“We Plant Only Cotton to Maximize Our Earnings”: The Paradox of Food Sovereignty in Rural Telengana, India

Abstract

This article critically examines the role of food sovereignty interventions in the mitigation of the impacts of neoliberal economic policies on poor farmers in the Telengana region of India. Findings based on eighteen months of ethnographic research in the Telengana region reveal that small and poor farmers face socioeconomic and cultural constraints to the adoption of food sovereignty practices and ideals. Food sovereignty prescriptions based on localized, sustainable, and subsistence agriculture paradoxically constrained farmers’ chances of maintaining viable rural livelihoods in a harsh economic climate. Based on these findings, I argue that contrary to assertions by advocates that food sovereignty is a precondition to genuine food security, farmers must first have food and livelihood security to exercise true food sovereignty that allows them more control over their livelihoods.