The insistent push towards privatisation of the agrarian sector is epitomised in the now repealed farm laws, and field data from thirteen Bhojpuri villages in Bihar, reveals that they would have further weakened the vulnerable position of marginal and small farmers. These laws would have enabled private traders and the corporate sector to manipulate the agriculture market in their favour. This article states that the new farm laws, rather than bringing about positive changes in agriculture, as proclaimed by the government, would aggravate rural conditions further and enhance the process of de-peasantisation.
AcharyaS. S. (2000). Subsidies in Indian agriculture and their beneficiaries. Agricultural Situation in India, 47(5), 251–260.
2.
AcharyaS. S., & JogiR. L. (2004). Farm input subsidies in Indian agriculture (Working Paper 140). Institute of Development Studies.
3.
AthreyaV. (2003, December17–20). Redistributive land reforms in India: Some reflections in the current context [Paper presented]. All-India Conference on Agriculture and Rural Society in Contemporary India, Barddhaman, West Bengal, India.
4.
BardhanP. K. (1973). Size, productivity and returns to scale: An analysis of farm-level data in India agriculture. Journal of Political Economy, 81(6), 1370–1386.
5.
BirthalP. S., JoshiP. K., & NarayananA. V. (2011). Agricultural diversification in India: Trends, contribution to growth and small farmer participation. ICRISAT, mimeo.
6.
ChandR. (2000). Emerging trends and regional variations in agricultural investments and their implications for growth and equity [Policy paper]. National Centre for Agricultural Economics and Policy Research.
7.
ChandR., PrasannaP. A. L., & SinghA. (2011). Farm size and productivity: Understanding the strengths of smallholders and improving their livelihoods. Economic and Political Weekly, 46(26–27), 5–11.
8.
ChandrasekharC. P. (2007). The progress of ‘reform’ and the retrogression of agriculture. Social Scientist, 35(1–2), 61–75.
9.
ChavanP. (2005). How ‘inclusive’ are banks under financial liberalization?Economic and Political Weekly, 40(43), 4647–4649.
10.
DebS., & RajeevM. (2007). Banking on ‘Baniyas’ for credit. Economic and Political Weekly, 42(4), 280–283.
11.
DevS. M. (2006). Financial inclusion: Issues and challenges. Economic and Political Weekly, 41(41), 4310–4313.
12.
DevS. M. (2012). Small farmers in India: Challenges and opportunities [Working paper]. Indira Gandhi Institute of Development Research. http://www.igidr.ac.in/pdf/publication/WP-2012-014.pdf
GulatiA., & BathlaS. (2001). Capital formation in Indian agriculture: Revisiting the debate. Economic and Political Weekly, 36(20), 1697–1708.
15.
Himanshu. (2020, September24). Lessons from Bihar’s abolition of its APMC system for farmers. mint. https://www.livemint.com/opinion/columns/lessons-from-bihar-s-abolition-of-its-apmc-system-for-farmers-11600962615201.html
16.
HirashimaS. (2000). Issues in agricultural reforms: Public investment and agricultural reforms. Economic and Political Weekly, 35(43–44), 3879–3884.
17.
IPCC. (2019). Special report on climate change and land. https://www.ipcc.ch/srccl/chapter/chapter-5/;https://www.ipcc.ch/site/assets/uploads/sites/4/2020/02/SRCCL-Chapter-5.pdf
18.
KhusroA. M. (1964). Returns to scale in Indian agriculture. Indian Journal of Agricultural Economics, 19(3–4), 1–33.
19.
MazumdarD. (1965). Size of farm and productivity: A problem of Indian peasant agriculture. Economica, 32(126), 161–173.
20.
MehrotraN. (2011). Agriculture credit: The truth behind the aggregate numbers. Economic and Political Weekly, 46(42), 22–26.
21.
Ministry of Agriculture & Farmers Welfare. (2012). Compendium on soil health. https://agricoop.nic.in/sites/default/files/Comsoilhealth28612.pdf
22.
Ministry of Agriculture & Farmers Welfare. (2016a). Soil and its survey. State of Indian agriculture 2015-16 (p. 45). http://eands.dacnet.nic.in/PDF/State_of_Indian_Agriculture,2015-16.pdf
23.
Ministry of Agriculture & Farmers Welfare. (2016b). Farm inputs and management. State of Indian agriculture 2015–16. https://agricoop.nic.in/sites/default/files/State_of_Indian_Agriculture%2C2015-16.pdf
24.
Ministry of Agriculture & Farmers Welfare. (2016c). Storage of food grains. State of Indian agriculture 2015–16. (p. 151). https://agricoop.nic.in/sites/default/files/State_of_Indian_Agriculture%2C2015-16.pdf
25.
Ministry of Agriculture & Farmers Welfare. (2020). All India report on agriculture census 2015–16. http://agcensus.nic.in/document/agcen1516/ac_1516_report_final-220221.pdf
26.
MishraD., & AgarwalK. (2020, September5). Bihar did not meet even 1% of its wheat procurement target. The Wire. https://thewire.in/agriculture/bihar-wheat-procurement-target-failure
27.
MishraS. (2007). Agrarian scenario in post-reform India: A story of distress, despair and death (Working Paper No. 1). Indira Gandhi Institute of Development Research.
28.
NCAER. (2019). Study on agricultural diagnostics for the state of Bihar in India. https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/5e58f1e0d3bf7f06ffcfec7d/Bihar-Nov_Final_Rev-nov.pdf
29.
NITI Aayog. (2016). Evaluation report on efficacy of minimum support prices. http://www.niti.gov.in/writereaddata/files/document_publication/MSP-report.pdf
30.
ParikhK., JhaJ., & SrinivasanP. V. (1993). Economic reforms and agricultural policy. Economic and Political Weekly, 28(29–30), 1497–1500.
31.
ParikhK. S. (1997). India development report 1997. Oxford University Press.
32.
PashaS. A. (1991). Sustainability and viability of small and marginal farmers: Animal husbandry and common property resources. Economic and Political Weekly, 26(13), A27–A30.
33.
PatnaikU. (2001). Who benefits when cheap rice is imported?Peoples’ Democracy, 25, 18.
34.
PosaniB. (2009). Crisis in the countryside: Farmer suicides and the political economy of agrarian distress in India (Working Paper Series No. 09–95). London: London School of Economics and Political Science.
35.
PursellG., & GulatiA. (1993). Liberalizing Indian agriculture: An agenda for reform (Policy Research Working Paper Series 1172). World Bank. https://ideas.repec.org/p/wbk/wbrwps/1172.html
36.
RamachandranV. K., & RamakumarR. (2000, December5–8). Agrarian reforms and rural development policies in India: A note [Paper presented]. International Conference on Agrarian Reform and Rural Development.
37.
RamachandranV. K., & SwaminathanM. (Eds.). (2005). Financial liberalization and rural credit in India. Tulika Books.
38.
RaoC. H. H. (1966). Alternative explanations of the inverse relationship between farm size and output per acre in India. Indian Economic Review, 1(2), 1–12.
39.
RaoP. N., & SuriK. C. (2006). Dimensions of agrarian crisis in Andhra Pradesh. Economic and Political Weekly, 41(16), 1546–1552.
40.
RupakulaR. V. (2016). Class differentiation and crisis of agrarian petty producers in India. World Review of Political Economy, 7(1), 85–105.
41.
SahayG. R. (2020). Landlessness and agrarian inequality without landlordism: Caste, class and agrarian structure in Bihar. Economic and Political Weekly, 55(34), 49–56.
42.
SainiG. R. (1971). Holding size, productivity and some related aspects of Indian agriculture. Economic and Political Weekly, 6(26), A79–A85.
43.
SawantS. D., DaptardarV., & MhatreS. (2002). Capital formation and growth in agriculture: Neglected aspects and dimensions. Economic and Political Weekly, 37(11), 1068–1072.
44.
SenA. (2004, December17–20). Changes in cost structure and farm business incomes, 1981-82 to 1999-00 [Paper presentation]. All-India Conference on Agriculture and Rural Society in Contemporary India, Barddhaman, West Bengal, India.
45.
SenA. K. (1962). An aspect of Indian agriculture. The Economic Weekly, 14(4–6), 243–246.
46.
ShettyS. L. (2006). Policy responses to the failure of formal banking institutions to expand credit delivery for agriculture and non-farm informal sectors: The ground reality and tasks ahead. Indian Council for Research on International Economic Relations.
47.
SinghN. D. (2010). Rural healthcare and indebtedness in Punjab. Economic and Political Weekly, 45(11), 22–25.
48.
SinghS., & BhogalS. (2014). Punjab’s small peasantry: Thriving or deteriorating?Economic and Political Weekly, 49(26–27): 95–100.
49.
SinghS., KaurM., & KingraH. S. (2008). Indebtedness among farmers in Punjab. Economic and Political Weekly, 43(26–27), 130–136.
50.
SuriK. C. (2006). Political economy of agrarian distress. Economic and Political Weekly, 41(16), 1523–1529.
51.
SurjitV. (2008). Farm business incomes in India: A study of two rice growing villages of Thanjavur Region, Tamil Nadu [PhD thesis]. Indian Statistical Institute.
52.
SwaminathanM. (2006, September1). Eleventh plan ignores food and nutrition insecurity. The Hindu.
53.
ThakurA. K. (2020, December11). It’s time to revisit repealed APMC and the lost cause of fair crop procurement in Bihar. Firstpost. https://www.firstpost.com/india/its-time-to-revisit-repealed-apmc-and-the-lost-cause-of-fair-crop-procurement-in-bihar-9100381.html
54.
UN. (2019). FAO’s work on climate change: United Nations Climate Change Conference 2019. New York: Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations. http://www.fao.org/3/ca7126en/ca7126en.pdf
55.
VaidyanathanA. (2000). India’s agricultural development policy. Economic and Political Weekly, 35(20), 1735–1741.
56.
World Bank. (1991). India—1991 Country economic memorandum: Policies for adjustment with growth. https://documents.worldbank.org/en/publication/documents-reports/documentdetail/962181468033534646/policies-for-adjustment-with-growth
