The impacts on Indian farmers when converting to organic cotton production : an organisation theory perspective
Changes in the environment are affecting the world market, and pressures from several stakeholders’ are forcing different enterprises to adjust to the current situation. Farmers’ difficult working conditions and environmental impacts of the conventional cotton production in India have been highlight...
| Autores principales: | , |
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| Formato: | M2 |
| Lenguaje: | Inglés sueco |
| Publicado: |
SLU/Dept. of Economics
2013
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| Materias: |
| _version_ | 1855571000593219584 |
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| author | Hedin , Malena Mashouri, Mastaneh |
| author_browse | Hedin , Malena Mashouri, Mastaneh |
| author_facet | Hedin , Malena Mashouri, Mastaneh |
| author_sort | Hedin , Malena |
| collection | Epsilon Archive for Student Projects |
| description | Changes in the environment are affecting the world market, and pressures from several stakeholders’ are forcing different enterprises to adjust to the current situation. Farmers’ difficult working conditions and environmental impacts of the conventional cotton production in India have been highlighted. The small-scale production that is characterising India’s cotton farmers implies an insufficient competition power. Conventional farming is thus, and due to high input costs, leaving farmers with a low and uncertain income. A suicide wave was reported by media, as a consequence of the high debts that the farmers ended up with when borrowing money to afford the chemicals.
By interviewing six farmers about the change to organic certified cotton production, this thesis takes an organisational perspective to investigate farmers’ living and working situation. Through semi structured interviews, qualitative data from six farmers in Warangal, district of Andhra Pradesh in India, was collected.
The thesis concludes that the main differences of the change to organic cotton production are the pest control and the fertilising process, since organic production implies no use of synthetic chemicals. In order for a farmer to go through with the change new information and knowledge is required, and which the study states is a limiting resource that farmers need help with. Thus, different NGOs are working to support farmers in the changing process. However, the corporation with an organisation will put farmers in a new situation where they need to adjust to a third party.
Throughout the interviews it became clear that the farmers’ main reasons to go through with the change were to receive a higher and more secure income. In conjunction with the change the farmers became a part of a network, which they highly appreciate. The network provides them with access to knowledge and also a better power on the market, since they are buying their inputs and selling their harvest in a group. The change has further, mainly affected the farmers basic needs, this has probably to do with their difficulties in meeting those before the change. As a result of the change, some farmers did however state that they also feel more self-confident. |
| format | M2 |
| id | RepoSLU6384 |
| institution | Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences |
| language | Inglés swe |
| publishDate | 2013 |
| publishDateSort | 2013 |
| publisher | SLU/Dept. of Economics |
| publisherStr | SLU/Dept. of Economics |
| record_format | eprints |
| spelling | RepoSLU63842014-01-30T09:41:52Z The impacts on Indian farmers when converting to organic cotton production : an organisation theory perspective Hedin , Malena Mashouri, Mastaneh India cotton organisational change organic cotton conventional cotton agricultural Maslow's need of hierarchy Principal-agent NGO Changes in the environment are affecting the world market, and pressures from several stakeholders’ are forcing different enterprises to adjust to the current situation. Farmers’ difficult working conditions and environmental impacts of the conventional cotton production in India have been highlighted. The small-scale production that is characterising India’s cotton farmers implies an insufficient competition power. Conventional farming is thus, and due to high input costs, leaving farmers with a low and uncertain income. A suicide wave was reported by media, as a consequence of the high debts that the farmers ended up with when borrowing money to afford the chemicals. By interviewing six farmers about the change to organic certified cotton production, this thesis takes an organisational perspective to investigate farmers’ living and working situation. Through semi structured interviews, qualitative data from six farmers in Warangal, district of Andhra Pradesh in India, was collected. The thesis concludes that the main differences of the change to organic cotton production are the pest control and the fertilising process, since organic production implies no use of synthetic chemicals. In order for a farmer to go through with the change new information and knowledge is required, and which the study states is a limiting resource that farmers need help with. Thus, different NGOs are working to support farmers in the changing process. However, the corporation with an organisation will put farmers in a new situation where they need to adjust to a third party. Throughout the interviews it became clear that the farmers’ main reasons to go through with the change were to receive a higher and more secure income. In conjunction with the change the farmers became a part of a network, which they highly appreciate. The network provides them with access to knowledge and also a better power on the market, since they are buying their inputs and selling their harvest in a group. The change has further, mainly affected the farmers basic needs, this has probably to do with their difficulties in meeting those before the change. As a result of the change, some farmers did however state that they also feel more self-confident. Miljöförändringar påverkar världsmarknaden och påtryckningar från olika intressenter driver olika företag till att anpassa sig nuvarande situationen. Miljöpåverkan av den konventionella bomullen samt böndernas dåliga arbetsförhållanden har uppmärksammats. Bomullsodlingarna i Indien präglas av småskalighet, vilket innebär att bönderna får en låg konkurrenskraft på marknaden. De höga kostnaderna för insatsvarorna i det konventionella jordbruket ger bönderna en låg och osäker inkomst. Media rapporterade för några år sedan om en självmordsvåg bland bomullsodlare i Indien, som en följd av de höga skulderna från de dyra kemikalierna i det konventionella jordbruket. Intervjuerna i uppsatsen antar ett organisationsteoretiskt perspektiv, där jordbrukarnas syn på förändringen till en ekologisk certifierad bomullsproduktion har undersökts med ett fokus på förändringarna i deras familj- och arbetssituation. Kvalitativ data har samlats in genom semi-strukturerade intervjuer från sex bomullsbönder i Warangal, ett distrikt i Andhra Pradesh i Indien. Studien bekräftar att de huvudsakliga förändringarna med övergången var skadedjursförändringen samt gödslingsprocessen, som numera göras utan syntetiska kemikalier. För att en jordbrukare ska kunna genomföra förändringen kräver hen tillgång till ny kunskap. Studien visade även att kunskap är en begränsande resurser för bönderna och att en förändring kräver hjälp utifrån. Flertalet frivilligorganisationer arbetar därmed med att hjälpa bönderna. Detta innebär dock att bönderna hamnar i en situation där de måste anpassa sig till en annan part. De intervjuade böndernas främsta orsak till att börja odla ekologiskt var för att få en högre och säkrare inkomst. Förändringen gav även bönderna tillgång till ett nytt nätverk, vilket visade sig vara högt värderat av dem. Nätverket ger bönderna tillgång till kunskap, men även en möjlighet till en starkare marknadskraft, då bönderna i nätverket tillsammans köper sina insatsvaror och säljer sin bomull. Förändringen har huvudsakligen påverkat jordbrukarnas möjligheter till att uppfylla människans grundläggande behov, förmodligen då det fanns svårigheter i att uppfylla dessa behov redan före förändringen. Förändringen tycks dock även ha påverkat några bönder till att känna sig mer självsäkra. SLU/Dept. of Economics 2013 M2 eng swe https://stud.epsilon.slu.se/6384/ |
| spellingShingle | India cotton organisational change organic cotton conventional cotton agricultural Maslow's need of hierarchy Principal-agent NGO Hedin , Malena Mashouri, Mastaneh The impacts on Indian farmers when converting to organic cotton production : an organisation theory perspective |
| title | The impacts on Indian farmers when converting to organic cotton production : an organisation theory perspective |
| title_full | The impacts on Indian farmers when converting to organic cotton production : an organisation theory perspective |
| title_fullStr | The impacts on Indian farmers when converting to organic cotton production : an organisation theory perspective |
| title_full_unstemmed | The impacts on Indian farmers when converting to organic cotton production : an organisation theory perspective |
| title_short | The impacts on Indian farmers when converting to organic cotton production : an organisation theory perspective |
| title_sort | impacts on indian farmers when converting to organic cotton production : an organisation theory perspective |
| topic | India cotton organisational change organic cotton conventional cotton agricultural Maslow's need of hierarchy Principal-agent NGO |