Potatoes, Peasants and Livelihoods: A Critical Exploration of Contract Farming and Agrarian ...

302 Pages·2016·3.55 MB·English

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Potatoes, Peasants and Livelihoods: A
Critical Exploration of Contract Farming
and Agrarian Change in Maharashtra,
India

Mark R. Vicol

A thesis submitted in fulfilment of the requirements for
the degree of Doctor of Philosophy (Human Geography)

School of Geosciences, Faculty of Science
The University of Sydney

2016
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Statement of authorship
This work has not previously been submitted for a degree or diploma in any other university. To the best
of my knowledge and belief, this thesis contains no material previously published or written by another
person except where due reference is made in the thesis itself. All sources have been appropriately
acknowledged.
Some of the material in this thesis has been published in the journal Die Erde.1 This publication is single-
authored by the author of this thesis.
This thesis remains a copyrighted work of the author, Mark R. Vicol. Any errors or omissions contained
within are the responsibility of the author.
Approval from the Human Research Ethics Committee of the University of Sydney for this research was
obtained on 18 March 2013, protocol number 2013/123.

Mark R. Vicol

1 Vicol, M., 2014. Potato Contract Farming and ‘Privileged Spaces’: Preliminary Insights from Rural
Maharashtra, Die Erde, 145(3), pp.142-147.

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Acknowledgements
This thesis would not have been possible, or as enjoyable, without the invaluable support and assistance
of the following people:
First, many thanks to my primary supervisor, Bill Pritchard, for taking me on as a PhD student,
introducing me to India, helping me to shape the ideas in this thesis, and supporting my development as
an academic and a researcher. Additional thanks to Bill for visiting me in the field, and sharing a few
Kingfishers in Pune, Mumbai and Delhi. Thanks also to my co-supervisor Jeff Neilson for his support,
advice and helpful discussions about all things agrarian change.
At the University of Sydney over the last 3 ½ years I have made many good friends and very much
appreciated being a part of the Geosciences community. The friendship and support of the following
people in the Madsen building have made my PhD a thoroughly enjoyable journey: Bec, Billy, Bob,
Chetan, Craig, Erin, Hiswaty, Ian, Jessie, John, Josh, Lada, Laurence, Leo, Mattijs, Ming, Natalia, Nikki,
Olivia, Phil M, Phil H, Rosie, Saviz, Sopheak, Steph, Tim, Tegan, Trina, Tubtim, Yayoi, and Wora. Special
thanks to Billy for help with map making!
I also spent a productive and very enjoyable one month writing retreat at the University of Copenhagen
in early 2015. Many thanks to Niels, Marianne, Frederik, Thomas and Mads in Copenhagen.
In Mumbai, I’m very grateful for the help and support of those at the Tata Institute of Social Sciences
(TISS), which became my home away from home. Special thanks to Madhushree, Rajesh, Sandhya and
Swapnil. Also thanks to Sukhpal Singh and Sudha Narayanan for their support and advice on the logistics
of research in India!
In Pune, my research would not have been possible without the dedication and enthusiasm of three
interpreters, who not only made life in the field a joy, but also provided useful insights of their own and
taught me much about the rich tapestry of Indian society. So, a heartfelt thanks to Sumit, Kishor and
Anil. Many thanks to those at the Gokhale Institute of Politics and Economics, particularly Sangeeta
Shroff and my good friend Mr. Shahaji Dete. Finally, thank you to Hemant Gaur for all his support and
help.
I am eternally grateful to the people of Randullabad, Bhushangad and Pawarwadi, for generously giving
their time, welcoming me into their homes, and sharing their life stories over many cups of tea. It was a
true privilege to be temporarily part of their world. I am acutely aware of and humbled by the fleeting
nature of the relationships that I formed in each village, and I hope that my thesis does my participants’
ideas and struggles justice, and that my work may benefit their lives in some small way.
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To my family, I cannot express how grateful I am for your love and support over the past 3 ½ years.
Thank you Mum, Dad, Anna, Rick, Millar, Baxter and Nicola – this thesis is in no small way yours as well.
Special thanks to my Nana for her love and generous support. Many thanks also to my uncle John, who
took on the task of editing my thesis with enthusiasm and amazing attention to detail.
Finally, this thesis is dedicated to my late Pa, whose generosity of spirit and sense of adventure will
always inspire me.

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Abstract
The spread of contract farming in rural India in recent years has provoked a polarised and often
ideological debate in the literature. The dominant, micro-economic view of contract farming positions it
as a ‘win-win’ for rural development, benefitting both agribusiness and small farmers. Critical observers,
on the other hand, emphasise the exploitative effects on rural households, viewing contract farming as
‘win-lose’. The critical weakness of both these approaches, however, is a failure to ground
interpretations of contract farming schemes in the broader agrarian contexts in which they appear. Little
is known about how different households in different contexts come to engage, or not, with contract
farming, and what this might mean for future livelihood pathways in spaces where contract farming
operates. This thesis punctures these debates through a critical exploration of potato contract farming,
rural livelihoods and agrarian change in three villages in Satara district, Maharashtra. The primary
research question for this study is: how is potato contract farming incorporated into rural spaces in
India, and what does this mean for patterns of advantage and disadvantage? In addressing this question,
I make three core contributions.
First, mainstream presumptions that contract farming engages with a homogenous, undifferentiated
livelihood landscape need to be recast. In Satara, I find that patterns of agrarian differentiation are not
characterised by ongoing dynamic processes of agriculture-led differentiation into classes of capitalist
farmers and rural labour, as is imagined by a classical understanding of agrarian transition. Rather, the
agrarian structure in my study sites is characterised by a diverse group of ‘middle farmers’, or petty
commodity producers, who often struggle to reproduce themselves through a combination of on and
off-farm activities. Second, I argue that firms use contract farming as an institutional solution to the
procurement challenges associated with traditional agricultural markets in India. In Satara, the spread of
potato contract farming is symptomatic of changing governance structures in modern agricultural value
chains.
My third key argument is that patterns of social and economic differentiation arising from contract
farming must be understood as co-produced at the intersection of these existing livelihood landscapes
and the dynamics of contract schemes. In Satara, this intersection results in a complex mosaic of winners
and losers amongst rural households, meaning that contract farming cannot be easily generalised as ‘all
good’ or ‘all bad’. Importantly, I argue that potato contract farming is a ‘middle farmer’ activity.
However, while many middle farmers accrue some benefits, these are unevenly distributed and
truncated by the powerful position of the contract firm. As a result, I argue that for most households,
contract farming does not represent a viable accumulation pathway. In fact, contract farming is just one
activity among many in a crowded livelihood landscape where accumulation through agriculture is
increasingly difficult. Finally, rather than leading to dynamic patterns of accumulation from below,
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contract farming reproduces an agrarian structure of petty commodity producers who lack access to
alternative livelihood opportunities. In fact, sites of accumulation and differentiation have moved off the
farm, where better-off households ignore contract farming and increase their advantage through high-
value non-farm activities. This suggests that agrarian change in Satara district is intimately connected to
processes of livelihood diversification and agrarian questions of labour. These findings provide an
important counter-note to current hegemonic understandings of contract farming as a ‘win-win’ solution
for rural development, emphasising the importance of situating the impacts of such schemes within the
livelihood landscapes in which they operate.

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CONTENTS
STATEMENT OF AUTHORSHIP .............................................................................................................. III
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ...................................................................................................................... V
ABSTRACT .................................................................................................................................... VII
LIST OF FIGURES .............................................................................................................................. XII
LIST OF TABLES .............................................................................................................................. XIII
LIST OF BOXES ............................................................................................................................... XIV
LIST OF ACRONYMS ......................................................................................................................... XV
CHAPTER 1 - INTRODUCTION ........................................................................................................ 1
SETTING THE SCENE ........................................................................................................................... 1
RESEARCH PROBLEM AND AIMS ........................................................................................................... 2
RESEARCH QUESTIONS ....................................................................................................................... 5
METHODOLOGY ............................................................................................................................... 6
STRUCTURE OF THE THESIS ................................................................................................................ 16
CHAPTER 2 - LITERATURE REVIEW ............................................................................................... 19
INTRODUCTION .............................................................................................................................. 19
PART 1: AGRICULTURE AND RURAL DEVELOPMENT POLICY DEBATES IN SOUTH ASIA ........................................ 19
PART 2: RECENT CHANGES IN THE GLOBAL AGRI-FOOD SYSTEM .................................................................. 33
PART 3: CONTRACT FARMING AS A MODE OF VALUE CHAIN COORDINATION .................................................. 37
PART 4: ADDING A LIVELIHOODS APPROACH ......................................................................................... 56
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................. 64
CHAPTER 3 - AGRICULTURE, AGRARIAN CHANGE AND CONTRACT FARMING IN INDIA ................. 66
INTRODUCTION .............................................................................................................................. 66
THE GREEN REVOLUTION ................................................................................................................. 67
LIBERALISATION IN INDIAN AGRICULTURE FROM 1991 ONWARDS .............................................................. 71
AGRARIAN CRISIS IN INDIA TODAY ...................................................................................................... 74
THE EVOLUTION OF CONTRACT FARMING IN INDIA .................................................................................. 77
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................. 81
CHAPTER 4 - THE EVOLVING RURAL LIVELIHOODS LANDSCAPE OF THREE VILLAGES IN SATARA
DISTRICT, MAHARASHTRA .......................................................................................................... 83
INTRODUCTION .............................................................................................................................. 83
METHODOLOGY ............................................................................................................................. 84
LIVELIHOOD CHARACTERISTICS OF EACH CASE STUDY VILLAGE .................................................................... 90
LIVELIHOOD ASSETS AND CAPABILITIES ............................................................................................... 103
HISTORY MATTERS ....................................................................................................................... 113
LIVELIHOOD PATHWAYS IN SATARA DISTRICT: HANGING IN, STEPPING UP AND STEPPING OUT .......................... 116
CONCLUSION............................................................................................................................... 130
CHAPTER 5 - POTATO CONTRACT FARMING IN SATARA DISTRICT, MAHARASHTRA .................... 132
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