What We Gained and What We Lost: Women Farmer Members’ Narratives of Socio-Economic Empowerment and Agriculture Knowledge Change in Cooperatives

Abstract

This narrative study explores the lifelong learning experiences and empowerment of women members of cooperatives in Nepal. The participants are women who faced some restricted in formal education due to socio-economic barriers and gendered norms. The study employs narrative inquiry and Naila Kabeer's empowerment theory, encompassing resources, agency, and achievements. The study examines the influence of cooperative participation on women's learning trajectories and socio economic involvement. It also explores the influence of modern agricultural methods towards indigenous knowledge systems. The findings show that agricultural cooperatives are important places for women to learn, as they provide access to economic, social, and informational resources, including credit, savings plans, agricultural inputs, training programs, leadership opportunities, and market connections. These resources helped members get more income from agriculture activities. But not all participants achieve the results in the same way. Women could use these resources only if they had land, risk taking capacity, were at a certain point in their lives, had time, and thought about debt and leadership in a certain way. At the same time, cooperative-driven learning and market-oriented agricultural practices pushed traditional knowledge to the side. This happened because the market and training led by cooperatives favored high-yield and standardized methods. Women's stories show that they often made choices that were good for their finances rather than for their culture. At the same time, there are good efforts to combine old and new ways of doing things. The research indicates that empowerment through cooperatives is not linear and is context dependent.