Doctoral Dissertation Research: Linking the Green and White Revolutions Through Gender-Related Analyses of Dairy Development in Western India

University Of Iowa, Iowa City IA

Investigators

Abstract

India's white revolution, the development of a grassroots dairy industry with strong participation by women's cooperatives, has been justifiably celebrated as a successful effort to provide income and employment to the rural poor. The success of dairying in the Kheda district of Gujarat state in western India has not been readily replicated elsewhere, however. In the nearby Khargone district of Madhya Pradesh, for example, diarying has met with relatively little success despite support from the World Bank and the European Economic Community. The failure of dairy development in Khargone was especially troubling to planners because both Kheda and Khargone had very similar experiences with the Green Revolution, registering marked increases in agricultural productivity through hybrid seeds, chemical fertilizers, large-scale irrigation technologies, and mechanization of harvesting and plowing. This doctoral dissertation research project examines the hypothesis that dairy success outside of Kheda district is best explained by differences in gender equality linked to divergent histories of Green Revolution development despite apparent similarities. The doctoral candidate will use ethnographic and time-geographic techniques to conduct a comparative analysis of gender equality and recent agrarian histories in the two districts. Ethnographic studies will use participant observation and oral history techniques to focus on gender equality and personal biography formation since the 1970. Time-geographic studies will examine the spatial and temporal organization of agricultural production to uncover differences in the organization of women's work between the two districts. This study is significant in that it undertakes an in-depth analysis of why policies that are successful in one place fail when transferred to an area that appears strikingly similar to the successful area in all important respects, a problematic of central concern in development studies. Recent research on issues of gender and development has uncovered important differences in work loads and project organization between women and men, differences that are qualitative as well as quantitative. This study will contribute to both research areas by looking for connections between project success and gender work loads and by developing new conceptual and methodological tools to aid planners in understanding the root causes of success and failure in development initiatives. The research should enable to project planners and managers to more successfully implement of dairy projects that help both the rural poor and urban children in need of milk supplements. As a Doctoral Dissertation Research Improvement award, this award also will provide support to enable a promising student to establish a strong independent research career.