New Books in Economics Jeff Neilson, "Fortress Farming: Agrarian Transitions, Livelihoods, and Coffee Value Chains in Indonesia" (Cornell UP, 2025)
Oct 25, 2025
Jeff Neilson, an Associate Professor specializing in economic geography, dives into the transformative world of rural Indonesia. He discusses the concept of 'fortress farming,' where smallholders use coffee cultivation as a safety net while seeking income outside agriculture. Neilson explores how off-farm activities impact farming identities and yield decisions. He highlights the challenges posed by dominant corporations in the coffee value chain and calls for new research to address stalled agrarian transitions and the future of livelihood resilience.
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Institutional Environment Is Multi-Scalar Incentives
- Neilson defines 'institutional environment' as multi-scalar rules and norms shaping incentives.
- It includes local cultural norms plus national and global actors affecting farmers' livelihoods.
Livelihoods Approach Captures Bottom-Up Strategies
- Neilson favors the livelihoods approach to capture household-level strategies from the bottom up.
- He stresses non-economic factors, like cultural resources, shape diverse rural portfolios.
Stalled Agrarian Transition Linked To Deindustrialization
- Neilson links stalled agrarian transition to premature deindustrialization in late-industrializing countries.
- Households often keep farmland while engaging in non-farm jobs, producing a partial shift away from full productivist agriculture.
