Zareen Bharucha

Anglia Ruskin University | ARU · Global Sustainability Institute

Watershed development (WSD) projects in India are key to meeting a range of human development goals in rain-fed agrarian landscapes. However, outcomes are often observed to be partial and short-lived. We offer a novel perspective on the reasons. Our analysis shows that the dominant ‘water narratives’ of WSD policy and practice and the lived experie...

This chapter discusses the prevailing paradigm governing agricultural land and water management in the rainfed drylands of India. It aims to nuance an existing narrative that tightly intertwines agrarian distress in these landscapes with primarily climatic factors—specifically low or diminishing rainfall. In doing so, it contributes to opening up w...

Background Agricultural systems are amended ecosystems with a variety of properties. Modern agroecosystems have tended towards high through-flow systems, with energy supplied by fossil fuels directed out of the system (either deliberately for harvests or accidentally through side effects). In the coming decades, resource constraints over water, soi...

This paper traces the evolution, dynamics and implications of the Brazil-China soy complex, a trade link of global social-ecological significance. Recent scholarship, particularly in the environmental sciences, has critically analysed the social-ecological implications of Chinese imports of Brazilian soy. This paper contributes a socio-economic ana...

China has achieved impressive increases in agricultural output in recent decades. Yet, past approaches centred on a growing use of fertilizers, pesticides, fuel and water are not likely to achieve the required 30–50% additional increases in food production by mid-century. We show that efficiencies of production are falling and the costs of environm...

Conservation biologists should seek to work with those involved in sustainable agriculture and rural development in expanded integrated approaches to reduce pesticide harm to humans, biodiversity and environmental services. Despite new evidence, conservation organisations have tended not to fully recognize the impacts of pesticides on biodiversity,...

Food has been one of the most debated and contested discourses in recent global environmental governance without this fact being reflected, however, in management and organizational studies (MOS). In this paper, we analyze the different positions taken in relation to the transnational agri-food system by the state sector, the private sector and civ...

Integrated Pest Management (IPM) is a leading complement and alternative to synthetic pesticides and a form of sustainable intensification with particular importance for tropical smallholders. Global pesticide use has grown over the past 20 years to 3.5 billion kg/year, amounting to a global market worth $45 billion. The external costs of pesticide...

Increases in gross domestic product (GDP) beyond a threshold of basic needs do not lead to further increases in well-being. An explanation is that material consumption (MC) also results in negative health externalities. We assess how these externalities influence six factors critical for well-being: (i) healthy food; (ii) active body; (iii) healthy...

The world faces a ‘perfect storm’ of social and ecological stresses, including climate change, habitat loss, resource degradation and social, economic and cultural change. In order to cope with these, communities are struggling to transition to sustainable ways of living that improve well-being and increase resilience. This book demonstrates how co...

It has recently been estimated that 4 million deaths each year are associated with air pollution originating from household solid fuel use. Interventions to reduce biomass fuel-related emissions can yield a diverse stream of benefits including improved public health, socio-economic development, reduced land degradation and climate change mitigation....

Almost every ecosystem has been amended so that plants and animals can be used as food, fibre, fodder, medicines, traps and weapons. Historically, wild plants and animals were sole dietary components for hunter-gatherer and forager cultures. Today, they remain key to many agricultural communities. The mean use of wild foods by agricultural and fora...