Agricultural modernization in rural Maharashtra: Myth and reality

Abstract

In the post-Independence India, systematic attempts have been made to modernize agriculture through a new strategy based on water-seed-fertilizer-technology package keeping growth and equity as the prime concern. Based on Satara which is one of the highly agricultural modernized districts of Maharashtra, the study analyses the socio-economic effects of the new measures on various categories of rural population both at the micro and macro levels. The results of the study indicate that though the collective impact of these measures has substantially enhanced the agricultural production, it has systematically bypassed the equity issue. The conditions of benefit of the new measures being relative to the resource ownership position, the large farmers have emerged as a class of rich farmers who dominate the socio-economic and political spheres of rural society. Therefore, the paper concludes that the sole objective of agricultural transformation is to create a market and growth oriented rich farmer led agriculture and the question of equality is a myth which constitutes the integral part of the political process of manufacturing consent for a regime of domination and inequality.