Organic Frontiers: The politics of agricultural market-making in Jumla, Nepal by Elsie Lewison A thesis submitted in conformity with the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy Department of Geography and Planning University of Toronto © Copyright by Elsie Lewison 2019 Organic Frontiers: The politics of agricultural market-making in Jumla, Nepal Elsie Lewison Doctor of Philosophy Department of Geography and Planning University of Toronto 2019 Abstract In 2008, Jumla District, located in northwest Nepal, declared itself “organic.” The declaration was made in the context of a rise in identity-based territorial claims and reinvigorated state territorialisation following the end of a decade-long civil conflict. The declaration was also broadly aligned with a diverse range of socially inclusive and ecologically sustainable market-making initiatives targeting Nepal’s agrarian frontiers. Such initiatives have aimed to capitalize on the “quality turn” in globalized agro-food markets and expert re-assessments of the socio-ecological value of bio-diverse and chemical-free agro-ecologies. These market development initiatives are framed as having the potential to conserve vulnerable frontier ecologies by rendering them economically valuable, while also extending market access into marginalized regions where farmers have been unable to compete with large-scale, industrial producers on the basis of price alone. This dissertation builds on critical development, agrarian and governmentality studies and contributes to a growing body of critical scholarship studying alternative agro-food initiatives outside of the Global North. Drawing on an analysis of state and donor archives, semi-structured interviews and ethnographic participant observation, I examine how changes in globalized food markets and expert understandings of frontier ii ecologies are transforming governmental projects of market-making. Using Jumla’s organic district declaration and donor-led value chain development projects as examples, I demonstrate how eco- governmental discourses and development strategies are assembled within specific territorial logics and political agendas, resulting in multiple—and at times contradictory—priorities and approaches. The research further examines how ostensibly technical projects intended to develop socially inclusive and ecologically sustainable markets deliberately blur public-private boundaries. I argue that the new sites of state-society-market encounter created by these projects can bring markets into view as targets of political practice, particularly as development agents and subjects negotiate the contradictions between and within different market-making initiatives. While the politicization of markets can contribute to processes of accumulation and dispossession, it can also present new opportunities for rights-based claims-making. iii Acknowledgements There are many, many people who gave their time and energy to supporting me and this research and to whom I am deeply grateful. First and foremost, I want to acknowledge and thank all those in Jumla who generously lent their time, patience, humour and insights—what I learned from our conversations extends far beyond the bounds of research and will continue to influence how I understand myself and the world around me for many years to come. I am thoroughly indebted to Sushmita Paudel and Chaturbhuj Malla for their thoughtful analysis, skillful approach to interviewing, logistical support and patient friendship for months at a time and over long uncomfortable journeys—I think of you both often. I am also sincerely grateful to Bimala Sapkota for taking time during her short weekends to drive to a mall to listen my terrible Nepali and read agricultural reports with me. I admire your courage and spirit and value the friendship that you extended to me. In Nepal, I want to also express particular appreciation to Dhan Bahadur Gautam and Dhan Bahadur Kathayat for their invaluable insights, logistical support and overall generosity. Thank you also to Krishna Paudel for his guidance early on in this project and for introducing me to many key themes and people. I also want to recognize all the staff at ForestAction Nepal, Community Action for Dignity, the Jumla District Agriculture Development Office and the Rajikot Horticulture Research station for their time and patience as I imposed myself on their daily routines. I am also indebted to Jeff Masse who was my first guide in the Karnali. Thank you for introducing me to Humla, sharing your trove of knowledge, and for your forbearance through some pretty sticky situations. Thanks additionally to Pema and Rinjin for welcoming me into their home in Simikot. There are a number of infrastructural networks of people that made this research possible. First, I want to acknowledge and thank the Cornell Nepal community for being my first home away from home in Kathmandu. A sincere thank you to Banu and Shambhu Ojha for taking so many students under their respective wings over the years and teaching us with rigour and humour, to Kath March and David Holmberg for the hard work and energy that created and sustained the Nepal program, as well as to all the staff and associates at CNSP for their boundless patience and counsel. Thank you to Andrea Nightingale for her valuable perspectives on key themes in the research and advise in the early stages of the project and thanks to Kushal and Bidhya Gurung for their generous hosting and friendship. Another community of people to whom I owe a great deal is the Infrastructures of Democracy team including our peer researcher and collaborator colleagues. In particular, I want to extend sincere thanks to Lagan Rai, Shyam Kunwar and Tulasi Sigdel. I have learned so much about how to be a researcher from working with the three of you. I admire and hope to emulate the careful and thoughtful sensitivity with which you approach research and critical analysis. iv In Toronto, I foremost want to thank my committee for their attentive engagement with the work and kind support through the rough patches of writing. Thank you to Neera Singh for making the world of affective materialism meaningful and tangible and to Scott Prudham for orienting me to the foundations political ecology and clarifying key theoretical lineages and concepts. Special thanks to my supervisors Katharine Rankin and Alana Boland for many years of encouragement and guidance. Their dedication to colleagues and students, and the high standards to which they hold themselves, is extraordinary. Our work together has fundamentally shaped how I approach research, theory and teaching. Peter Vandergeest and Ryan Isakson graciously agreed to be external examiners and I am grateful to them for the discerning feedback that they provided in the final stages of the dissertation. A big thank you also goes to the amazing community of fellow geography and planning graduate students at U of T. The opportunity to meet and learn from so many remarkable people during my time in graduate school has been invaluable. Particular thanks to Mai Nguyen and Melissa Gibson for their grounded wisdom during my first year in Toronto and to my PhD cohort and friends for their heart smarts and brilliance. Thank you also to all the members of the Political Economy and Ecology reading group for some of the best critical discussion and generative commentary that I have had the opportunity to take part in during my time in university. Finally, I am enormously grateful to my family for their fortitude and understanding through a very long and obscure process. Thank you to all of my parents Dottie, Jim, Edie and Bob, and siblings Ellie, Liz and Fenris—and also Esther—for your support and encouragement along the way. And I am particularly, gratefully, indebted to my partner Alex Gatien without whose enduring equanimity, consolation in hard times and caring labour I could not have made it through to the end. This research was generously supported by a Doctoral Research Award from the International Development Research Centre (IDRC), the AAG Geographies of Food and Agriculture Specialty Group Research Grant as well as funding from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC) and the Ontario Graduate Scholarship Program. The views expressed herein do not necessarily represent those of IDRC, its Board of Governors, or any of the funding agencies listed above. v Table of Contents List of Tables ............................................................................................................................................ viii List of Figures ............................................................................................................................................. ix List of Abbreviations ................................................................................................................................... x Chapter 1 | Introduction: Researching Ethical Market-Making, Why and How?................................ 1 Introduction ............................................................................................................................................... 1 Research Questions ................................................................................................................................... 4 Argument ................................................................................................................................................... 7 Reviewing the Literature ..........................................................................................................................