The ox fall down

• Verfasst von: Stone, Glenn Davis [VerfasserIn]
• Verfasst von: Flachs, Andrew [VerfasserIn]
• Titel: The ox fall down
• Titelzusatz: path-breaking and technology treadmills in Indian cotton agriculture
• Verf.angabe: Glenn Davis Stone & Andrew Flachs
• E-Jahr: 2018
• Jahr: 26 Apr 2017
• Jahr des Originals: 2017
• Umfang: 25 S.
• Fussnoten: Gesehen am 17.04.2020
• Titel Quelle: Enthalten in: The journal of peasant studies
• Ort Quelle: London : Cass, 1973
• Jahr Quelle: 2018
• Band/Heft Quelle: 45(2018), 7, Seite 1272-1296
• ISSN Quelle: 1743-9361
• DOI: doi:10.1080/03066150.2017.1291505
• Datenträger: Online-Ressource
• Sprache: eng
• Sach-SW: Agricultural industrialization
• Sach-SW: biotechnology
• Sach-SW: knowledge production
• Sach-SW: path dependency
• K10plus-PPN: 1694849163

Abstract

Although India’s cotton sector has been penetrated by various input- and capital-intensive methods, penetration by herbicide has been largely stymied. In Telangana State, the main obstacle has been the practice of ‘double-lining’, in which cotton plants are spaced widely to allow weeding by ox-plow. Path dependency theory primarily explains the persistence of sub-optimal practices, but double-lining is an example of an advantageous path for cash-poor farmers. However, it is being actively undermined by parties intent on expanding herbicide markets and opening a niche for next-generation genetically modified cotton. We use the case to explicate the role of treadmills in technology ‘lock-in’. We also examine how an adaptive locked-in path may be broken by external interests, drawing on recent analyses of ‘didactic’ learning by farmers.