Abstract
This paper argues the need to situate the climate change narrative in lived everyday life for conceptualizing adaptation strategies. Climate change in its dominant narrative talks of global risks while it is the local risks experienced in everyday life which adaptation needs to address. This paper engages with this challenge using the specific case study of coffee growers in South India and focuses on two strategies available to them to address their rainfall risk: irrigation (sprinkler and rain-guns) and rainfall insurance. The paper unpacks growers’ decision-making process to invest or not to invest in insurance and irrigation and showcases that even though variation in rainfall is a significant concern for the growers still investing in neither of the two strategies (insurance and rain-gun irrigation) or only in sprinkler irrigation remains the most preferred decision scenarios. The paper argues that rain-gun irrigation and insurance reconfigure growers’ relation with rainfall. In this reconfigured relation, the agency is removed from growers and passed on to a scientifically calibrated assessment of rainfall. Growers’ reluctance to buy into these schemes, thus, is indicative of their reluctance to buy into the reconfigured system where the agency of knowledge has been removed from them and passed on to the scientific assessments. In a situated context, thus, climate change for coffee growers in South India is an issue of agency and trust. Therefore, thinking through adaptation strategies for addressing the situated narrative of climate change challenge would require opening the process of calibrating rainfall for insurance to gain growers’ trust. Additionally, making science more inclusive of lived experiences on the ground.
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source: based on discussions with the scientists at the Central Coffee Research Institute, Balehonnur, Chikmaglur, Karnataka)
source: based on survey response gathered during fieldwork)
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Notes
Taluk is an administrative unit. In administrative terms a cluster of villages is known as Hobli. A cluster of Hoblis is known as taluk. Taluks together constitute a district.
Black Gold League is a forum of plantation growers in Chikmaglur district, Karnataka which brings together plantation growers having coffee and pepper crops for interactions and exposure to successful methods of cultivation.
Central Coffee Research Institute (CCRI) is the research wing of Coffee Board located in Balehonnur, Chikmaglur, Karnataka.
Interview with a coffee scientist at Central Coffee Research Institute (CCRI), Balehonnur, Chikmaglur, Karnataka on 4 March 2021.
South-West monsoon is the principal rainy season for the Indian sub-continent. It is received in the period between June and September.
North -East Monsoon are received between October to December in specific parts of Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh.
Interview with an agronomist at Coffee Board on 29 January 2015.
Same as above.
Interview with an agricultural chemist at Central Coffee Research Institute (CCRI) on 4 March 2014.
Interview with a coffee grower in Sakleshpur, Karnataka in December 2011. Interview conducted at the plantation.
Interview with a coffee grower in Sakleshpur, Karnataka in January 2014. Interview conducted at the plantation.
Interview with a coffee grower in Palini Hills, Tamil Nadu in February 2014. Interview conducted at the plantation.
Interview with coffee grower in Kodagu, Karnataka, January 2014. Interview conducted at the plantation.
Interview with coffee grower in Chikaglur, Karnataka, January 2012. Interview conducted at the plantation.
Interview with a coffee grower in Palini Hills, Tamil Nadu in February 2014. Interview conducted at the plantation.
Interview with a coffee grower in Sakleshpur in November 2011. Interview conducted at the plantation.
Interview with a coffee scientist at CCRI in February 2014. Interview conducted at CCRI.
Interview with a coffee grower in Sakleshpur in December 2011. Interview conducted at the plantation.
Interview with a coffee grower in Sakleshpur in December 2011. Interview conducted at the plantation.
Interview with a coffee grower in Sakleshpur in December 2011. Interview conducted at the plantation.
Interview with a coffee grower in Sakleshpur in February 2014. Interview conducted at the plantation.
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Acknowledgements
This paper is from my PhD thesis submitted at the Centre for Studies in Science Policy, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi, India. I am thankful to my supervisors Dr. Rohan D’ Souza and Dr. Saradindu Bhaduri for their guidance. Thanks to Dr. George Adamson and Prof. Ambuj Sagar for their feedback and support. Thanks to the reviewers for their most helpful comments.
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Ogra, A. Situating climate change narrative for conceptualizing adaptation strategies: a case study of coffee growers in South India. Reg Environ Change 22, 72 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10113-022-01919-x
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10113-022-01919-x