Wolf 1966) by Eric Wolf (1922–2009), and The theory of peasant economy (Chayanov 1966), the first English translation of parts of the work of the Russian ‘social agronomist’ Alexander Chayanov (1888– 1937). Both of these books had great influence on us, and on many others, at the time; and the debate between the two traditions which they represent, and their implications for agrarian policies and agrarian movements, continues to the present. We therefore proposed a panel discussion to mark this anniversary and to consider what has stayed the same, and what has changed, in the last 50 years of agrarian thought and agrarian politics. The organisers enthusiastically picked up the idea, elevating it from ‘panel’ to plenary and inviting us to organise the first plenary session of the conference, with the title 50 years of debate on peasantries, 1966–2016. The present panel, minus Jun Borras, matches our original wish list. The five members of the panel were born at various times between 1930 and 1950, but – having differing early life-course trajectories – we all developed our interest in peasant societies, as undergraduate or graduate students, at some point during the 1960s; we thus came under the influence of these books at roughly the same time. Eric Wolf, then teaching at the University of Michigan, was a formative influence on his student Harriet Friedmann; Teodor Shanin became aware of Chayanov almost by accident when he was asked to assist his PhD supervisor R.E.F. Smith with the translation of Chayanov’s work. As graduate students or young lecturers, we also read Teodor’s edited book Peasants and peasant societies (1971) which was widely used in teaching. In the second edition (1987) two emerging agrarian scholars, Harriet Friedmann and Henry Bernstein, contributed original chapters. Harriet wrote on ‘The family farm and the international food regimes’ (Friedmann 1987), a theme on which she had already published two landmark papers

Local inter-farm cooperation: A hidden potential for the agroecological transition in northern agricultures

ABSTRACT In the Global North, local inter-farm cooperation offers opportunities for farmers to better access and manage equipment, labor and material resources. Yet, its potential to pave the way to organize the local collaborations needed for the agroecological transition remains hidden. This paper, based on the experience of French farm machinery cooperatives (CUMA), shows how local inter-farm cooperation can help make farming systems more agroecological. We conclude by arguing that local inter-farm cooperation warrants more attention, both to help strengthen its development and to expand its potential for contributing to the agroecological transition.