Main Themes
- What are the principal constraints to just agroecological transitions? How can they be addressed?
- How has agroecology been understood by actors in Indian agriculture and what are the dynamic of the politics of knowledge and research around it?
- How have the frames of sustainability transitions featured in existing research on agroecology?
- Do existing theories of ‘sustainability transition’ apply in the Indian agricultural context?
- What adaptations would be required to decolonize or make them more relevant?
- What has been the nature of engagements (or their absence) between academia, CSOs and the State (federal and state) for sustainability transitions in agriculture?
- Do efforts replicate the Green Revolution model of top-down ‘expert’ driven extension or there is evidence of grassroots approaches?
- What are the pitfalls and power dynamics of scaling agroecology?
- How do the initiatives work around the intersectionality of caste, class, and gender dynamics?
- How included are agricultural labour, tenant farmers, women farmers, Adivasis, and other groups in rural society in the alternatives?
- Are best practices in sustainable agriculture sufficiently represented and documented?
- What is the state of assessment of the true costs of industrial style green revolution agriculture (externalities of environmental pollution; exploitative labour; compromised health and biodiversity)?
- How can the value of alternatives be assessed? What is the state of mechanisms such as payment for ecological services?
- How have ongoing social movements responded to the crisis in Indian agriculture?
- Do agroecological transitions, and the organizing principles of diversity, resilience and adaptation figure in the alternative imaginations presented by these social movements?
- How have existing agricultural markets shaped the crisis and how to create alternate marketing mechanisms?
- What role can policy instruments play in setting in motion sustainable transitions in agriculture?
- How can markets and consumer preferences be transformed to revalue diverse, nutritious, locally produced foods?
- What role might urban populations, infrastructure and geographies play in enabling sustainability transitions?
- What are the institutional changes required for sustainable transitions in agriculture?
- How should curriculum, pedagogy and research paradigms of existing universities, both agricultural and beyond, be reworked to foster such transitions?
