Abstract
Amid the unprecedented crisis created by COVID-19, there has been a renewed interest in agroecology and the local food system as a long-term solution to such unforeseen adversity. The crisis exposed the fragility and systemic limitations of the contemporary patterns of food and farming defined by the global network of agricultural and food systems on which there is tremendous reliance. It is the highly centralised resource and capital-intensive nature of modern industrial agriculture that makes it more vulnerable in face of pandemic-like situation. As evident, highly restricted mobility, severely disrupted chains of transportation and distribution and labour shortage resulted in hindered accessibility to essential food, vegetables and dairy products for communities across the world. Though all sectors of economy have been adversely impacted, losses in agriculture have heightened the fleeting food security in the Global South. Contrary to this, agroecological systems, primarily followed by small holders practicing diverse cropping patterns and reaching consumers through local supply chains, appeared resilient vis-à-vis large farmers and big agriculture. Agroecological farming encompasses the diversity of food crops that does not only fulfil the calorie requirement as by food produced from industrial agriculture but also provides the essential nutritional security and palatability. As the food system is also embedded in cultural and local socio-economic systems, a re-localisation of food movement would make the food systems more just and secure. This chapter aims to foreground the agroecological perspective on food and farming that require revisiting our understanding as well as vision of agriculture and agrarian developments in light of COVID-19 to make it local, diverse, resilient and sustainable.
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Notes
- 1.
TVA was created in 1933 in United States as a state enterprise to bolster economic development of the country by providing managing flood control, fertiliser manufacturing, electricity generation, etc. that together boosted the agriculture and economy. It became a model of development for rest of the world.
- 2.
The objective of this bilateral treaty was to provide assistance and extension of agricultural research and education. To facilitate this process, a joint fund was created to provide modern farm machineries and technicians. The success story of high production of corn and wheat in case of Mexico by America was projected by it as a solution to the undeveloped rural agrarian systems of the developing societies.
- 3.
Community development programme was a wide-ranging programme launched by the GOI targeting rural welfare that covered 55 projects related to agriculture, animal husbandry, rural housing, education and so on. It aimed at rural reconstruction.
- 4.
For details, refer https://www.downtoearth.org.in/news/agriculture/80-groundwater-in-punjab-s-malwa-unfit-for-drinking-60951, accessed 20.11.21.
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Singh, P. (2023). Pandemic, Resilience and Sustainability: Agroecology and Local Food System as the Way Forward. In: Singh, P., Milshina, Y., Batalhão, A., Sharma, S., Hanafiah, M.M. (eds) The Route Towards Global Sustainability. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-10437-4_14
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