Economies of Scale or Advantages of Class? Some Results from a South Indian Farm Economy Study

The controversy over 'farm size and productivity' which began more than two decades ago is continuing unabated. It has important implications for the debate on agricultural development. The following case study of agricultural production in Tiruchi district, Tamil Nadu, is intended in part...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Economic and political weekly 1986-03, Vol.21 (13), p.A2-A14
Main Authors: Athreya, Venkatesh B., Böklin, Gustav, Djurfeldt, Göran, Lindberg, Staffan
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Agricultural land
Capitalism
Crop economics
Crop production
Crops
Farm economics
Farms
Irrigation
Peasant class
Productivity
Review of Agriculture, March 1986
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Summary:The controversy over 'farm size and productivity' which began more than two decades ago is continuing unabated. It has important implications for the debate on agricultural development. The following case study of agricultural production in Tiruchi district, Tamil Nadu, is intended in part as a contribution to this discussion. It is the authors' argument that the size-productivity framework may not be the most fruitful one for analysing the problem of agricultural productivity. Besides the fact that size is not necessarily the best measure of scale, their material brings out the point that scale may not always be relevant to the determination of productivity. The evidence that the authors examine suggests that intensity of cultivation and the class status of cultivating households may be more important in this regard. A methodological conclusion arising from the study is that since the ecological and historical specificities of a farm economy play an important role in the determination of productivity, it would be most hazardous to make generalisations regarding the size-productivity relationship.
ISSN:0012-9976
2349-8846