Economics of Farming in Mahatwar, Uttar Pradesh

Title

Economics of Farming in Mahatwar, Uttar Pradesh

Creator

Johnson, Deepak; Modak, Tapas Singh

Description

Recent policy efforts have focussed on transforming eastern Uttar Pradesh, an acknowledgement of the relative backwardness of the regions agricultural development. Despite this, there has been little discussion in the literature of agrarian relations and their implications for the economics of farming. Taking Mahatwar village in eastern Uttar Pradesh as a case study, this article examines disparities across socio-economic classes in incomes and the costs of cultivation. We found substantial inequality, with landlord and big capitalist farmer households earning nearly 30 times the annual income of lower peasant and manual worker households. These disparities arise primarily from differences in costs: poor peasant and manual worker households bear a disproportionate rental burden, rely excessively on family labour, and use much of their produce for self-consumption. Our findings highlight the need for rent reduction and yield enhancement, along with support measures such as minimum support prices (MSPs), to provide meaningful incomes to low-income farmers. 2025, Tulika Books. All rights reserved.

Source

Review of Agrarian Studies;Volume;15;Issue;2;pp.71-87

Date

01-01-2025

Publisher

Tulika Books

Subject

cost of cultivation; crop incomes; Eastern Uttar Pradesh; minimum support price (MSP); rent; socio-economic classes; yield

Coverage

Johnson D., Department of Economics, Christ University, India; Modak T.S., Foundation for Agrarian Studies, India

Rights

Restricted Access; Hardcopy may be available in the library

Relation

ISSN: 22494405;

Format

online

Language

English

Type

Article

Identifier

https://doi.org/10.25003/RAS.15.02.0006

https://www.scopus.com/pages/publications/105029486323?origin=resultslist