Resources, Greenhouse Gases, Technology and Jobs inIndia’s Informal Economy:The Case of Rice

This is an ESRC-DFID funded project, running from October 2011 to June 2013, which seeks to develop a series of methods for the study of the materiality of the informal economy. We focus on CO2 and water as indicators of materiality, and will take rice in 3 states of eastern India as our case study. Rice was chosen because of the team’s familiarity with this sector and its complexity, and not because it is regarded as a big polluter.

The project is a pilot with the purpose of developing a number of micro-level methods to be usefully applied elsewhere, including in advanced economies. Informal economies, however, have been completely neglected in the debates about climate change and the long awaited materials revolution.

First, we hope to model the complexity of the rice production and distributionsystems. Four distinctive production technologies will be assessed, including large and small units in each; and four channels of distribution, including both market and state, see below.

Production Systems:

  • System of Rice Intensification
  • Certified organic production
  • Rainfed rice
  • Irrigated High Yield Variety (HYV)

Distribution channels:

  • Informal Retail
  • Registered firms
  • India’s Public DistributionSystem (PDS)
  • Supermarket supply chains

This part of the project will unite life cycle analysis (environmental science) with value chain/ production system (social science) models and analysis.

Then, throughscoping research and multi-criteria analysis, we will seek to understand incommensurable trade-offs between costs, CO2 and the quantity and quality of jobs - focussing on technological alternatives which improve one or more of the material parameters we study.

We will also have to re-examine how technology diffuses in the informal economy beyond state regulation, how policies affect economic activity outside the bounds of their enforcement capacities, how informal workers are able to improve the terms and conditions of their work andwhether technological changes have been or could be involved.

The project will identify and engage with key stakeholders and intends to communicate its results in India, the UK and globally, through two methods over and above meeting, talking and workshops. Firstly, through a website that contains the model methodology - allowing others to apply the model in different technologies/areas. And secondly, through more mainstream portals for science and technology for development. If we are successful we would like to apply the methods to other sectors of the informal economy or interwoven formal-informal economies – energy itself and housing are being considered.

Organisationally the pilot project operates as a network in a team.

Members:

Prof Barbara Harriss-White CSASP, SIAS – Area Studies, Oxford University, – political economist - overall direction – advice on studies of distribution – multi-criteria analysis – technological changesand labour in the informal economy

Prof D.N. Reddy, Senior Research Fellow, Institute of Human Development, New Delhi (Partner Institution) - economist - senior adviser, especially on Andhra fieldwork and on dissemination

Dr AlfyGathorne-Hardy, CSASP. SIAS - life cycle analyst

Dr HemaRamachandran – Madras School of Economics – environmental economist responsible for value chain analysis and field research in Tamil Nadu and Andhra

Dr Deepak Mishra, Jawarhalal Nehru University – field economist/ political economist - rainfed rice – Orissa

Dr Aseem Prakash – Jindal Global University – policy studies, advise on communications strategy

Close associate: GautamMody – New Trade Union Initiative – labour and informal economy