Agroecological transitions during COVID-19: evidence from Kerala, India

Abstract

ABSTRACT To emerge as a dominant socio-technological regime, agroecological transitions require supportive public policies and collective agroecological actions, with refinement in scientific/technological practices, cultures, markets, and user preferences. Using a multi-level perspective approach, this study inquires why the proper positioning of these determinants is substantial in transforming niche innovations in agroecology into a dominant regime by replacing vicious cycles associated with enriching agribusiness with virtuous cycles that support regional ecologies and communities. The models of agroecological transition during the pre-COVID-19 and COVID-19 periods in Kerala and how the political agroecological position during the latter period succeeded in enabling a transition were examined. Owing to the landscape turbulence caused by COVID-19, the Government of Kerala triggered the de/realignment of determinants toward agroecological transition through programs, strategies, and nudges using a bottom-up approach under the “Subhiksha Keralam” (Self Sufficient Kerala) project. At the agroecosystem level, Characteristics of Agroecological Transition was used to quantify the magnitude of transition, the results demonstrating an improvement in farms during the COVID-19 period. The majority of homestead farms were characterized as agroecological, either in transition or advanced. Agroecological transition became possible because the government systematically targeted user preferences and societal values, along with modifying policy and technology, through nudges, thereby preventing possible lock-ins.