全球智库信息集成服务系统

Prajapeertu (‘people’s verdict’) was devised as a means of allowing the people most affected by the Andhra Pradesh government’s Vision 2020 for food and farming to shape a vision of their own. The members of the jury, drawn from communities of small and marginal farmers, interrogated a range of witnesses including representatives from the Government of AP, a transnational agrochemical company, NGOs, universities and government advisory panels and compared alternative development models for the rural economy. They rejected land consolidation, displacement of rural people, contract farming, GM crops, and mechanisation, all of which formed part of Vision 2020, and instead called for self-reliance and community control over resources and recognition of local knowledge and institutions. The report covers the methodology and implementation of, and rationale behind, deliberative democracy and citizen empowerment, and how these processes can be used to further political change, human rights, social justice, and empowerment.