Structural Transformation and Agrarian Change in India

✍ Scribed by Goran Djurfeldt, Srilata Sircar

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2016
• Tongue: English
• Leaves: 189
• Series: Routledge Studies in Development Economics
• Edition: 1
• Category: Library

✦ Synopsis

The landlord and his emaciated labourer are symbolic of Indian agriculture. However, this relationship has now changed as large landowners have fallen from their superior position. This volume explores how this emblematic pair is becoming a thing of the past.

Structural Transformation and Agrarian Change in India investigates whether family labour farms are gaining prominence as a consequence of the structural transformation of the economy. The authors work alongside Weberian methodology of ideal types and develop different types of family farms; among them family labour farms that rely mainly on family workers, contrasted with capitalist farms that depend on hired labour. Agriculture is shrinking as a part of the total GDP at the same time as agricultural labour is shrinking as part of the total labour force. The changing agrarian structure is explored with the use of unique long-term survey data and statistical models. Results show that India is approaching farm structures that are typical of East and South East Asia, with pluriactive smallholders as the norm.

This book successfully criticizes popular narratives about Indian agricultural development as well as simplistic evolutionist, Marxist or neoclassical prognoses. It is of great importance to those who study development economics, development studies and South Asian economics.

✦ Table of Contents

Cover
Half Title
Title Page
Copyright Page
Table of Contents
List of illustrations
List of tables
Acknowledgements
Introduction
1 Capitalism and family farming
2 Structural transformation and farming
3 Urbanization and agrarian change: a view from the margins
4 What you might like to know about regression
5 Drivers of agrarian transformation
6 Volatility in land distribution
7 Relative change in income
8 Conclusion: no place for family farms?
Appendix 1: Data sources
Appendix 2: Multilevel modelling with MLWin
Appendix 3: Detailed model results and analyses of residuals
Appendix 4: Descriptive statistics
References
Index