The crisis of India’s small farm economy: Towards a world-ecological understanding

As against the dominant literature which considered agrarian crisis in India as national or local phenomenon resulting majorly as a consequence of neo-liberal reforms of the economy, I argue that the crisis of crop production in India is a manifestation of the crisis of global capitalism primarily resulting from the commodification and appropriation of nature. Using data collected from fieldwork in two villages in Tamil Nadu, India and analyzing it through the lens of world-ecology, I further argue that the near exhaustion of the possibilities to tap into the unpaid work/energy of nature is central to the crisis as a global phenomenon. Though this process has long roots in history, it could be immediately traced to the implementation of green revolution in India. This paper argues that green revolution has put the small farmers in a technological treadmill which not only increases the financial burden of farm households but also co-produces ecological degradation. The working of this process has become cumbersome after the withdrawal of state intervention in agriculture in the 1990s. Moreover, the jobless de-agrarianisation which is the characteristic feature of the contemporary capitalist development in India puts further pressure on smallholders to increase production and productivity mostly through technological fixes which again adds to the financial and ecological vulnerability. This paper further argues that the limited possibilities of the appropriation of unpaid work done by women are a possible factor that may intensify this crisis in the future.