The labor of agrodiversity in a Moroccan oasis

Bibliographic Data

ID2157175
AuthorsKaren Rignall, Karen E Rignall (0000-0002-4320-9897, corresponding author)
Year2016
Volume43
Issue3
Pages711-730
Publication date2016-05-03
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueThe Journal of Peasant Studies (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0306-6150 • E-ISSN: 1743-9361
PublisherInforma UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1080/03066150.2015.1034112
OpenAlexW2037665011
LanguageEN
Citations received10
References cited48

This paper examines the recent history of peasant farming in a Moroccan oasis to reflect on the relationship between agrodiversity, labor and tradition in contemporary smallholder systems. Many agrarian scholars and food sovereignty activists emphasize the role of peasant farmers in protecting agricultural biodiversity. This paper argues that certain kinds of agrodiversity may in fact be 'new', a product of recent agrarian transformations that adapt and in some cases reject agricultural traditions. Ethnographic research in pre-Saharan Morocco found that some households used migration remittances to experiment with new crops and produce for the market for the first time. In recognizing the ambivalent relationship peasant farmers may have towards tradition, this paper contends that it is important to locate a political economy of agrodiversity in the larger context of the contemporary agrarian question and to relate agrodiversity to the changing labor regimes that enable peasant farming systems

Agrarian society · Agrarian system · Agriculture · Context (archaeology · Economic system · Economics · Economy · Food security · Food sovereignty · Geography · Peasant · Political economy · Political science · Politics · Product (mathematics · Sociology · Agriculture and Rural Development Research · Agriculture, Land Use, Rural Development · Land Rights and Reforms · Law

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