IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jsusta/v12y2020i24p10355-d460386.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Marginalized Small-Scale Farmers as Actors in Just Circular-Economy Transitions: Exploring Opportunities to Circulate Crop Residue as Raw Material in India

Author

Listed:
  • Anna Härri

    (Department of Sustainability Science, LUT University, 15210 Lahti, Finland)

  • Jarkko Levänen

    (Department of Sustainability Science, LUT University, 15210 Lahti, Finland)

  • Katariina Koistinen

    (Management and Organisation, University of Turku, 20500 Turku, Finland)

Abstract

Facing substantial sustainability challenges, sustainable transitions to circular systems are increasingly called for. The use of biomass to produce textile fibers is a niche that could contribute to a circular textile system. In this niche, farmers supplying biomass would play a crucial role. Through a literature review, we argue in this article that farmers are important actors in this context, but their agency is limited by numerous institutional factors, such as cultivation practices, labor markets, and information systems. These factors together can create an institutional void, which can hamper both the agency of farmers and their ability to participate, as well as the justness of the niche. The void’s strength depends on the institutional interface a farmer is subjected to. Before just transitions to circular systems can occur, marginalized actors’ agency and ability to participate in the niche, in a just way, must be improved, by decreasing the strength of the institutional void.

Suggested Citation

  • Anna Härri & Jarkko Levänen & Katariina Koistinen, 2020. "Marginalized Small-Scale Farmers as Actors in Just Circular-Economy Transitions: Exploring Opportunities to Circulate Crop Residue as Raw Material in India," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(24), pages 1-18, December.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:12:y:2020:i:24:p:10355-:d:460386
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/12/24/10355/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/12/24/10355/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Lopes, Adrian A. & Viriyavipart, Ajalavat & Tasneem, Dina, 2020. "The role of social influence in crop residue management: Evidence from Northern India," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 169(C).
    2. Raghuveer Singh & Dharam Bir Yadav & N. Ravisankar & Ashok Yadav & Harpreet Singh, 2020. "Crop residue management in rice–wheat cropping system for resource conservation and environmental protection in north-western India," Environment, Development and Sustainability: A Multidisciplinary Approach to the Theory and Practice of Sustainable Development, Springer, vol. 22(5), pages 3871-3896, June.
    3. Evans, Geoff & Phelan, Liam, 2016. "Transition to a post-carbon society: Linking environmental justice and just transition discourses," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 99(C), pages 329-339.
    4. Singh, K.M. & Singh, R.K.P. & Jha, A.K. & Kumar, Abhay, 2013. "Fodder Market in Bihar: An Exploratory Study," MPRA Paper 53597, University Library of Munich, Germany, revised 20 Apr 2013.
    5. Turmel, Marie-Soleil & Speratti, Alicia & Baudron, Frédéric & Verhulst, Nele & Govaerts, Bram, 2015. "Crop residue management and soil health: A systems analysis," Agricultural Systems, Elsevier, vol. 134(C), pages 6-16.
    6. Karthikeyan Natarajan & Petri Latva-Käyrä & Anas Zyadin & Suresh Chauhan & Harminder Singh & Ari Pappinen & Paavo Pelkonen, 2015. "Biomass Resource Assessment and Existing Biomass Use in the Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, and Tamil Nadu States of India," Challenges, MDPI, vol. 6(1), pages 1-15, May.
    7. Mair, Johanna & Marti, Ignasi, 2009. "Entrepreneurship in and around institutional voids: A case study from Bangladesh," Journal of Business Venturing, Elsevier, vol. 24(5), pages 419-435, September.
    8. Priyadarshini, Priya & Abhilash, Purushothaman Chirakkuzhyil, 2020. "Policy recommendations for enabling transition towards sustainable agriculture in India," Land Use Policy, Elsevier, vol. 96(C).
    9. Anas Zyadin & Karthikeyan Natarajan & Suresh Chauhan & Harminder Singh & Md. Kamrul Hassan & Ari Pappinen & Paavo Pelkonen, 2015. "Indian Farmers’ Perceptions and Willingness to Supply Surplus Biomass to an Envisioned Biomass-Based Power Plant," Challenges, MDPI, vol. 6(1), pages 1-13, April.
    10. Geels, Frank W., 2002. "Technological transitions as evolutionary reconfiguration processes: a multi-level perspective and a case-study," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 31(8-9), pages 1257-1274, December.
    11. Olaf Erenstein & William Thorpe, 2010. "Crop–livestock interactions along agro-ecological gradients: a meso-level analysis in the Indo-Gangetic Plains, India," Environment, Development and Sustainability: A Multidisciplinary Approach to the Theory and Practice of Sustainable Development, Springer, vol. 12(5), pages 669-689, October.
    12. Nathan J. Bennett & Jessica Blythe & Andrés M. Cisneros-Montemayor & Gerald G. Singh & U. Rashid Sumaila, 2019. "Just Transformations to Sustainability," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(14), pages 1-18, July.
    13. Erenstein, Olaf, 2011. "Cropping systems and crop residue management in the Trans-Gangetic Plains: Issues and challenges for conservation agriculture from village surveys," Agricultural Systems, Elsevier, vol. 104(1), pages 54-62, January.
    14. Hiloidhari, Moonmoon & Das, Dhiman & Baruah, D.C., 2014. "Bioenergy potential from crop residue biomass in India," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 32(C), pages 504-512.
    15. Levänen, Jarkko & Lyytinen, Tatu & Gatica, Sebastian, 2018. "Modelling the Interplay Between Institutions and Circular Economy Business Models: A Case Study of Battery Recycling in Finland and Chile," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 154(C), pages 373-382.
    16. Ridhima Gupta, 2014. "Low-Hanging Fruit In Black Carbon Mitigation: Crop Residue Burning In South Asia," Climate Change Economics (CCE), World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd., vol. 5(04), pages 1-22.
    17. Mónica Ramos-Mejía & Alejandro Balanzo, 2018. "What It Takes to Lead Sustainability Transitions from the Bottom-Up: Strategic Interactions of Grassroots Ecopreneurs," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 10(7), pages 1-20, July.
    18. Laia Fayet & Walter J.V. Vermeulen, 2014. "Supporting Smallholders to Access Sustainable Supply Chains: Lessons from the Indian Cotton Supply Chain," Sustainable Development, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 22(5), pages 289-310, September.
    19. Johanna Mair & Ignasi Marti & Marc Ventresca, 2012. "Building Inclusive Markets in Rural Bangladesh : How Intermediaries Work Institutional Voids," Post-Print hal-02276707, HAL.
    20. Alan Murray & Keith Skene & Kathryn Haynes, 2017. "The Circular Economy: An Interdisciplinary Exploration of the Concept and Application in a Global Context," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 140(3), pages 369-380, February.
    21. Johanna Mair & Ignasi Marti & Marc Ventresca, 2012. "Building Inclusive Markets in Rural Bangladesh : How Intermediaries Work Institutional Voids," Post-Print hal-02312706, HAL.
    22. Singh, Renu & Srivastava, Monika & Shukla, Ashish, 2016. "Environmental sustainability of bioethanol production from rice straw in India: A review," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 54(C), pages 202-216.
    23. Markard, Jochen & Raven, Rob & Truffer, Bernhard, 2012. "Sustainability transitions: An emerging field of research and its prospects," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 41(6), pages 955-967.
    24. Jeremy Hall & Stelvia Matos & Lorn Sheehan & Bruno Silvestre, 2012. "Entrepreneurship and Innovation at the Base of the Pyramid: A Recipe for Inclusive Growth or Social Exclusion?," Journal of Management Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 49(4), pages 785-812, June.
    25. Lohan, Shiv Kumar & Jat, H.S. & Yadav, Arvind Kumar & Sidhu, H.S. & Jat, M.L. & Choudhary, Madhu & Peter, Jyotsna Kiran & Sharma, P.C., 2018. "Burning issues of paddy residue management in north-west states of India," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 81(P1), pages 693-706.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Mohsen Jamali & Esmaeil Bakhshandeh & Mohammad Yaghoubi Khanghahi & Carmine Crecchio, 2021. "Metadata Analysis to Evaluate Environmental Impacts of Wheat Residues Burning on Soil Quality in Developing and Developed Countries," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(11), pages 1-13, June.
    2. Caroline Boules & Yuki Kato, 2023. "Just Transition or Just Transitioning? Potentials and Limitations of Urban Growers’ Adaptations to the Impacts of the COVID-19 Pandemic," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(12), pages 1-19, June.
    3. Levänen, Jarkko & Lindeman, Sara & Halme, Minna & Tervo, Matti & Lyytinen, Tatu, 2022. "Bridging divergent institutional logics through intermediation practices: Insights from a developing country context," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 176(C).

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Silvestre, Bruno S., 2015. "Sustainable supply chain management in emerging economies: Environmental turbulence, institutional voids and sustainability trajectories," International Journal of Production Economics, Elsevier, vol. 167(C), pages 156-169.
    2. Kumar, Avinash & Kumra, Rajeev & Singh, Ramendra, 2022. "Base of the pyramid producers’ constraints: An integrated review and research agenda," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 140(C), pages 115-129.
    3. Simon Joncourt & Heiko Gebauer & Javier Reynoso & Karla Cabrera & Ana Valdes & Katharina Greve, 2019. "Extending the Base-of-the-Pyramid Concept," Service Science, INFORMS, vol. 11(3), pages 241-261, October.
    4. Slade Shantz, Angelique & Kistruck, Geoffrey & Zietsma, Charlene, 2018. "The opportunity not taken: The occupational identity of entrepreneurs in contexts of poverty," Journal of Business Venturing, Elsevier, vol. 33(4), pages 416-437.
    5. Addisu A. Lashitew & Somendra Narayan & Eugenia Rosca & Lydia Bals, 2022. "Creating Social Value for the ‘Base of the Pyramid’: An Integrative Review and Research Agenda," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 178(2), pages 445-466, June.
    6. Pansera, Mario & Owen, Richard, 2015. "Framing resource-constrained innovation at the ‘bottom of the pyramid’: Insights from an ethnographic case study in rural Bangladesh," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 92(C), pages 300-311.
    7. Jie Wu & Steven Si & Haifeng Yan, 2022. "Reducing poverty through the shared economy: creating inclusive entrepreneurship around institutional voids in China," Asian Business & Management, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 21(2), pages 155-183, April.
    8. Mario Pansera & Soumodip Sarkar, 2016. "Crafting Sustainable Development Solutions: Frugal Innovations of Grassroots Entrepreneurs," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 8(1), pages 1-25, January.
    9. Meagher, Kate, 2015. "Leaving no-one behind? Informal economies, economic inclusion, and Islamic extremism in Nigeria," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 62140, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    10. Dorado, Silvia & Ventresca, Marc J., 2013. "Crescive entrepreneurship in complex social problems: Institutional conditions for entrepreneurial engagement," Journal of Business Venturing, Elsevier, vol. 28(1), pages 69-82.
    11. Juan M. Gil-Barragan & María José López-Sánchez, 2021. "The Fast Lane of Internationalization of Latin American SMEs: A Location-Based Approach," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(6), pages 1-20, March.
    12. Zhao, Eric Yanfei & Lounsbury, Michael, 2016. "An institutional logics approach to social entrepreneurship: Market logic, religious diversity, and resource acquisition by microfinance organizations," Journal of Business Venturing, Elsevier, vol. 31(6), pages 643-662.
    13. Matthew P. Johnson & Stefan Schaltegger, 2020. "Entrepreneurship for Sustainable Development: A Review and Multilevel Causal Mechanism Framework," Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, , vol. 44(6), pages 1141-1173, November.
    14. Saul Estrin & Tomasz Mickiewicz & Ute Stephan, 2013. "Entrepreneurship, Social Capital, and Institutions: Social and Commercial Entrepreneurship across Nations," Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, , vol. 37(3), pages 479-504, May.
    15. Natarajan, Karthikeyan & Latva-Käyrä, Petri & Zyadin, Anas & Pelkonen, Paavo, 2016. "New methodological approach for biomass resource assessment in India using GIS application and land use/land cover (LULC) maps," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 63(C), pages 256-268.
    16. Marta Widz & Nadine Kammerlander, 2023. "Entrepreneurial exit intentions in emerging economies: a neoinstitutional perspective," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 60(2), pages 615-638, February.
    17. Castellanza, Luca, 2022. "Discipline, abjection, and poverty alleviation through entrepreneurship: A constitutive perspective," Journal of Business Venturing, Elsevier, vol. 37(1).
    18. Sietze Vellema & Greetje Schouten & Rob Van Tulder, 2020. "Partnering capacities for inclusive development in food provisioning," Development Policy Review, Overseas Development Institute, vol. 38(6), pages 710-727, November.
    19. Liedong, Tahiru Azaaviele & Peprah, Augustine Awuah & Amartey, Abednego Okoe & Rajwani, Tazeeb, 2020. "Institutional voids and firms' resource commitment in emerging markets: A review and future research agenda," Journal of International Management, Elsevier, vol. 26(3).
    20. Pel, Bonno & Haxeltine, Alex & Avelino, Flor & Dumitru, Adina & Kemp, René & Bauler, Tom & Kunze, Iris & Dorland, Jens & Wittmayer, Julia & Jørgensen, Michael Søgaard, 2020. "Towards a theory of transformative social innovation: A relational framework and 12 propositions," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 49(8).

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:12:y:2020:i:24:p:10355-:d:460386. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.