Power Dynamics and Discourses behind Climate Smart Agriculture: Global Context and Contest

抄録

In response to the growing concerns about the unsustainable consequences of the current industrial agri-food system and the increasing call for sustainable transformation, the concept of “climate smart agriculture (CSA)” has been developed and mainstreamed in the international community. Given its ambiguous definition and applications, and its advocacy by global agribusiness corporations, there is concern as to whether the concept of CSA may obscure the transformative perspectives of alternative agri-food initiatives and hinder their scale up. This paper utilizes the Gramscian concept of hegemony, to trace the development of the CSA concept and uncovers power dynamics behind the mainstreaming and institutionalization of CSA. In doing so, this paper elucidates the recent corporate consolidation in the agricultural input industry and their strategies for digital agriculture, which is touted as a powerful tool for CSA and therefore a key solution to climate change. The findings show that by exercising hegemonic power to legitimize their CSA model, global agribusiness corporations are turning climate crises into new opportunities for capital accumulation without fundamental transformation of the agri-food system.