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New models of collective farming have been suggested as potentially useful approach for reducing inequality and transform peasant agriculture. In collectives, farmers pool land, labor, irrigation infrastructure, agricultural inputs and harvest to overcome resource constraints and to increase their bargaining power. Employing a feminist political ecology lens, we ask: to what extent can collective farming open up possibilities of empowerment for margilized groups in smallholder agriculture? We examine the establishment of 18 farmer collectives by a research project in the Eastern Gangetic Plains, a region characterised by fragmented and small landholdings and a high rate of margilised and landless farmers. We alyze ambivalances of collective farming practices with regard to (1) social relations across scales, (2) intersectiolity and (3) emotiol attachment. Our results in Saptari/ Eastern Terai in Nepal, Madhubani/Bihar, and Cooch Behar/West Bengal in India demonstrate how intra-household, group and community relations and emotiol attachments to the family and neighbors mediate the redistribution of labor, land and capital. We find that gendered relations, intersected by class, age, ethnicity and caste, are reproduced in collective action and access to land and water, and argue that a critical feminist perspective can support a more reflective and relatiol understanding of collective farming processes. Our alysis demonstrates that feminist political ecology can compliment commons studies by providing meaningful insights on ambivalences around approaches such as collective farming.

Collective farming has been suggested as a potentially useful approach for reducing inequality and transforming peasant agriculture. In collectives, farmers pool land, labor, irrigation infrastructure, agricultural inputs and harvest to overcome resource constraints and to increase their bargaining power. Employing a feminist political ecology lens, we reflect on the extent to which collective farming enables marginalized groups to engage in smallholder agriculture. We examine the establishment of 18 farmer collectives by an action research project in the Eastern Gangetic Plains, a region characterised by fragmented and small landholdings and a high rate of marginalised and landless farmers. We analyze ambivalances of collective farming practices with regard to (1) social relations across scales, (2) intersectionality and (3) emotional attachment. Our results in Saptari/Eastern Terai in Nepal, Madhubani/Bihar, and Cooch Behar/West Bengal in India demonstrate how intra-household, group and community relations and emotional attachments to the family and neighbors mediate the redistribution of labor, land, produce and capital. We find that unequal gender relations, intersected by class, age, ethnicity and caste, are reproduced in collective action, land tenure and water management, and argue that a critical feminist perspective can support a more reflective and relational understanding of collective farming processes. Our analysis demonstrates that feminist political ecology can complement commons studies by providing meaningful insights on ambivalences around approaches such as collective farming.

The Constitution of Nepal 2015 enshrines everyone’s right of access to clean water for drinking and the right to food. The common operationalization of the right to water for drinking is providing access to infrastructure that brings water for drinking and other basic domestic uses near and at homesteads. Challenges to achieving this goal in rural areas include: low functionality of water systems; expansion of informal self supply for multiple uses; widespread de facto productive uses of water systems designed for domestic uses; growing competition for finite water resources; and male elite capture in polycentric decision-making. This paper traces how the Nepali government and nongovernmental organizations in the water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH), irrigation and other sectors have joined forces since the early 2000s to address these challenges by innovating community-led multiple use water services (MUS). The present literature review of these processes complemented by field research supported by the Water for Women Fund focuses on women in vulnerable households. Overcoming sectoral silos, these organizations support what is often seen as the sole responsibility of the WASH sector: targeting infrastructure development to bring sufficient water near and at homesteads of those left behind. Women’s priorities for using this water are respected and supported, which often includes productive uses, also at basic volumes. In line with decentralized federalism, inclusive community-led MUS planning processes build on vulnerable households’ self supply, commonly for multiple uses, and follow their priorities for local incremental infrastructure improvements. Further, community-led MUS builds on community-based arrangements for ‘sharing in’ and ‘sharing out’ the finite water resources in and under communities’ social territories. This realizes the constitutional right to food in line with the Nepal Water Resources Act, 1992, which prioritizes core minimum volumes of water f

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