Biography
Regina has seven years of work experience in the development (natural resources) sector in India. Her current research interests are on gender, agriculture and food security and aims to understand and problematise the social side of sustainability discourse and in particular sustainable agriculture.
One of the recent challenges of modern times has been to think about the question of food and agriculture. Regina's research locates itself in the growing discourses around food insecurity and hunger and about the need to move towards alternative agro-ecological methods of farming. System of rice intensification (SRI), is one such emerging rice cultivation technique, which is viewed as a potential alternative to the mainstream models of agriculture/paddy cultivation from the economic, environmental and equity point of view; and in particular food security, climate change and small-holder agriculture.
The current literature on the subject is grounded more on the economic and agronomical aspects of SRI. My research aims to fill the gap by bringing in the social (gendered) dimensions of this practice and its possible implications. In particular examine how SRI-related agrarian change has affected the local food security regimes and the different social relations of production, especially those of gender, class and caste. In addition to this, to what extent is the practice empowering and marginalising at the same time for different sections of the society. Bihar, in the Eastern belt of India is my research site considering the State is promoting this practice on a large-scale as part of its agriculture revival strategy.
