Potatoes, Petty Commodity Producers and Livelihoods: Contract farming and agrarian change in Maharashtra, India

Abstract

This paper explores the implications of contract farming for patterns of agrarian change in India. The paper draws on a detailed analysis of primary qualitative data from a case study of potato contract farming in the state of Maharashtra. It argues that debates on contract farming are often ideological in nature, leading to overly simplified narratives of "win-win" or "win-lose." Instead, by combining the strengths of agrarian political economy and rural livelihood analysis, the paper offers a concrete exploration of the intersections between contract farming, livelihoods, and agrarian change. It finds that contract farming activities in the case study villages are focused on a group of petty commodity producers. However, rather than sparking dynamic new processes of accumulation among contract farmers or leading to new forms of exploitation, the paper argues that contract farming is contributing to processes of agrarian change "already under way." These processes are intimately connected to livelihood diversification and the struggles of new classes of fragmented labour.

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“…Stepping up entails efforts to upgrade current activities through investment in further assets, such as agricultural inputs or on-farm diversification. Stepping out refers to shifting to different activities that would deprive assets from their previous use for investment in new, more promising income generating activities, such as shifting from agricultural production to stable employment (Dorward et al 2009;Dorward 2009;Vicol 2019).…”

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