The Green Revolution and transversal countermovements: recovering alternative agronomic imaginaries in Tunisia and India

Abstract

This article outlines the visions of Tunisian and Indian dissident political thinkers and agronomists, 1950s–1980s, for decentralised food and farming systems using just technologies. Amidst ascendent US imperialism, these marginalised proposals opposed the Green Revolution model of agrarian development, illustrating broader postcolonial politics of defending political sovereignty and advancing to economic/technological sovereignty. Erasing these dissident voices enabled the legitimisation of the Green Revolution as an ‘inevitable’ way to ensure food security. We argue that recovering this intellectual history is critical to displace the techno-centric Green Revolution narrative, and to inform and support struggles for ecologically attuned alternatives that foreground agroecology.