Food Security and Traditional Knowledge in India: The Issues

Vicziany, Marika; Plahe, Jagjit Kaur

doi:10.1080/00856401.2017.1342181

Cited by 9 publications

(7 citation statements)

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“…The estimated losses in fruits and vegetables are even higher and have reached 40% of the total produce. These high percentages of losses are not desirable in India and have affected the economy adversely (Vicziany and Plahe, 2017; Hegazy, 2013). The issue of production losses in a country like India has a more profound impact on the economy, as the agriculture sector contributes only 25% of the country’s GDP, while it uses nearly two-thirds of India’s population.…”

Section: Literature Reviewmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The integration of the agriculture industry with the rest of the world has necessitated the agri-supply chain to evolve and respond to new market realities. Evolving forces have impacted policy-making, and the outlook of government agencies toward private investments, encouraging them in agriculture marketing and infrastructure while inviting new players to promote coordinated supply chain and traceability (Vicziany and Plahe, 2017).…”

Section: Current State Of Food Supply Chain In Indiamentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Additionally, these Mandis are supposed to offer the farmers' a fair price with complete transparency. Still, the system on the ground compelled the farmers to accept whatever rates they are offered, as they cannot afford to hold the sale and/or take them back due to a lack of storage facilities, as that would incur additional costs (Vicziany and Plahe, 2017).…”

Section: Current State Of Food Supply Chain In Indiamentioning

confidence: 99%

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How blockchain technology can be a sustainable infrastructure for the agrifood supply chain in developing countries

Kumar

Srivastava

Singh

2022

JGOSS

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Purpose This study aims to formulate a conceptual sustainable framework for developing a trusted, reliable, scalable, transparent, traceable and sustainable agri-food supply chain in a developing country so that it minimizes wastage and increases the efficiency levels of agri-produce and its usage. Design/methodology/approach This study uses a rigorous review of extant literature, case studies and the interview method for theory building, using blockchain technology (BT) as a subject. Further, the study builds a framework to relate blockchain solutions to the challenges faced by the agri-supply chain. Notably, the use of BT in the agri-food supply chain is a relatively new area of study. Findings Limitations of using BT 3.0 in a diverse supply chain like the food sector, especially in a developing country such as India, may be overcome by adopting BT 4.0 and could change the country’s face by controlling inefficiencies and ensuring transparency, helping in good governance, improving the humanitarian supply chain and integrating the bottom of the pyramid to the main economy. Based on the findings, this study proposes BT 4.0 for the agri-supply chain in India to deal with the current issues of demand-supply gap, wastages of agri-produce, unequal distribution of profit among agriproduct producers and logistics suppliers and ensuring sustainability. Research limitations/implications Results in this study have been derived from a specific demographic condition in India. Future research with other demographic conditions may be replicated. BT is a new technology product, and its effectiveness is yet to be established. Practical implications The outcome of this study provides the application of BT 4.0 in the area of the agri-food supply chain. The BT 4.0 framework has been developed on studying a few cases that either implemented BT or were in the testing phase. The benefits of the agri-food supply chain vis-à-vis its overall social well-being may be achieved on the successful implementation of the framework, despite existing complexities in the food supply chain. Further research on this subject may help the other dimensions of the complexity of adopting BT 4.0. Both practitioners and policymakers from developing countries can, therefore, use the findings of this study to analyze BT 4.0 and address the concerns of the agri-food supply chain. Originality/value This research paper has proposed a conceptual framework of BT 4.0, which is a completely new technology. It is fairly transparent, and therefore sustainable supply chain practices may be achieved easily.

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Section: Literature Reviewmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Current State Of Food Supply Chain In Indiamentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Current State Of Food Supply Chain In Indiamentioning

confidence: 99%

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How blockchain technology can be a sustainable infrastructure for the agrifood supply chain in developing countries

Kumar

Srivastava

Singh

2022

JGOSS

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“…In extending the context in which to understand the benefits and limitations of Co-viSelf, we have drawn on our own research published in peer-reviewed international journals and books. Vicziany has published on the poverty and marginalisation of Dalits (former 'untouchables') [60], the family planning program [61,62], food security [63][64][65], Koli villages in Mumbai [66] and rural health [29,43,47], including work on the potential of point-of-care blood testing in villages [29,43]. Hardikar has reported extensively on questions of rural poverty, co-authored work with Vicziany on poor farmers, agriculture and health [29,43] and has published two books on India's farming crisis [30,67].…”

Section: The Conditions Of Life In Rural Indiamentioning

confidence: 99%

Can Self-Administered Rapid Antigen Tests (RATs) Help Rural India? An Evaluation of the CoviSelf Kit as a Response to the 2019–2022 COVID-19 Pandemic

Vicziany

Hardikar

2022

Diagnostics

Self Cite

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This paper evaluates India’s first officially approved self-administered rapid antigen test kit against COVID-19, a device called CoviSelf. The context is rural India. Rapid antigen tests (RATs) are currently popular in situations where vaccination rates are low, where sections of the community remain unvaccinated, where the COVID-19 pandemic continues to grow and where easy or timely access to RTPCR (reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction) testing is not an option. Given that rural residents make up 66% of the Indian population, our evaluation focuses on the question of whether this self-administered RAT could help protect villagers and contain the Indian pandemic. CoviSelf has two components: the test and IT (information technology) parts. Using discourse analysis, a qualitative methodology, we evaluate the practicality of the kit on the basis of data in its instructional leaflet, reports about India’s ‘digital divide’ and our published research on the constraints of daily life in Indian villages. This paper does not provide a scientific assessment of the effectiveness of CoviSelf in detecting infection. As social scientists, our contribution sits within the field of qualitative studies of medical and health problems. Self-administered RATs are cheap, quick and reasonably reliable. Hence, point-of-care testing at the doorsteps of villagers has much potential, but realising the benefits of innovative, diagnostic medical technologies requires a realistic understanding of the conditions in Indian villages and designing devices that work in rural situations. This paper forms part of a larger project regarding the COVID-19 pandemic in rural India. A follow-up study based on fieldwork is planned for 2022–2023.

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“…However, acquiring such knowledge is not quite a seamless process of historical transmission. Inter-generational learning can be threatened, even ruptured, at any time by the lure of epistemologies associated with new crop technologies promoted by powerful interests such as state agencies, corporations, and external experts (Vicziany and Plahe 2016). Green Revolution modernizers promised farmers that exchanging their indigenous seeds for industrially produced varieties would secure them higher yields, profits, and incomes, but this process also involved screening out the knowledge associated with local seeds and agroecological variety (Saha and Schmalzer 2016).…”

Section: ‘Everything In Agriculture Begins and Ends With The Seed’mentioning

confidence: 99%

‘Our Grandmother Used to Sing Whilst Weeding’: Oral histories, millet food culture, and farming rituals among women smallholders in Ramanagara district, Karnataka

Hazareesingh¹

2020

Mod. Asian Stud.

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The cultural and historical dimensions of rural lives matter. However, development practitioners and writings tend to play down these aspects. This article demonstrates the significance of oral history in revealing the meanings of women smallholders’ millet-based foodways in southern India. It argues that women farmers’ cultural practices around food constitute fundamental ‘capabilities’ nurtured over a long historical duration, and are essential to any meaningful articulation of ‘development’. Drawing on age-old spiritual beliefs and practices involving non-human entities, the women demonstrate fine-tuned skills in nurturing seeds and growing crops, in preparing and cooking food, and in discerning food tastes, particularly in relation to the local staple ragi, or finger millet. They also express their creativity in the joys of performing songs and farming rituals linked to the agricultural cycle. In this way, cultural capabilities express significant dimensions of women's agency exercised in the intimately related spheres of food and farming. Oral history thus emerges as a research method capable of generating insights into concrete manifestations of culture over a significant historical duration, one that is particularly conducive to reclaiming the voices and life experiences of subaltern groups such as women smallholders who are either not heard or are marginalized in written contemporary and historical documentary records.

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Food Security and Traditional Knowledge in India: The Issues

Cited by 9 publications

References 0 publications

How blockchain technology can be a sustainable infrastructure for the agrifood supply chain in developing countries

How blockchain technology can be a sustainable infrastructure for the agrifood supply chain in developing countries

Can Self-Administered Rapid Antigen Tests (RATs) Help Rural India? An Evaluation of the CoviSelf Kit as a Response to the 2019–2022 COVID-19 Pandemic

‘Our Grandmother Used to Sing Whilst Weeding’: Oral histories, millet food culture, and farming rituals among women smallholders in Ramanagara district, Karnataka

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