Small Millets-Based Livelihoods and Actually Existing Markets in Andhra Pradesh, India by Sarah Carson A Thesis submitted to the Faculty of Graduate Studies of The University of Manitoba In partial fulfillment of the requirements of the degree of MASTER OF ARTS Individual Interdisciplinary Studies Department of Anthropology University of Manitoba Winnipeg, MB Copyright © 2015 by Sarah Carson Abstract The decline in cultivation and consumption of small millets crops seen across India in recent decades is a concern for many. These highly nutritious coarse grains hold significant cultural value as traditional foods for tribal farming populations and remain important contributors to regional agro-biodiversity. Born of out this concern, small millets have garnered recent attention as underutilized crops with potential to contribute to regional food and nutritional security through market development. By localizing small millets within the broader context of agricultural change, this work investigates links between cultivation, distribution and consumption – or the market chain – of small millet varieties in northern coastal Andhra Pradesh, India. Employing an interdisciplinary methodology drawing from anthropological and agribusiness approaches, this study conducts an in-depth, qualitative market chain analysis for finger millet and little millet varieties to produce a multi-sited ethnographic work on informal agricultural marketing in the case study area. In incorporating the political economic, historical and cultural dimensions of millets and other crops, this research teases out the complex relationships between food security, livelihoods, agricultural marketing and development interventions. This research aims to demonstrate how a holistic study of an agricultural commodity, which includes on-farm cultivation and consumption, can get at how smallholder farmers participate in local markets, in everyday practice, and how they engage with change. In connecting a traditional market chain analysis with detailed ethnographic study on the ground, we can see how farmers engage with markets embedded in particular historical and sociocultural contexts. Further, this work provides insights into the challenges of small millets-based livelihoods, going beyond the market to explore the many social institutions in which market participation is embedded. In doing so, I argue that nuanced approach to millets-based livelihoods, commercial crops and broader agrarian transition is necessary. Key words: small millets, food security, ecology of practice, nutrition-sensitive agriculture interventions, value chains development, embedded markets, sustainable livelihoods framework, South India.   ii Acknowledgements I would like to thank my advisor, Dr. Derek Johnson, and graduate committee members Dr. Kirit Patel, Dr. Derek Brewin and Dr. Mark Hudson for their guidance and support throughout the course of this research program. I would also like to thank my translator and research assistant Sharon Nadimidoddi, Dr. M.L. Sanyasi Rao, Salome Yesudas, and S. Kiran to whom I am indebted for their support and friendship. Finally, I would like to thank all of those in Araku Valley that welcomed me into their homes during my time in the field – and for lessons about agriculture, hospitality and friendship that I won’t soon forget. I acknowledge the generous financial support of the International Development Research Centre through its Canadian International Food Security Research Fund (CIFSRF) and the University of Manitoba through the University of Manitoba Graduate Fellowship (UMGF).   iii Table of Contents List of Figures ............................................................................................................................ vi Acronyms and Abbreviations ................................................................................................. vii Chapter 1: Introduction: To Market, to (Behind the) Market ..................................................... 1 1.1 Introduction .................................................................................................................... 1 1.2 Background on the RESMISA Project and the Case Study Area .................................. 4 1.3 Research Questions and Objectives ............................................................................... 9 1.4 Theoretical and Methodological Overview ................................................................. 10 1.5 Summary ...................................................................................................................... 12 Chapter 2: Theoretical Framework and Context of Study ........................................................ 13 2.1 Introduction: Grounding Field Research ..................................................................... 13 2.2 Theoretical Framework ................................................................................................ 14 2.2.1 Political Economy .............................................................................................. 14 2.2.2 Building bridges: Ecology of practice ............................................................... 16 2.2.3 Food Security ..................................................................................................... 19 2.2.4 Food Sovereignty ............................................................................................... 19 2.2.5 Sustainable Livelihoods Framework ................................................................. 21 2.2.6 Theorizing Markets ............................................................................................ 22 2.3 Context of Study .......................................................................................................... 27 2.3.1 Small Millets: A Brief Social and Political History of ...................................... 26 Underutilized and Neglected Species 2.3.2 Political Economic and Institutional Factors ..................................................... 29 2.3.2.1 History of Indian Agriculture and Development ..................................... 28 2.3.2.2 Socio-cultural Factors: Caste, Class, Gender and Adivasi Identity ......... 33 2.4 Summary ...................................................................................................................... 40 Chapter 3: Methodology .......................................................................................................... 42 3.1 Introduction: A Bridging of Methods .......................................................................... 41 3.2 Methodology and Initial Research Design ................................................................... 44 3.2.1 Value Chains Research for Development .......................................................... 44 3.2.2 Social Sciences Sensibilities .............................................................................. 47 3.2.3 Multi-sited Ethnography .................................................................................... 49 3.3 Research Plan and Methods ......................................................................................... 50 3.3.1 Defining the Field .............................................................................................. 52 3.3.2 Primary Methods ............................................................................................... 56 3.4 Summary ...................................................................................................................... 60 Chapter 4: The Ecology of Practice of Araku Valley ............................................................... 62 4.1 Introduction: Doing Ethnography ................................................................................ 62 4.2 Socioeconomic Characteristics .................................................................................... 64 4.3 Millets Cultivation in Araku Valley ............................................................................ 66 4.4 Consumption in Araku Valley ..................................................................................... 67 4.5 Village Case Study Descriptions ................................................................................. 69 4.6 Interventions: “So many schemes” .............................................................................. 72 4.6.1 Food Security/Consumption-side Interventions ................................................ 72 4.6.2 Agricultural Interventions – Production-side Interventions .............................. 75 4.6.3 Other Interventions ............................................................................................ 82 4.6.4 Marketing Interventions ..................................................................................... 83 4.7 Summary ...................................................................................................................... 85 Chapter 5: The Local Markets for Small Millets: A Description and Analysis ........................ 87 5.1 Introduction .................................................................................................................. 87   iv 5.2 Actually Existing Santhas ............................................................................................ 88 5.3 Market Structure .......................................................................................................... 91 5.3.1 Little Millet ........................................................................................................ 92 5.3.2 Finger Millet ...................................................................................................... 95 5.3.3 Girijan Cooperative Corporation (GCC) ........................................................... 96 5.3.4 Flows of Information ......................................................................................... 98 5.3.5 Millets-Rice Trading .......................................................................................... 98 5.3.6 Caste, Class and Gender in the Markets ............................................................ 99 5.3.7 Rythu Bazaars .................................................................................................. 100 5.3.8 Constraints and Opportunities ......................................................................... 101 5.4 Perceptions of Change in the Markets ....................................................................... 103 5.5 Contextualizing Markets and Practice in Embedded Markets ................................... 105 5.6 Summary .................................................................................................................... 106 Chapter 6: Changes in Cultivation and Consumption Practices ............................................. 108 6.1 Introduction: Through the Lens of Change ................................................................ 108 6.2 Perceptions of Reasons for Decline in Cultivation of Small Millets ......................... 111 6.3 Changes in Consumption and Market Participation: Village Comparison ................ 121 6.4 Summary .................................................................................................................... 124 Chapter 7: Moving Forward on a Bed of Change and Contradiction .................................... 126 7.1 Introduction ................................................................................................................ 126 7.2 Dilemmas ................................................................................................................... 127 7.3 Findings to Theory: Markets, Food Security and Livelihoods .................................. 129 7.4 Contextualizing the RESMISA Project within Agriculture-based ............................ 130 Food Security Projects 7.5 From Practice to Development Practice: Where to go from here? ............................ 135 7.6 Summary .................................................................................................................... 137 Chapter 8: Conclusion ............................................................................................................. 139 8.1 Introduction ................................................................................................................ 139 8.2 Key Findings .............................................................................................................. 140 8.3 Contributions ............................................................................................................. 144 8.4 Shortcomings and Recommendations for Future Research ....................................... 145 8.5 Summary .................................................................................................................... 146 9.0 Bibliography ..................................................................................................................... 148 10.0 Appendix: Research Instruments ................................................................................... 158   v List of Figures Figure 1: Map of Andhra Pradesh ............................................................................................... 7 Figure 2: Map of case study area, Araku Valley region ............................................................. 8 Figure 3: Market Chain for Little Millet ................................................................................. 100 Figure 4: Market Chain for Finger Millet ............................................................................... 100   vi Acronyms and Abbreviations BPL Below Poverty Line CIDA Canadian International Development Agency CIFSRF Canadian International Food Security Research Fund CSA Commodity Systems Analysis DFATD Department of Foreign Affairs, Trade and Development Canada FDI Foreign Direct Investment GCC Girijan Cooperative Corporation ICDS Integrated Childhood Development Service IFAD International Fund for Agricultural Development INSIMP Initiative for Nutritional Security through Intensive Millets Promotion program. ITDA Integrated Tribal Development Agency NFSM National Food Security Mission NGO Non-Governmental Organization NREGA National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme NTFP Non-Timber Forest Products NUS Neglected and Underutilized Species PDS Public Distribution System RESMISA Revalorizing small millets: Enhancing the food and nutritional security of women and children in rainfed regions of South Asia using underutilized species SLF Sustainable Livelihoods Framework SNP Supplementary Nutrition Program SRI System of Rice Intensification VCD Value Chains Development WASSAN Watershed Support Services and Activities Network   vii Chapter 1 Introduction “An interesting but difficult idea to explore is how changing patterns of livelihoods and consumption in particular influence and interact with the character and behaviour of markets in contemporary India.” - Vijayshankar and Krishnamurthy (2012:37) “Not only is market exchange an ambivalent phenomenon, but it is also extremely complex and specific because everywhere it is deeply embedded in social institutions” - Harriss-White (1999:2) 1.1 Introduction: To Market, to (Behind the) Market The decline in cultivation and consumption of small millets crops seen across India in recent decades has raised concern for food and nutritional security in many regions – and is an issue of great complexity. The purpose of this research was to examine the local markets for a group of neglected yet nutritious grains, small millets, to assess the opportunities to promote their cultivation and consumption, to improve the food security and livelihoods of tribal farming groups in South India while contributing to regional agro-biodiversity. The rationale for this ambitious study was multi-pronged and the methodology multi-disciplinary. This research evolved somewhat iteratively, as research does. Persistent themes continued to emerge over the course of the research, slowly changing the focus. How did a seemingly straightforward market analysis study balloon into a collection of stories of agrarian transition, change in lifestyle, and differing practices, perceptions and motivations held by farmers, traders and other actors in the case study area? This was the story behind the market. By localizing small millets within the broader context of agricultural change, this work investigates links between cultivation, distribution and consumption – or the market   1 chain – of two small millet varieties in a mountainous agricultural region of Northern Andhra Pradesh, India. Weekly rural agricultural markets, known locally as santhas, in this context represent an important linkage between small millets cultivation and consumption practices with greater questions of food security, livelihoods, government schemes and development interventions. While recognizing this central role that markets play in agricultural livelihoods, this research shows that neoclassical understandings of economic decision-making are not always able to explain decisions to participate in markets at the household or regional level. This project represents an attempt to carefully unravel the linkages between the political economic and institutional factors that influence Indian agriculture, cultivation and consumption practices, rural livelihoods, and food security through an examination of these local weekly markets. This effort, in part, is premised on the supposition that state intervention since the green revolution era has distorted local practice, resulting in a shift away from the cultivation and consumption of traditional small millets. Market development experts assume that institutional factors shaping both millets cultivation practices (supply) and consumption practices (demand) should then come together in the market system. However, the functioning of local agricultural markets is complex, and is further complicated by a history of intervention and agrarian social change. This research argues that the convergence of cultivation and consumption in the market system should not be taken for granted. The limits of this convergence mean that market interventions will not necessarily have the desired impacts on cultivation and consumption practices – this relationship is not symmetrical. My objective was to see how these many different factors – such as the longstanding practice of distributing ration rice and the promotion of cash crops – were affecting the local markets for millets in terms of constraints and opportunities. And, along with that, I sought to find out how these factors were affecting production and consumption practice at the farm   2 level. In the end, I came out with a collection of stories that demonstrate how markets are changing, and how millets practice is changing alongside a more widespread change in lifestyle. These are stories from farmers, traders and other actors experiencing these changes in agricultural production and consumption practices. And beyond this, I explore how farmers are reacting to and negotiating with changes in the market for small millets as demand for these grains has increased outside of the local area only in very recent years. How these changes in the market have affected local practice, especially consumption practice, plays out in a somewhat surprising manner: surprising both in terms of the variance in practice – completely different consumption practice in two village case studies – and surprising in terms of the richness that emerged in interpreting the reasons behind this difference. In the field and during analysis phases of this research, I struggled with certain dilemmas with respect to the RESMISA project objectives and activities – and the potential application of value chain interventions in this context. As I discuss later, there is an inherent contradiction present when we ponder interventions for value addition and to increase local consumption in the same breath. From a theoretical point of view, creating space for reflexivity and negotiation with these dilemmas adds a certain richness to a study in the social sciences. But, equally, the practicality of implementing funded interventions requires researchers and practitioners to first understand what is going on the ground – and what people are doing in practice – if they want to come to understand the potential and real outcomes of interventions. A solid, documented understanding of how people relate to markets is why every market intervention necessitates chain analysis. I argue that in connecting a traditional market chain analysis with detailed ethnographic study on the ground, we can see how farmers engage with markets embedded in particular historical and sociocultural contexts.   3