Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Geoforum journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/geoforum The emergence of a hybrid mode of knowledge production in the Generation Challenge Programme Rice Research Network (GCP-RRN) in India: Exploring the concept of Commons-Based Peer Production (CBPP) ☆ Soutrik Basu a,b, ⁎ , Joost Jongerden a,c , Guido Ruivenkamp a,d a Sociology and Anthropology of Development (SADE), Wageningen School of Social Sciences (WASS), Wageningen University, De Leeuwenborch, Hollandsweg 1, 6706 KN Wageningen, The Netherlands b Institute of Development Studies Kolkata (IDSK), Salt Lake Campus, DD 27/D, Sector 1, Salt Lake, Kolkata 700064, India c Asian Platform for Global Sustainability & Transcultural Studies, Kyoto University, Japan d University of Humanistic Studies, Utrecht, The Netherlands ARTICLE INFO Keywords: CBPP Knowledge production Research network Rice GCP India ABSTRACT The Generation Challenge Programme (GCP) was an international agrarian knowledge-production programme created in 2003 by the CGIAR. GCP aims at developing drought tolerant varieties by reconciling upstream biotechnology based advanced research with the downstream development at the farmer's field. The objective of this paper is to apply the theory of Commons Based Peer Production (CBPP) to analyse the knowledge production process of GCP, especially the case of drought tolerant rice research network in Indian context (GCP-RRN). CBPP represents the theorisation of a mode of production that can be distinguished from market (private) and state (public) knowledge-production systems that was developed by observing the phenomena of Free and Open Source Software (FOSS). The organisational attributes of the CBPP mode applied in computer software pro- duction include the modulation of work, small-size granularity of components, and mechanisms that integrate these modules into an end product. Socio-economically, this form of production is based on cooperation, col- laboration and collective action rather than property, contract and managerial hierarchies. This paper argues that GCP-RRN knowledge production is basically a hybridised one in which there are certain inclinations to- wards CBPP within certain larger context, and there are other attributes too that do not fall within CBPP the- orisation. Further, this paper elaborates on the implications of this hybridised model for agrarian knowledge production discourse and institutions. 1. Introduction The Generation Challenge Programme (GCP) was an international agrarian knowledge-production programme created in 2003 by the CGIAR. Running for ten years until being wound up in 2014, the GCP had as its general strategic aim the improvement of crops for drought- prone and harsh environments through advanced upstream research and development at the farmer’s field through the facilitation of downstream delivery, mostly through other partners (CIMMYT et al., 2003; Vroom, 2010). The GCP was organised within a huge, partner- ship-based network for agricultural research and development among CGIAR institutes, National Agricultural Research Systems (NARS) in- stitutes and other private institutes (Basu et al., 2011, 2017b; Basu, 2016). The objective of this paper is to analyse the knowledge production of the GCP through the lens of Commons Based Peer Production (CBPP), a mode of production distinct from both market (private) and state (public) systems, developed by Benkler (2002) in the sphere of in- formation and communications technology (ICT). (Benkler, 2006). Within the work of the GCP – a colossal programme (see Basu, 2016, p. 18) – we focus on the case of the drought-tolerant rice research network located mainly in India (henceforth, the GCP-RRN). The main aim is http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.geoforum.2017.06.008 Received 16 May 2017; Received in revised form 2 June 2017; Accepted 8 June 2017 ☆ Initial ideas of this paper were presented by the first author to the following conferences: 2nd IASC Thematic Conference on Conference on Knowledge Commons: governing pooled knowledge resources, New York University, New York, USA. 5–6 September 2014; and 77th Annual Meeting Rural Sociological Society, New Orleans, USA. 1–3 August 2014. ⁎ Corresponding author at: Sociology and Anthropology of Development (SADE), Wageningen School of Social Sciences (WASS), Wageningen University, De Leeuwenborch, Hollandsweg 1, 6706 KN Wageningen, The Netherlands. E-mail addresses: soutrik@idsk.edu.in (S. Basu), joost.jongerden@wur.nl (J. Jongerden), guido.ruivenkamp@wur.nl (G. Ruivenkamp). Geoforum 84 (2017) 107–116 0016-7185/ © 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. MARK