Marginalised Small-Scale Farmers as Actors in Just Circular-Economy Transitions: Exploring Opportunities to Circulate Crop Residue as Raw Material in India

Abstract

<p>Facing substantial sustainability challenges, sustainable transitions to circular systems are<br />increasingly called for. The use of biomass to produce textile fibers is a niche that could contribute to a<br />circular textile system. In this niche, farmers supplying biomass would play a crucial role. Through a<br />literature review, we argue in this article that farmers are important actors in this context, but their<br />agency is limited by numerous institutional factors, such as cultivation practices, labor markets,<br />and information systems. These factors together can create an institutional void, which can hamper<br />both the agency of farmers and their ability to participate, as well as the justness of the niche. The void’s<br />strength depends on the institutional interface a farmer is subjected to. Before just transitions to<br />circular systems can occur, marginalized actors’ agency and ability to participate in the niche, in a just<br />way, must be improved, by decreasing the strength of the institutional void.<br /></p>