Abstract
The book How Do Small Farmers Fare? Evidence from Village Studies in India explores the sustainability of small farms against the backdrop of a village study conducted as part of the Project on Agrarian Relations in India (PARI) through household and farm economy surveys by the Foundation for Agrarian Studies. Out of the 17 villages across nine states in India in the study, in 8 villages 80% of all landholdings are small farmer households, in 7 villages they comprise between 50% and 80% of farms, and in only 2 do small farmer households account for fewer than 30% of farms. Considering the fact that nearly 85% of all landholdings in India belongs to small farm households of fewer than two hectares, the book argues that this numerical importance makes it a significant subject for detailed exploration. Multiple authors across the disciplines of development studies, economics, management, agrarian studies, and social sciences from various respected academic and research institutions in India have contributed to the volume. The book is comprised of 12 chapters on the conceptual framework, methodology, multidimensional features, and perspectives on small farming in India along with policy implications for the agrarian sector.
The unwavering position of the volume is the argument that there exists a ‘romanticization’ of small farms in the popular discourse, which is connected with factors like efficiency, agro-biodiversity, dietary diversity, subsistence and livelihood, nonmarket valuation, and sustainability. The findings of the village study are utilized by the different authors to question the concept of efficiency and sustainability associated with small farms by proving that small land size does not indicate better land productivity or ensure subsistence to small farmer households. Different dimensions of small farming are scrutinized in detail to delineate the collapse of small holdings and the disruption of agrarian livelihood under capitalism.
Intensive family labor in small farmer households is found to be high as a result of high rent rates, unmet consumption requirements, animal husbandry, crop pattern, land size, irrigation requirements, and homestead cultivation. The ratio of workers in small farmer house is high compared to landlord classes. A female workforce of 60% or more can be seen in the majority of the villages surveyed, which highlights the importance of understanding the issues associated with the feminization of labor, especially considering the invisibility of women labor in rural economies. Another major argument in the book is that the small farmer households accounted for a larger portion of total labor use, with prominence given to hired labor in various facets of crop production. Low returns from cultivation as well as input costs in the form of requirements related to machinery, labor, irrigation, rent, and the like force small farmers to labor out in other skilled and nonskilled labor settings. It is argued that the combined strategy of family labor and additional labor indicates double exploitation, which is accentuated by factors like ownership of land, access to facilities, and availability of natural resources.
The volume argues that small land size does not correlate with better productivity. Even within the same agro-ecological zone, the net income per hectare of the large farmers is double or three times the net income of small farmers. Because that income is insufficient for survival, the household strives for income from multiple sources, thus moving towards proletarianism without altering the peasant status. Moreover, the farmers are forced to remain in agriculture in spite of the low income, due to the low wage rate as well as the irregularity of labor from nonagricultural sources. The volume explores the magnitude of income deprivation experienced by small farmer households and uses the data to question the myth of self-sustaining small farmer households.
Two-thirds of the total cost of cultivation in small farms is found to be caused by hired human labor, bullock and machine labor, the absence (or faulty supply) of electricity, seeds, fertilizers, insecticides and pesticides, poor access to irrigation, dependence on private water market, land rent, etc. The disparity in the ownership of the facilities contributes to the total cost. Wherever the cost is found to be lower, it is argued that a high level of family labor exploitation is observed. When adding family labor cost, the total cost incurred in small family households is found to be higher. Variations in minimum support price (MSP), transportation costs, poor access to agriculture commodity markets, the absence of cold storage facilities, market price fluctuations, and the absence of crop insurance also are observed as adversely affecting the income of small farmers. The absence of choice for small farmers in determining and controlling input costs can result in making the effective cost of agriculture higher for small farmers.
Highlighting that extreme temperatures can lower the yield and affect crop production, the volume argues that the resultant instability can have a differential impact on vulnerable communities and developing countries. The dominant classes in the villages are unaffected by climate change because they have the financial capacity and reserves to recover losses. Moreover, it argues that social and economic development in different sectors like food security, education, infrastructure, and health should act as a defense against climate change. Here the argument emphasizes that the threat faced by marginal farmers is due to disparities in socioeconomic conditions rather than direct environmental factors and argues for the social and economic transformation of the villages for better climate adaptation. Here we encounter a reductionist approach toward global environment destruction and its contribution to climate change. It fails to realize that hierarchies in class relations are sustained and furthered by environmental degradation. Instead, it focuses on techniques for climate adaptation rather than on critiquing our existing production and consumption practices, which are not only coercive and exploitative, but also the main causative factors of climate change.
The volume depicts the poor living standards of small farmers in India in terms of housing and other basic infrastructural amenities like electricity, water, and sanitation facilities, especially the deprivation of Scheduled Caste (SC), Scheduled Tribe (ST), and Muslim households. It also explores how social and cultural factors accentuate the already debilitating factors in ensuring basic amenities to the farmers. The deplorable state of education and literacy rate among small farmer households is explored, with a focus on the low access of women and marginalized households to education. In addition to inadequacy of credit schemes and bureaucratization of banking procedures in villages, the lack of land ownership and poor social and educational status affects credit support. The result is increased dependence on informal money lenders, which results in further exploitation and oppression. Finally, it is rightly argued that poor educational status can adversely affect the information flow on farming practices and access to social support systems.
The volume is a welcome contribution to a critical understanding of agrarian issues in India with insights into sociodemographic and economic features, property distribution, cropping patterns and productivity, cost and income distribution, and other disparities between small and large farmers. The marginalization of small farmers is more than evident from the analysis. At the same time, the arguments raised against the romanticization of small farms need to be closely examined in the context of the study because in certain instances the data either contradict or are insufficient to prove the argument. For example, the book argues that larger areas used for food crops does not indicate subsistence production. But the data indicate that 50–85% of a cropped area is used for subsistence cropping in 14 of the 17 villages. Moreover, no data are provided on the proportion of the produce marketed or retained for household use, or the market dependence of small farmer households for food consumption. Data are required to substantiate family labor exploitation and inequities relating to education or work hours. Further, the contribution of informal exchange systems in the villages in the form of exchange labor or produce is not explored much. Here small farming is treated as a mechanical and commercial process without the elements of personal and sociocultural intimacies or social solidarity attached to it. The possibility of nonmarket subsistence, which might ensure minimum food security, also needs to be explored. All these factors could be sustaining the system in spite of the many adversities recorded in the book. The issues of social justice are well explored in the book through an examination of the exploitation of family labor and the inequities in the agrarian sector affecting small farmers. Considering the scenario, which shows a complete absence of parity, any comparison of efficiency between small and large farms remains invalid. Keeping in mind the externalities that determine input and output flow, further research is required to assess the subsistence and ecological efficiency of small farms.