Family, territory, nation: post-neoliberal agroecological scaling in Nicaragua

01.12.2016
Agroecological scaling-up, as the words suggest, is best achieved as a process constructed ‘from below’. How then to understand the political dimension of agroecological scaling, if not also as a popular process of democratization of food systems? This article explores the political and social dimensions of the Nicaraguan process of agroecological scaling, using the frame of food sovereignty, or the right of peoples and nations to define, build, and defend their own food system. As part of the ALBA alliance of Latin American countries, Nicaragua’s government positions itself to the political left of many of the more neoliberal governments in the region. Post-neoliberalism provides a historical context for the repositioning of the state in regard to peasant and family agriculture, rural education, and social economies. As agroecological knowledge is re-produced, shared and multiplied, agroecological organizational structures become essential to scaling-out and scaling-up processes. We discuss the role of the state in determining the popular diffusion of agroecological methods and thinking across the Nicaraguan countryside.