Roy, A. (2017) The debate on farm size and productivity in Indian Economics. Global Journal of Business and Management, 2 (1). pp. 1-8.
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Abstract
In the 1960s statistics about farm size and productivity of farms were collected and studied by world famous Indian economist Dr. A.K. Sen. After these studies Sen reached the conclusion that the relation between farm size and productivity is inverse in India. He pointed out that there is no other source of employment for poor villagers. So they prefer to cultivate their own land which is small in size. When villagers cultivate their own land they put in all their efforts and life into it. But that is not the case with large farms. Large farm owners are rich. They have many other sources of earning. So they appoint outside people to cultivate their own land. These outside people do not cultivate those lands by putting in all their efforts because they will get the wages at the same rate irrespective of the productivity. So Sen suggested that this led to large farms having low productivity and small farms having high productivity in India. Sen’s proposition was supported by a group of Indian economists like Professor Dipak Majumdar, Professor A.K. Khusro, Professor C.H. Hanumantha Rao and Professor G.R. Saini. However, soon came the period of green revolution that revolutionized Indian agriculture. Sen, while commenting on the relationship between farm size and productivity assumed that labor is the most important investment in agriculture. But after green revolution technology, HYV seeds, chemical fertilizers and sophisticated machineries started to be used in Indian agriculture. There was a tectonic shift in Indian agriculture. From being labor intensive, it became capital intensive. Thus, Sen’s proposition lost its importance and validity. Today most economists around the world prefer to believe that in Indian agriculture may be there was a time when there was an inverse relation between farm size and productivity, but today there is no such relationship.
| Item Type: | Article |
|---|---|
| Uncontrolled Keywords: | Farm size, productivity, small farms, large farms and green revolution |
| Subjects: | Plant Production |
| Divisions: | General |
| Depositing User: | Mr T L Gautham |
| Date Deposited: | 28 Aug 2018 07:53 |
| Last Modified: | 28 Aug 2018 07:53 |
| URI: | http://eprints.icrisat.ac.in/id/eprint/15588 |
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