Value Chain Struggles
Institutions and Governance in the Plantation Districts of South India
RGS-IBG Book Series
1. Edition March 2009
320 Pages, Hardcover
Wiley & Sons Ltd
Adopting a 'global value chain' approach, Value Chain
Struggles investigates the impact of new trading arrangements
in the coffee and tea sectors on the lives and in the communities
of growers in South India.
* Offers a timely analysis of the social hardships of tea and
coffee producers
* Takes the reader into the lives of growers in Southern India
who are struggling with issues of value chain restructuring
* Reveals the ways that the restructuring triggers a series of
political and economic struggles across a range of economic,
social, and environmental arenas
* Puts into perspective claims about the impacts of recent
changes to global trading relations on rural producers in
developing countries
List of Tables viii
Series Editors' Preface x
Acknowledgements xi
List of Abbreviations xiii
1 Introduction 1
2 Re-inserting Place and Institutions within Global Value Chain Analysis 27
3 How to Make a (South Indian) Cup of Tea or Coffee 66
4 The Institutional Environment of the South Indian Tea and Coffee Industries 107
5 Struggles over Labour and Livelihoods 130
6 Struggles over Environmental Governance in the Coffee Forests of Kodagu 162
7 Smallholder Engagement in Global Value Chains: Initiatives in the Nilgiris 186
8 Making a Living in the Global Economy: Institutional Environments and Value Chain Upgrading 210
9 Conclusion: What We Brewed 230
Appendix A: The Role of Managing Agents 240
Appendix B: The Operation and Intended
Reform of South India's Tea Auctions 241
Appendix C: Restructuring of Tata Tea's Munnar Operations 246
Notes 248
Bibliography 263
Index 291
this book offers a wonderfully detailed case study of tea and
coffee cultivation in South India - in all its multi-scalar
institutional and regulatory contexts - and yet also speaks
powerfully to a variety of wider theoretical issues concerning
global value chains, global private regulation, and ethical and
sustainable production schemes."
-Neil Coe, University of Manchester
"This book gets to the roots of new trading arrangements in the
coffee and tea sectors which affect the lives of struggling growers
in South India. Adoption of a meaningful global value chain
approach that links production, trade and consumption is the unique
feature of this book. Arrays of issues including history,
geography, politics and culture at local, regional and national
levels have been covered. It is certainly a valuable, scholarly and
policy contribution."
-P. G. Chengappa, Vice Chancellor, University
of Agricultural Sciences, Bangalore, India
development and environmental issues across various Asian
countries. He completed his PhD with a study of the Indonesian
coffee industry, has authored twelve refereed publications, and has
worked as a consultant to various international development
agencies. Dr Neilson is currently employed as a post-doctoral
research fellow in geography at the University of Sydney,
Australia.
Bill Pritchard is an Economic Geographer whose research
has focused on global change in agriculture, food and rural places.
He has authored two books, edited four others, and written more
than forty refereed publications. He is an active member and former
convener of the Australia & New Zealand Agri-Food Research
Network, a member of the Australian Research Council Research
Network on Spatially Integrated Social Sciences, and Steering
Committee Member of the International Geographical Union Commission
on the Dynamics of Economic Spaces.
