No full-text available
To read the full-text of this research,
you can request a copy directly from the authors.
Withering Family Farms
Abstract
Small and marginal farmers seem to be trapped in a precarious persistence between the city slums and empty villages. The study began by placing the precariousness of a smallholder family farm at the centre and considering various schools of thoughts on peasants, family farms and agriculturists, before using these terms interchangeably. This study steers away both from a rural productivity approach looking at the efficiency and scalability of smallholdings, as much as from an ethnographic narration of distress. It argues the need to find ways to sustain smallholders in an era of urbanisation. In that process, it illuminates why a socio-economic constituency with widespread presence and multiple nomenclature is invisible to the society. The motivation behind carrying out the study was the felt need to reverse an apparent invisibilisation of the smallholder constituency. In this effort, the study brings together the history of governance and agro-ecology, and the political-economic and socio-institutional angles associated with livelihood and distributional perspectives, using empirical observations from Karnataka State. Why, where and how of the study are detailed in the first five chapters of the book, before presenting the site-specific features of the urban–agrarian dynamics in Chaps. 6 – 9. This final chapter synthesises and highlights the essence of all previous chapters, though not in any sequential order of study sites.
Based on a household survey among a sample of small farmers from different parts of Karnataka who had migrated to various urban areas of the state, this chapter maps characteristics of farmer migrants, to understand the direct and indirect drivers behind farmers’ decision to migrate and to examine how they fare with a switch in occupation and location. Multi-fold and long-term agrarian crisis on the one side and urban opportunities on the other, result in small farm holders switching to non-farm occupations. Relatively better infrastructure, muted caste hierarchy and employment options for the whole family provide a pull towards the city. More often, small farmers are pushed to migration by ecological changes, indebtedness, land acquisition or social conflicts, with varied and unpredictable changes in their quality of life.
E-Commerce is playing one of the vital roles in business options and facilitates to explore in the future. E-commerce is concerning the paradigm shift in the business world for trading. Forecast of E-commerce is showing extraordinary prospects in business growth of Indian economy. The customer base of online shopping is augmented by using internet of things (IOT) and mobile phone applications. Consequently the Indian e-commerce business has seen exciting growth in since from few years. It taking into consideration India's demographic payment systems and increasing internet accessibility, the E-commerce business is growing up to greater heights. However, India's overall retail opportunity is substantial; the online business is plagued with some critical challenges. Hence, in attending current study has been carried out to depict the present condition and the future prospective of e-commerce business in India. It facilitates to analyze the present trends, explore the challenges and opportunities of e-commerce business in India.
A critical analysis of popular narrative of agrarian crisis in contemporary India.
The process of policymaking in India has largely ignored the nature of the interaction between nature and institutions. One aspect of this interaction, that is, the consequences of the efforts of the state to overcome the constraints posed by nature is discussed in this essay. It does so by taking William Cronon's concept of first nature to the southern Karnataka district of Mandya to argue that, despite the success of the Krishnaraja Sagar dam, small peasant agriculture that was the consequence, at least in part, of first nature limited the growth of agrarian capital in the district, leaving it dependent on state capital.
Urbanisation is a global trend rapidly transforming the biophysical and socioeconomic structures of metropolitan areas. To better understand (and perhaps control) these processes, more interdisciplinary research must be dedicated to the rural–urban interface. This also calls for a common reference system describing intermediate stages along a rural–urban gradient. The present paper constructs a simple index of urbanisation for villages in the Greater Bangalore Area, using GIS analysis of satellite images, and combining basic measures of building density and distance. The correlation of the two parameters and discontinuities in the frequency distribution of the combined index indicate highly dynamic stages of transformation, spatially clustered in the rural–urban interface. This analysis is substantiated by a qualitative assessment of village morphologies. The index presented here serves as a starting point in a large, coordinated study of rural–urban transitions. It was used to stratify villages for random sampling in order to perform a representative socioeconomic household survey, along with agricultural experiments and environmental assessments in various subsamples. Later on, it will also provide a matrix against which the results can be aligned and evaluated. In this process, the measures and classification systems themselves can be further refined and elaborated.
This paper analyzes how peasant movements scale up agroecology. It specifically examines Zero Budget Natural Farming (ZBNF), a grassroots peasant agroecology movement in Karnataka, India. ZBNF ends reliance on purchased inputs and loans for farming, positioning itself as a solution to extreme indebtedness and suicides among Indian farmers. The ZBNF movement has achieved massive scale not only because of effective farming practices, but because of a social movement dynamic – motivating members through discourse, mobilizing resources from allies, self-organized pedagogical activities, charismatic and local leadership, and generating a spirit of volunteerism among its members. This paper was produced as part of a self-study process in La Via Campesina, the global peasant movement.
A growing rentier economy is driving urbanisation infrastructure projects in India without distributive linkages with industrialisation. This rentier economy brings within its purview various combinations of policy such as speculative land markets, real estate and other urban infrastructure investments by global and domestic investors, private consultants and developers, interests within the state at various levels, and landowners willing and able to benefit from rentiering. It hinges crucially on ownership of land, and hence on deeply unequal geographies of rent. There is a need to distinguish rent-driven urbanisation infrastructure projects from industrialisation and concomitant job-creation. The peasantry emerges as absolute surplus population irrelevant to this geography of rent, except as an obstacle to growth.
The current and expected growth of the world’s population warrants an increased production of high-quality animal protein. Dairy farming is regarded as one of the important ways of satisfying this need to meet the growing demand for milk, especially in developing countries. The focus on crossbreeding and increasing the productivity of dairy cattle has, besides enhanced milk production, also resulted in an increased use of agro-chemicals, mainly antibiotics and anti-parasite drugs. The residues of these agro-chemicals, if not managed properly, could leak into the environment, affecting natural processes, biodiversity, and soil life. Public health can also be affected due to residues in milk and meat, especially in countries with insufficient food quality controls. These processes contribute to the growing global threat to human and animal health posed by multi-resistant microbes. This article discusses the differences and similarities of dairy farming, and the effect on public and environmental health, between the Netherlands, India, Ethiopia, and Uganda, emphasizing the strategies that have been developed during the E-Motive exchange project to reduce the use of antibiotics and other chemicals in dairy farming. Proposed solutions include raising consciousness about the risk of antibiotics and their effect on food quality, and implementing the Natural Livestock Farming five-layer approach for reducing the use of antibiotics and other chemicals. This approach is based on improving animal and farm management, revitalizing ethno veterinary knowledge and the use of medicinal plants, genetic improvement through strategic use of local breeds, establishing quality control systems in the dairy chain, and extra payment to farmers for residue-free milk.
Based on data from the four minor irrigation censuses conducted by the Ministry of Water Resources between 1986-87 and 2006-07, this paper points out that India's groundwater sector has slowed down since 2000-01, most markedly in eastern India. It examines the reasons for this and also looks into how farmers have been responding to lowered groundwater tables. Besides identifying some factors that have not changed since the mid-1980s, it emphasises that there are wide regional variations in the country's groundwater economy and management strategies need to be crafted accordingly.
Responding to agrarian crisis at home, cash crop cultivators hailing from the South Indian district of Wayanad increasingly engage in the seasonal production of ginger in other states of India. This is a purely profit-based and unsustainable crop boom that takes a toll on both labor
and the environment. This ethnographic analysis of speculative ginger cultivation situates this emerging economic complex in the regional political ecology, farming practices, individual farmers' hopes and aspirations, and in relation to the qualities of ginger as a cultivar. It argues that
ginger is a special kind of boom crop and that its cultivation on large tracts of leased land is the manifestation of a moment of agrarian uncertainty and the neoliberalization of agriculture in South India coproduced by the properties of ginger. As a neoliberal boom crop, ginger exemplifies
a regime of flexibilization of agrarian accumulation that has proved a profitable move for some, but has brought financial ruin and debt traps for many others.
This paper considers the idea of a "Karnataka model of development," with its emphasis on technology and governance led development. It is the introduction to a Symposium in Economic and Political Weekly on "Governance and Development in Karnataka." Based on the papers in the Symposium, and on the wider literature, the paper explores the interpretation and application of the idea. It argues that while some of Karnataka's experience does indeed conform to the model and thus holds out lessons for development, there are significant gaps between reality and the model, and these gaps have lessons for development as well.
This study of India's large dams is set in the dual context of state politics and social classes. It argues that efforts to spend public resources on these dams are not only uneconomical and non-sustainable, but have been monopolized by a privileged few. In confronting issues of water control, the book also examines larger environmental concerns.
Farmers are often blamed for destroying the tropical forest, especially in Laos. Converting shifting cultivation into cash
crop based agriculture is frequently presented as the solution for merging forest protection and poverty alleviation, but
many attempts have ended in failure. A rural development project has attempted to introduce medicinal cardamom (Amomum villosum) cultivation in the notably remote region of Phongsaly (northern Laos), for export to China. With nearly 300ha planted,
the crop now involves about 75% of the farmers in the region. Farmers fitted cardamom into their farming system, to suit their
needs for sustainability with a crop compatible with existing practices. Results indicate that introducing a cash crop into
a shifting cultivation region is possible if a greater attention is paid to: (i) appraise how the new crop fits into the farming
systems; (ii) prioritise economic issues over agronomic matters, in particular identify markets, traders or commercial risks.
This book discusses water distribution in the Tungabhadra Left Bank Canal irrigation system in Raichur district, Karnataka, India. The system is located in interior South India, where rainfall is limited (approximately 600 mm annually) and extremely variable. The region suffered from failed harvests and famines in the past. A large scale irrigation system was constructed to solve these problems. The system is operational since 1953 and was completed in 1968. The area to be irrigated is 240,000 ha.The Tungabhadra Left Bank Canal is a protective irrigation system. It has been designed to spread available water thinly over a large area. It involves supplementary or partial irrigation. Crop water requirements are not fully met. In a particular agricultural season only part of the area is irrigated. Not production per unit area is maximised, but production per unit water.The last point implies a fundamental contradiction inherent to protective irrigation. For a farmer with a given landholding maximisation of production per unit land is the obvious strategy, instead of contributing to the maximum total product given the volume of water. The most remunerative crops, rice and sugarcane, demand a lot of water. Farmers who have the opportunity therefore appropriate more water than their protective share. As a result others do not get their share. Irrigation water in the Tungabhadra Left Bank Canal, like in many other systems, is unequally distributed.The central theme of the thesis is the day to day occurrence of this unequal distribution of water. The book attempts an interdisciplinary analysis of `water control' at different levels: the tertiary unit, the secondary canal and the main (primary) canal. The technical/physical, organisational and socio-economic/political dimensions of water control are related. The central research question is the following.
How do the pattern of commoditisation, the form of state regulation and the characteristics of the technical infrastructure shape, and how are they in turn shaped by, the forms of organisation of water distribution in the Tungabhadra Left Bank Canal irrigation system?
The method is that of an intensive case study. The research started at the local level with the study of water distribution in a number of tertiary units (local irrigation units in which farmers distribute water among themselves), which were located in the upstream and downstream part of the irrigation system, and with a certain degree of water scarcity. The assumption was that scarcity would induce organisation.After research at this level the investigations gradually moved against the current onto the canal system and the distribution points located there, to the offices of the officials of the Irrigation Department who manage this part of the system, to the houses of politicians, to the shops of traders in seeds and fertiliser, and even to the High Court and Parliament of Karnataka. Mainly social-anthropological research techniques were used.The book has ten chapters. After an introduction chapter 2 discusses the theoretical framework of the analysis. Chapters 3 to 5 give background information on the phenomenon protective irrigation, the design of the system, and the socio-economic development in the region as a result of the introduction of irrigation. Chapters 6 to 9 are the core of the thesis. They discuss water distribution practices at different levels. Chapter 10 presents the conclusions and discusses the possibility of reform of the present situation with regard to water management.Chapter 2 introduces the two central concepts of the book. The first is the notion that irrigation systems are sociotechnical systems. They are heterogenous and complex because they consist of many different types of elements, which are related to each other in multifarious ways. The second concept is water control. Three dimensions of water control are distinguished: the technical/physical dimension, the organisational dimension and the socio-economic/political dimension. The central assumption is that these three dimensions are intimately related. Water control in irrigation is described as an example of politically contested resource use. With this description the importance of the social relations of power in the use of irrigation water is emphasised.Chapter 3 explains the meaning of protection and localisation. The notion of protection originated in British colonial irrigation policy. Three meanings of it are identified: 1) the general meaning of the function of irrigation to protect against drought/crop failure and famine), 2) protective irrigation as a financial-administrative class of irrigation works in the colonial period, and 3) protective irrigation as a specific type of irrigation in the technical, organisational and socio-economic/political sense. In South India, localisation is part of protection. Localisation is a form of land use planning in which the government legally prescribes which crops farmers can and cannot grow with the irrigation water.It is remarkable that the protection objective has remained a central element of Indian irrigation policy, also after independence, despite the (recognised) practice of unequal water distribution. The explanation of this persistence is found is the populist nature of the Indian political system. Politicians act as resource brokers who can secure their political support, among other ways, by getting canals constructed to their constituencies. At the same time they depend primarily on the category of large farmers within their constituency, who are the ones who tend to appropriate water above their protective share. For this reason politicians do not take action against unequal distribution. Because of the influence of politicians on their work, the officials of the Irrigation Department also find themselves in a difficult position.The genesis of the Tungabhadra Left Bank Canal is described in chapter 4. The history of the system starts in the period 1850-1860. The implementation of the plans made in that period and after it for a canal in Raichur district, was complicated by the relationship between Madras Presidency, directly ruled by the British, and the Nizam's Dominions, a formally independent Princely State. The Tungabhadra river was the border river of these two territories. The construction of a dam across it for creating a reservoir required agreement of both governments. Prolonged political negotiation was necessary to come to an agreement on the sharing of the available water. Despite the dominance of Madras presidency it was finally decided to share the water on a 50/50 basis. In 1944 an agreement was signed that allowed the start of the project, but negotiation protracted till 1976, among other things as a result of the reorganisation of the Indian States after independence.In 1945 construction of the project started. Once the available volume of water had been agreed, the further design was mainly done by engineers with little external influence. The cropping pattern was protective from the beginning, and in choice of canal alignments cost of construction was the major consideration. Social boundaries, like those of villages and farms, were not taken into consideration; topography and soil type have determined the design. The explanation of this lies in the very high social status of engineers in this period which made doubting their decisions impossible, and in the absence of institutions for discussion and negotiation regarding design elements.The introduction of irrigation in Raichur district has resulted in rapid economic development, which is described in chapter 5. Irrigation has induced the occurrence of intensive commercialised agricultural cultivation with high productivity. The migration of farmers from the neighbouring state of Andhra Pradesh to the new irrigation system has played a key role in this development. The migrant farmers came with sufficient investment capital and knowledge of irrigated agriculture, and started a farming system based on rice cultivation, and sugarcane to a lesser extent. Initially the local population had insufficient means for investment. The migrants bought land from local farmers. The larger local farmers used the returns of their land sales to invest in the development of their remaining land for irrigation (levelling, making field bunds). There has been a massive transfer of land to migrant farmers. In the course of time migrant as well as local farmers started to invest in pump irrigation, lifting water from the river and natural drains.A geographical pattern has emerged in which rich and middle peasants mainly have land in the upstream reaches of the canals, and small and poor peasants mainly in the downstream parts (the chapter first develops a typology of these four categories of farmers). Notwithstanding this general correlation of location and socio-economic class, the exact relationship differs from locality to locality. Migrant farmers could not always obtain land in the geographically most favourable locations. Sometimes water scarcity developed in areas where sufficient water was available earlier. The process of the relocation of farms in relation to access to water, continues to this day through the mechanisms of purchase and sale of land, the transfer of land in dowries, and through the acquisition of land by extending loans with land as collateral. The process of agrarian change can not be fully understood without incorporation of this inherent spatial dimension.Chapter 6 is the first chapter on day to day water distribution practices. It analyses events at the level of the tertiary unit, within which farmers distribute water among themselves. It was found that in many cases detailed systems of rules existed for rotational water distribution. These are based on the principles of zoning of the irrigated command area, and on a fixed irrigation time per unit area. The rules are used in periods of water scarcity. Outside these periods irrigation takes place on the basis of mutual agreement.Despite the fact that these rules incorporate equity principles, strongly unequal water distribution can be observed. The reasons for this are that the rules only refer to the supply of water, and that they are not applied continuously. The demand for water is differentiated. Small, downstream farmers adjust their crop choice to the anticipation that they will lose conflicts with large farmers on the distribution of water. Small farmers grow crops that demand less water, and thus avoid conflicts. However, these crops are also less remunerative. The anticipation is the product of the dependence of small farmers on large farmers for obtaining credit and for employment for themselves and their family members. Large farmers also act as representatives of the local irrigation unit in discussions with the Irrigation Department and in other activities to safeguard water supply.Water distribution at the level of the secondary canal, called distributary in India, is discussed in chapter 7 (organisational aspects) and chapter 8 (technical aspects). Chapter 7 describes which rules for rotational water distribution have emerged in the interaction of the Irrigation Department officials who manage these canals, and the water users. In many secondary canals rules for rotation exist, which are, like those at tertiary level, mobilised in times of scarcity. At this level the rules also do not accomplish equity in water distribution. They express the power balance between users in different parts of the irrigated area, and that between water users and the government administration.In contrast to what is often assumed, corruption is not the dominant mechanism in water distribution at secondary level in the Tungabhadra Left Bank Canal. The problematic relationship between government managers and water users are not translated into financial transactions, but into political mediation. In certain circumstances local politicians (members of parliament) can play an important role in water management. Politicians depend on the political support of farmers. In exchange for their votes farmers can ask the politician to influence the behaviour of Irrigation Department staff. The local members of parliament's power over the Irrigation Department staff is based on their influence on the three-yearly (or more frequent) transfer of government officials. In this way a `triangle of accommodation' emerges, in which none of the parties involved (farmers, officials and politicians) has absolute control, and in which continuous negotiation is necessary about the distribution of water.Chapter 8 concentrates on the structure that links the secondary canal with the local irrigation unit: the pipe outlet structure. Because the discharge that flows from the secondary canal to the field channel through the pipe of the pipe outlet structure, depends on the upstream as well as the downstream water level, and on the cross section of the pipe (which can be adjusted with a shutter), it is practically impossible to regulate the discharge with any degree of precision. As a result it is unknown how much water is exactly diverted by the pipe outlet structures. Why this type of outlet structure remains in use, and have not been replaced by outlet structures used elsewhere in India that are more fit for the task of equitable distribution, is not completely clear.In practice there is substantial variation in the precise characteristics of the pipe outlet structure: the robustness of construction (concrete, stones and mortar), the location of the shutter (visible or non-visible, accessible or non-accessible), the type of lock or locks, and other characteristics. This variation expresses water distribution practices and problems along the canal. The characteristics and the state of the outlet structures are an expression of the relationships between different groups of farmers along the canal and between farmers and the Irrigation Department.The last chapter on water distribution practices, chapter 9, discusses the process of institutional change within the Irrigation Department in relation to main canal management. In a period of two years with extreme water shortage (1988-1990) a number of institutional changes took place that have improved water supply to the downstream parts of the canal. The original rules for distribution of water based on the localisation pattern have been abandoned. To replace these, new rules have been adopted that on the one hand consolidate inequality, but on the other hand provide a more realistic basis for negotiating water supply to the downstream part of the canal. As a result of the introduction of these new rules water supply to the downstream part has been improved, particularly it has become more stable.The concluding chapter, chapter 10, gives a summary reply to the central research question, and discusses the implications of the analysis for reform of irrigation management. It is argued that the analysis has identified both a number of structural limitations or hurdles for reform, and has shown that the day to day practice of water distribution provides opportunities for change. The opportunities are related to the capacity for self-management of water users, the joint formulation of rules for distribution by farmers and Irrigation Department staff, and the technical creativity and the possibility of institutional change within the Irrigation Department.After this the different perspectives that exist on the generally felt need for reform are discussed. These perspectives vary from technical and managerial arguments for `good management', economic arguments for `efficient management', ecological arguments for `sustainable management', to political arguments for `egalitarian and democratic' management. An attempt is made to describe a comprehensive approach in which technical, organisational, economic and political elements are intertwined.As regards the irrigation policy reform situation in Karnataka it is argued that more attention for the participation of water users and other interest groups in the formulation of policy is necessary. At present, efforts to change policy and practice take place in a rather isolated manner at high levels in the government, or in individual, local situations in irrigation systems. The creation of a broad support base for reform in society is considered a priority.Finally a number of research topics are listed and briefly discussed that could contribute to the reform agenda. These are the design process of canal irrigation technology, the political dimension of irrigation, and the issue of use(r) rights. This research should be situated in the daily practice of water management, that is, on the waterfront.
In understanding contemporary rural India, it is important to go beyond rendering the rural as synonymous with villages and agriculture or focusing on the ‘agrarian question’. Given the multiple contradictions that the varied ruralities of India are exhibiting, it may be relevant to locate the rural as being constituted by the triangulated structures of reproduced caste, an economics of neglect, and a politics of rescue. The result of such triangulation is evident in the range of involutions that are manifesting across rural India. These include not only a sharpened differentiation of classes and households, but also forms of separation-integration of key rural institutions and structures, and the erosion of rural citizens. All these have implications for liveability and the nature of democracy in rural areas.
Crop seeds are a factor of production that can be produced on farm or bought, commodified in varying ways and degrees, and that can change slowly or rapidly—all of which directly impact the crucial process of farmer “skilling.” Seed choices also offer a unique empirical window through which farmer knowledge may be studied. Although other studies have examined the differences between cash and food crops, this research provides new insights into varyingly commodified crops within the same agrarian system. When planting rice, genetically modified hybrid cotton seeds, and garden vegetables, farmers in Telangana, India, face different constraints and opportunities to learn about their seeds and practice that knowledge in the field. These differences arise from agronomic properties of the seeds themselves as well as from the sociocultural meaning that structures the context in which farmers buy, grow, and save them. This measurable discrepancy in farmer knowledge and experience presents an opportunity to examine the variable impact of seed commodification as it is experienced by the same group of farmers across several different crops. Building on theories of commodification and agricultural knowledge, we propose that the different ways in which farmer knowledge operates in these crops reflect a spectrum on which knowledge and commodification are inversely related.
The last budget of the Modi government comes against the backdrop of severe agrarian and rural distress. It is also the last opportunity to undo the damage caused to the rural economy by this government in the last four years. While the government has finally acknowledged the gravity of the situation, its response has been limited to empty rhetoric without any financial commitment. Going by the past record of the government, it is clear that it is serious neither in its commitment nor in its intent. The half-hearted measures are not only too little and too late, it is also clear that this budget is unlikely to revive the rural economy.
This paper examines Karnataka's pioneering agricultural output marketing reforms with the twin goals of assessing the state and challenges of implementation and to glean lessons from Karnataka's experience for India's e-National Agriculture Market. Through a field study of 10 mandis across the state, we find that while Karnataka has been consistently pushing through with reforms, in the context of deeply entrenched relationships between farmers, traders and commission agents, there remain significant challenges. We argue, based on Karnataka's experience, that agricultural market reform in India rests on three pillars - institutions that establish the rules of the game, incentives for agents to participate actively in the market, and infrastructure to support the modernised trading platform. Unless reforms address all these three issues simultaneously, they are unlikely to succeed.
Classically educated, Mark Wilks (c.1760-1831) joined the Madras army of the East India Company and would go on to serve as political resident at the court of Mysore from 1803 to 1808. He also later served as governor of Saint Helena from 1813 to 1816, during which time he witnessed the arrival of Napoleon Bonaparte. Elected to the Manx parliament in 1816, Wilks became its speaker in 1826 and was elected a fellow of the Royal Society in the same year. Drawing on state records and his own experiences, he first published this acclaimed three-volume history of the kingdom of Mysore between 1810 and 1817. Volume 2 details the first (1767-9) and second (1779-84) Anglo-Mysore wars, concluding with the death of Hyder Ali (c.1720-82) and the accession of Tipu Sultan (1750-99).
Warangal District, Andhra Pradesh, India, is a key cotton-growing area in one of the most closely watched arenas of the global struggle over genetically modified crops. In 2005 farmers adopted India's first genetically modified crop, Bt cotton, in numbers that resemble a fad. Various parties, including the biotechnology firm behind the new technology, interpret the spread as the result of farmer experimentation and management skill, alluding to orthodox innovation-diffusion theory. However, a multiyear ethnography of Warangal cotton farmers shows a striking pattern of localized, ephemeral cotton seed fads preceding the spread of the genetically modified seeds. The Bt cotton fad is symptomatic of systematic disruption of the process of experimentation and development of management skill. In fact, Warangal cotton farming offers a case study in agricultural deskilling, a process that differs in fundamental ways from the better-known process of industrial deskilling. In terms of cultural evolutionary theory, deskilling severs a vital link between environmental and social learning, leaving social learning to propagate practices with little or no environmental basis. However, crop genetic modification is not inherently deskilling and, ironically, has played a role in reinvolving farmers in Gujarat in the process of breeding. © 2007 by The Wenner-Gren Foundation for Anthropological Research. All rights reserved.
Both Historical and Current Material On Peasantry: The Social Structure of Peasantry; Peasantry as An Economy; the Peasantry as A Class; the Peasantry as A Culture; and The Peasantry as An Object of Policies of The Modern State.
The recent incidence of caste violence in Karnataka forces the dalit movement there to face the issue of internal conflicts and contradictions, especially subcaste politics of identity formation.
Pioneering research on downstream linkages from agriculture is said to demonstrate that consumption links rather than production links are the main source of indrect growth effects, that these consumption links take the form of labour‐intensive goods and services produced locally, and that the largest farm enterprises are most locally multiplicative of activities mopping up surplus rural labour. This article has two purposes. First, the methodologies, assumptions and data base for the quantification of the local and non‐local regional multiplier effects from agricultural development are examined. Second, the contradictory interpretations for agricultural policy which have arisen from these exercises of quantification are discussed and an attempt made to explain their bases.
South India's Krishna Basin is dotted with irrigation systems inherited from the British and built so solidly that many of them operate today virtually as the British left them nearly forty years ago. Ironically, very few of the projects work well today or worked well in the past, when the British operated them. The fault lies in the assumptions made by the British that farmers in this part of India would be willing to irrigate crops like sorghum and that it made sense to build irrigation works to be used perhaps only in times of famine. The fact is that project farmers were typically willing to irrigate only paddy and sugar cane, crops so demanding of water that only a small amount of project acreage could be irrigated; in times of drought, moreover, canal managers were unwilling to cut off the supplies to cane and paddy growers for fear of jeopardizing project operation in years of normal rain. Although the British acted under the pressure of famine, the legacy of their short-sighted planning persists today, for the old patterns are so entrenched that modern farmers, willing to irrigate crops like sorghum, cannot dislodge the paddy and cane crops that crowd near the headends of the canal systems. The tail ends of the projects remain dry, now as ever.
The abstract for this document is available on CSA Illumina.To view the Abstract, click the Abstract button above the document title.
This article analyses the impact of agricultural liberalisation on different farming classes in the region of Telangana in South India. The region has been witnessing significant growth in real agricultural output over the last 15 years. At the same time, as NSS (National Sample Survey) household survey data indicate, there have been significant welfare declines not only for marginal farmers and landless labour, but for other groups as well. There have also been more than a thousand farmer suicides between 1998 and 2002. I argue in this article that during the liberalisation period, that is, post 1990, agricultural growth and increased distress have become mutually intertwined. I use the terms, growth-inducing distress and distress-inducing growth to explain this apparent paradox.
Small farms characterize agriculture in Asia. With the fragmentation of land holdings, the average size of farms fell in the region, while the number of small-size holdings increased significantly. These small-scale farmers play an important role for food security and poverty alleviation. However, whether and how these small farms can survive under globalization is a hotly debated topic. In particular, the traditional claim that "small is beautiful," which is based on empirical observation that small farms present higher land productivity than large farms, is being challenged. It has been shown that a positive relationship also exists between farm size and labor productivity (and therefore income). To help these small farms prosper under increasing globalization, the governments have to change the "business as usual" attitude. Innovative land reform, for example, is crucial to secure property rights to farmers and to increase farm size. Equally important is the reform of public institutions in order to help small farmers to have access to credit, marketing, and technology. Moreover, promoting diversification in the production of high-value commodities can play an important role in raising the small-holders' income. Finally, policies that facilitate urban-rural migration and promote the development of the rural nonfarm sector are essential to help alleviate poverty among small-farm households and among the rural poor in general. Copyright 2005 International Association of Agricultural Economics.
An ideology for the provincial propertied class
- K Balagopal
Balagopal, K. (1987b). An ideology for the provincial propertied class. Economic and Political
Weekly, 2177-2178.
The Oxford history of the British empire, companion series
- W Beinart
- L Hughs
Beinart, W., & Hughs, L. (2007). Environment and empire. In R. Luis (Ed.), The Oxford history of
the British empire, companion series. Oxford University Press.
Administering land reforms in Karnataka
- S V Deshpande
- V Torgal
- SV Deshpande
Deshpande, S. V., & Torgal, V. (1994). Administering land reforms in Karnataka. Economic and
Political Weekly, 29(33), 2132-2134.
Small holdings in India and their remedies
- B R Ambedkar
- BR Ambedkar
Ambedkar, B. R. (1918). Small holdings in India and their remedies. Journal of Indian Economic
Society, I, 1918.
Riches and poverty, property-owners and workers in the countryside
- I A Lenin
Lenin, I. A. (1903). Riches and poverty, property-owners and workers in the countryside. In To the
rural poor (pp. 377-390).
Development issues of our time
- R P Mishra
Mishra, R. P. (1985). Development issues of our time. New Delhi: Concept Publishing Company.
Effects of land reform: What next?
- M A S Rajan
Rajan, M. A. S. (1997). Effects of land reform: What next? In Aziz & Krishna (Eds.), Land reforms
in India: Karnataka promises kept and missed (Vol. 4, pp. 83-84). Sage Publications.
The medieval Deccan: Peasants, social systems and states sixteenth to eighteenth centuries
- A.-H Fukazawa
Fukazawa, A.-H. (2002). The medieval Deccan: Peasants, social systems and states sixteenth to
eighteenth centuries. Delhi: Oxford University Press.
A nightmare called science city
- C Gowda
Gowda, C. (2016, June 29). A nightmare called science city. Bangalore Mirror.
Imperial gazetteer of India. Provincial series
- M M Khan
Khan, M. M. (1909). Imperial gazetteer of India. Provincial series. Hyderabad state.
Atrocities on dalits in Gulbarga-upper caste hold on police
- A S J Pinto
Pinto, A. S. J. (1994). Atrocities on dalits in Gulbarga-upper caste hold on police. Economic and
Political Weekly, 29(16-17).