Challenging Growth Narratives in Organic Agricultural Policy: Case studies from Sikkim(India), Ndiob (Senegal), and Kauswagan (The Philippines)

Neoliberal rural development patterns have restructured rural areas by reinforcing (neo)colonial power relations, oligopolistic value-chains and monotheistic notions of knowledge and development. This paper critically examines the narrative of organic agriculture as a transformative food policy , evaluating internationally acclaimed organic agrarian policies within a post-growth framework. The analysis demonstrates that top-down policy development and asymmetrical multistakeholder dialogue frequently reinforce (neo)colonial power dynamics and provoke renewed resistance among rural populations. Through an analysis of three case studies in the Global South (Sikkim, India; Ndiob, Senegal; and Kauswagan, the Philippines), this study demonstrates that top-down sustainable interventions often result in further deregulation of agricultural contexts as they create new opportunities for growth and capital accumulation.