Investigating resilience of agriculture and food systems

299 Pages·2014·3.57 MB·English

Investigating resilience of agriculture and food systems:
Insights from two theories and two case studies

Angga Dwiartama

A thesis submitted for the degree of
Doctor of Philosophy
at the University of Otago
Dunedin, New Zealand
February 2014
ABSTRACT

There has been a growing concern described in the literature for the sustainability and resilience
of agriculture and food (agrifood) sector towards local and global shocks. Resilience, defined in
this context, is the ability of a system or society to recover from crisis while maintaining its
function and identity. This thesis identifies two contrasting perspectives influencing
contemporary resilience thinking and debated in the literature: one emphasises resilience as a
system’s emergent property, and the other emphasises the agency of the system’s components to
actively shape the system to be resilient.
In response to those perspectives and drawing their significance to the agrifood sector, this
thesis seeks to clarify and understand what ‘resilience’ means for agrifood systems in the
context of local and global changes. It does so by offering a novel theoretical framework in
which resilience thinking is in dialogue with two social theoretical approaches that are
commonly recognised (albeit usually as contradictory perspectives) in agrifood studies: food
regime theory and actor-network theory (ANT). This framework facilitates the assessment of
resilience in different agrifood systems by bridging the conflicting perspectives within resilience
thinking by means of a theoretical pluralism. The application of this theoretical framework
illustrates how resilience is influenced by both a global structure that rises and declines in
response to social, economic and environmental drivers, as well as local actors (both humans
and material objects) that, through their relational effects, perform agency to enhance the
adaptive capacity of the society.
The theoretical framework is examined empirically through case studies of two agrifood
systems: Indonesia’s rice agriculture and the New Zealand kiwifruit industry. Data was collected
from official documents, published reports and semi-structured interviews with 61 participants
as representatives of various stakeholders of the two agrifood systems.
The findings of this thesis illustrate that both agrifood systems have demonstrated resilience
towards various shocks, but in different ways in response to differing variables. Food regime
analysis suggests both that resilience of the two agrifood systems is influenced by the
expansions and contractions of the global food regimes over the course of their development
and, to some extent, that each agrifood system shaped the trajectories of the food regimes in
which they reside. However, food regime theory fails to address the idiosyncrasies that occur
and the agency of local actors in shaping the resilience of the systems. Analysis through ANT
enables a closer look at how networks of human and non-human actors adapt to the shocks at a
particular time and in a particular space. Findings indicate that the multiplicity of rice creates a
diversity of meanings and actions by which resilience is enacted in the broad context of
Indonesia, while kiwifruit facilitates a process of transformative resilience within the industry in
New Zealand as a means to adapt to changing circumstances and shocks.
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This thesis finds that, firstly, resilience is a dynamic, multi-dimensional, context-dependent
process; secondly, different contemporary theoretical models focus on different aspects while
over-looking others; and thirdly, therefore, resilience cannot be accurately gauged through
generic models and measures. It concludes that resilience needs to be assessed using multiple
tools that take account of and accommodate the uniqueness of each agriculture and food system.
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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

The journey that I have taken to write this thesis has become a meeting point of two great minds
and characters: Professor Hugh Campbell and Dr. Chris Rosin, to whom I would like to express
my utmost gratitude. As my primary supervisor, Hugh has given me his guidance from the
moment I stepped my foot in the university. He is like the grand theory by which this thesis is
inspired; a light through which I explore the new world of sociology. Chris, on the other hand,
has become my mentor, dedicating his time and energy to patiently guide me all the way
through my doctoral study. During this process, the relationships become something more of
colleagues than just ‘student and supervisor’. I enjoyed every moment of the supervisory
meetings, late night discussions before conference presentations, warm and entertaining
conversations and reading pages of helpful comments in my drafts. I also thank the three
examiners that have given very helpful and constructive comments for this thesis.
I would also like to thank the New Zealand Aid Development Scholarships (NZDS) for the
opportunity it has given me to come to Dunedin and finish my doctoral study here at the
University of Otago. In particular, my sincere gratitude goes to Rebecca Connaughton and
Claire Quested from the International Office as well as Rebecca Guest from the Scholarship
Office that, for the past three years, have helped me with advice and support in many things.
The fieldwork, in particular, has been a valuable experience for me, during which I engaged
with wonderful people and places both in West Java, Indonesia and Tauranga, New Zealand. I
would like to thank the ARGOS Project for providing me with funding and support, as well as
Dr. Jayson Benge for his warm welcome and willingness to spend time to introduce me to the
participants for the study in the New Zealand kiwifruit industry. Likewise, Professor Bustanul
Arifin and Dr. Rini Soemarwoto have helped me, not only with their network and access to
many institutions in Indonesia, but also with their valuable insights to Indonesia’s rice
agriculture.
This thesis also reflects my scientific engagement with academics and scholars in the field of
agrifood studies. I was fortunate that I could meet these scholars in person and share my ideas
with them over three annual Australasian Agrifood Research Network (AFRN) conferences, in
Canberra, Palmerston North and Melbourne, and one World Congress of Rural Sociology in
Lisbon, Portugal. I would also like to acknowledge the Asia:NZ Foundation’s Young Leaders
Network in providing me funding to attend the latest conference in Melbourne in 2013.
Writing this thesis over the past three years has become a mental exercise for me. Fortunately, I
had my fellow students and staff at the Centre for Sustainability supporting me all the way
through. Thanks for the morning tea and challenging super quizzes that inspired me to go to the
office everyday. My warmest gratitude, admiration and respect go to Cinzia Piatti and David
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McKay, my fellow PhD students, with whom I shared ideas together. I owe a great debt to them
in providing me valuable comments and constructive discussions in the making of this thesis.
Finally, this thesis is dedicated to the two greatest people in my life – my partner Dyah Utanti
and my daughter Pertiwi Matauranga, without whom I would have never finished this long
journey of doctoral study. They inspired me to persevere and aim for the future we are building
together. Terima kasih.

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

ABSTRACT ........................................................................................................................... i
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ................................................................................................. iii
TABLE OF CONTENTS ....................................................................................................... v
LIST OF TABLES .............................................................................................................viii
LIST OF FIGURES ............................................................................................................viii

PART I: INTRODUCTION ................................................................................................... 1

CHAPTER 1 NEW PERSPECTIVES: TOWARDS SUSTAINABLE FOOD SYSTEMS .... 2
1. 1. Setting the scene ...................................................................................................... 2
1. 2. Resilience: an emerging concept .............................................................................. 3
1. 3. The research questions: resilience of agrifood systems ............................................ 5
1. 4. Re-statement of the thesis purpose ........................................................................... 9

PART II: INSIGHTS FROM TWO THEORIES ................................................................. 11

CHAPTER 2 THE EVOLUTION OF RESILIENCE THINKING ..................................... 12
2. 1. Introduction ........................................................................................................... 12
2. 2. Resilience as a system property ............................................................................. 14
2. 3. Understanding the social in resilience thinking ...................................................... 28
2. 4. Concluding remarks: limitations of resilience thinking .......................................... 33

CHAPTER 3 EMBRACING THE SOCIAL OF AGRICULTURE AND FOOD ................ 36
3.1. Introduction ........................................................................................................... 36
3.2. Genealogy of sociology of agriculture and food ..................................................... 37
3.3. Food regime theory ............................................................................................... 42
3.4. Actor network theory ............................................................................................. 46
3.5. Concluding remark: towards a dialogue between theories ...................................... 50

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CHAPTER 4 AN ONTOLOGICAL JOURNEY TOWARDS A MULTIPLE-PARADIGM
RESEARCH ...................................................................................................... 53
4.1. Introduction ........................................................................................................... 53
4.2. Engaging with paradigms ...................................................................................... 54
4.3. Finding a common ground ..................................................................................... 64
4.4. Setting the context for the case studies ................................................................... 70
4.5. Concluding remarks: limitations and positionality ................................................. 79

PART III: INSIGHTS FROM TWO CASE STUDIES ....................................................... 81

CHAPTER 5 FROM GLOBAL TO LOCAL: THE NEW ZEALAND KIWIFRUIT
INDUSTRY AND INDONESIA’S RICE AGRICULTURE WITHIN THE
GLOBAL FOOD REGIMES ............................................................................. 82
5.1. Introduction ........................................................................................................... 82
5.2. Global Food Structures .......................................................................................... 83
5.3. New Zealand Kiwifruit Industry ............................................................................ 95
5.4. Rice Agriculture in Indonesia .............................................................................. 108
5.5. Conclusions ......................................................................................................... 119

CHAPTER 6 THE MULTIPLICITY OF RICE IN INDONESIA’S AGRIFOOD SYSTEM122
6.1. Introduction ......................................................................................................... 122
6.2. Rice Varieties ...................................................................................................... 124
6.3. Assemblage of multiple actors ............................................................................. 142
6.4. What has become of rice? .................................................................................... 156
6.5. Concluding remark: the resilience of rice ............................................................. 171

CHAPTER 7 RESILIENCE AND TRANSFORMATIONS IN THE NEW ZEALAND
KIWIFRUIT INDUSTRY ............................................................................... 172
7. 1. Introduction ......................................................................................................... 172
7. 2. Where it all began ............................................................................................... 175
7. 3. On being different ............................................................................................... 182
7. 4. Embracing the future ........................................................................................... 194
7. 5. Concluding remark: transforming kiwifruit .......................................................... 215
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CHAPTER 8 WHAT IS RESILIENCE IN THE CONTEXT OF THE CASE STUDIES? 217
8.1. Introduction ......................................................................................................... 217
8.2. A food regime analysis of agrifood systems’ resilience ........................................ 218
8.3. A closer look at resilience: of agency and socio-material relations ....................... 238
8.4. Concluding remark .............................................................................................. 249

PART IV: SYNTHESIS .................................................................................................... 250

CHAPTER 9 CONCLUSIONS ........................................................................................ 251
9. 1. Resilience of agrifood systems: a synthesis .......................................................... 251
9. 2. A constructive dialogue between three theories ................................................... 254
9. 3. Future ontological journey ................................................................................... 257

BIBLIOGRAPHY ............................................................................................................. 260
APPENDIX ..……………………………………………………………………………….284

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LIST OF TABLES

Table 4.1. Basic beliefs of alternative inquiry paradigms .................................................... 57
Table 4.2. Matrix of complexity and inquiry paradigms ..................................................... 65
Table 5.1. Characteristics of food regimes based on features presented in the theory .......... 84
Table 6.1. Characteristics of three subspecies of Oryza sativa .......................................... 127
Table 6.2. Farmers’ recollections of major pest outbreaks, 2008-2010 .............................. 149
Table 8.2. An indication of the agrifood systems’ resilience as assessed with food regime
analysis ........................................................................................................... 237

LIST OF FIGURES

CHAPTER 2

Figure 2.2. Multiple basins of attraction; the system is represented as a small dot; ............... 19
Figure 2.3. Adaptive renewal cycle. ..................................................................................... 21
Figure 2.4. The Adaptive cycle as illustrated in three-dimensional heuristic model .............. 23
Figure 2.5. Example of nested hierarchy in an ecosystem, showing logarithmic time and
space scales of boreal forest .............................................................................. 25
Figure 2.6. Cross-scale dynamics in Panarchy ..................................................................... 27

CHAPTER 4

Figure 4.1. A two-way approach in assessing the resilience of agrifood systems .................. 70
Figure 4.2. Map of West Java province showing three research locations ............................ 74
Figure 4.3. Map of part of New Zealand showing the kiwifruit growing regions .................. 76

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CHAPTER 5

Figure 5.1. Increase in New Zealand kiwifruit production and export between 1971 and 1983
....................................................................................................................... 102
Figure 5.2. Share of total kiwifruit production area in 1983 ............................................... 103
Figure 5.3. New Zealand kiwifruit export to its principal markets, 1971 – 1983 ................. 104
Figure 5.4. New Zealand kiwifruit production, 1963 – 1995 .............................................. 104
Figure 5.5. Inflation adjusted world market rice prices, 1950 – 2001 ................................. 116

CHAPTER 6

Figure 6.1. Map of Halimun-Salak National Park .............................................................. 130
Figure 6.2. The road taken to access Kasepuhan ................................................................ 130
Figure 6.3. (a) Leuit used to store rice in bundles; (b) Leuit si jimat, a communal barn ...... 134
Figure 6.4. A Billboard advertising a pesticide product in pantura .................................... 152
Figure 6.5. Different types of rice in the local market ........................................................ 160
Figure 6.6. An example of organic rice produced in Subang .............................................. 170

CHAPTER 7

Figure 7.1. Mapping the transformations of the kiwifruit actor-network ............................ 175
Figure 7.2. An example of guidelines made by KVH as an interessement device for growers
....................................................................................................................... 208
Figure 7.3. Summary of NPMP growers’ poll by regions ................................................... 210

CHAPTER 8

Figure 8.1. Adaptive cycles in the global food regimes; each colour strip represents phases in
the cycle.......................................................................................................... 222
Figure 8.2. Adaptive cycles in the New Zealand kiwifruit industry .................................... 224
Figure 8.3. Adaptive cycles in Indonesia’s rice agriculture ................................................ 225
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