“Farmers Are Scientists”: How Experimentation and Knowledge Transmission Is Shaping the Organic Farming Landscape in the Delhi National Capital Region

Modern productivist agriculture and neoliberal policies have reshaped the agricultural landscape in the Indian subcontinent. The conventional farmer is dependent on a market-based package of practices, an institutional ecosystem where ‘expert’ authority is held in high esteem and places precedence on quantity over quality parameters. A largely one-size-fits-all approach has emerged within conventional agriculture that is being challenged by alternative agricultural systems such as organic farming. These sustainable agriculture systems are knowledge-intensive and require on-farm experimentations to tailor practices to the requirements of the specific farm in the absence of 'quick fixes'. This paper draws on the experiences of organic food producers in the Delhi National Capital Region (Delhi NCR) to understand the processes of learning, unlearning and re-learning they engage in within a knowledge-intensive farm management system. The farmers in this study consciously decided to convert to organic farming from conventional agriculture. They actively experiment with alternative practices, methods, and even crop varieties to observe what works for their farm. However, it is not simply an individual endeavour. Organic farmers engage with networks that comprise a host of other actors (including but not limited to peer groups, the scientific community, and organisations) within which knowledge regarding organic farming is shared, shaped and transmitted. Non-human actors and material aspects, too, play a critical role in the process of experimentation and knowledge creation for organic farmers. Together, these significantly shape organic farming practices. However, the ability to conduct on-farm experimentation is limited by considerations, such as livelihood issues, access to knowledge networks and family structures that will be explored in terms of who can and cannot participate in organic farming. Ultimately, the paper attempts to highlight that organic farmers are scientists in their own right whose agricultural practices are shaped by experimentation and learning through participation in knowledge networks.