Agrarian Growth Research Articles

Endogenous Development as Strategic Resource of Agrarian Growth in Conditions of Global Challenges

Each stage of the development requires correction of economic course, especially in conditions of global challenges. The period of orientation to external sources of growth at the expense of selling raw materials and power products abroad is over, thus it is necessary to pass over to endogenous development of Russian economy, especially agriculture. Information provided in the article gives evidence to a big share of exported resources in respect to the volume of their production or extraction. Four fifth of mineral fertilizers produced in the country is sold abroad, though home agriculture uses them in insufficient volume. Additional amounts of mineral fertilizers in Russian fields could increase the volume of food that is in demand on global markets. Power resources that cannot be used due to anti-Russian sanctions could be directed to internal needs, which could give an opportunity to convert them into goods with high added value. Putting resources that were not used by western countries in home economy can create extra capacities and extend taxation base, which could compensate for losses on foreign market. In agriculture priority shall be given to the development of local economy mobilizing local labour and material resources, which apart from production effect could provide opportunities for resolving a number of social and economic problems caused by big agricultural producers. The author came to the conclusion about the promising nature of endogenous development, which can ensure the quality of Russian economy growth and its agrarian sector.

Crecimiento agrario y explotaciones campesinas en el noroeste ibérico medieval: León, siglos X-XII

This work examines certain aspects of agrarian growth in León from the tenth to twelfth centuries CE in light of recent contributions and studies. It focuses on foral privileges and plantation agreements as mechanisms by which landlords stimulated and intervened in agrarian expansion. The author proposes that as landlords expanded their control over the land, these mechanisms also enabled peasants to obtain lands and expand their farms using the landlord’s property or uncultivated spaces. The possibilities that accompanied this growth were not the same for all peasants. For the poorest, these mechanisms provided ways to obtain remuneration, while for more prosperous or rich peasants they presented opportunities to extend their rural holdings and strengthen their economic position.

НАЦИОНАЛЬНЫЙ АГРАРНЫЙ ПРОДУКТ И ПЕРСПЕКТИВЫ ЕГО РОСТА

Agrarian growth is relevant for Russia in the face of geopolitical challenges. We introduce a new concept of national agricultural product to determine the potential for agricultural growth. We propose a methodology for assessing the national agricultural product. The national agricultural product is the volume of agricultural products produced, taking into account its availability, sufficiency and quantity to meet the needs of the country’s population. Using this technique, we estimated the national agricultural product of Russia and developed a forecast for the production of the main types of agricultural products based on ARIMA (Auto-Regressive Integrated Moving Average) econometric models. We consider these data not optimistic. Russia will not be able to achieve breakthrough agricultural growth. The agricultural production index will decline moderately. Grain production will also have a slight negative trend. Milk production will increase by 300 thousand tons annually. This will not allow reaching the level of 90% self-sufficiency in the country. We also predict a moderate decline in meat production. Therefore, Russian agriculture will not be able to enter the trajectory of dynamic development and will not be able to adequately respond to political and economic events. We believe that it is necessary to change approaches to managing agricultural growth. To do this, we have developed a strategy for managing the economic growth of agriculture. We used fuzzy cognitive logic technologies. We have proposed a set of strategic initiatives for the dynamic growth of the national agricultural product. We substantiated the strategy on the basis of forecasts of the parameters of the national agricultural product.

Fuzzy cognitive model of agricultural economic growth

Agrarian growth is becoming increasingly important to many countries as the global demand for food rises, natural resources become scarcer, and environmental problems deepen. Herein, I propose a mechanism for designing agricultural growth management strategies that is based on fuzzy cognitive logic. The research presented is built on three main findings. First, it integrates established theories of economic growth, economic cyclicality, and sectoral market theories into a model of agricultural growth management. This enables the identification of main growth factors and the determination of the nature of their effects on agricultural dynamics. Second, I develop an algorithm for cognitive analysis of agricultural growth management and justify both this mathematical apparatus and the tools it uses. And third, I conduct a computational experiment that applies cognitive technologies to generate what I believe is the best agricultural economic growth strategy for Russia.

Political Economy of Inequality of Rural Bengal in Post-Reform Period: Development or Proletarization?

This article examines agricultural growth and rural inequality in West Bengal during the post-reform period. Two qualitatively different phases of growth and inequality are identified: from 1993–1994 to 2004–2005, when agricultural growth in West Bengal was moderately higher compared to all of India, but the state witnessed increasing rural inequality; and from 2004–2005 to 2009–2010, when agrarian growth decelerated and rural inequality declined. To unravel the underlying changes in rural inequality, this study uses a class framework and suggests certain plausible explanations. It shows that the benefits of good agricultural growth in the first period were reaped by the middle and small farmers; moreover, it is possible that a shift in population occurred from these classes toward the absentee landlord class who are also self-employed in the nonfarm sector. During the next period, the deceleration of agrarian growth was associated with a sharp decline in the proportion of population of the farming classes and increase in the population share of the poorer classes, that is, agricultural labor and nonagricultural worker. Hence, declining inequality does not necessarily signify development, since the poorer classes evidently did not experience any real improvement; rather, a process of proletarization has begun in rural Bengal.

Understanding the Economic Growth of West Bengal: A Multiple Structural Breaks Approach

This article tries to understand the economic growth of West Bengal by using the Bai–Perron method of multiple structural break analysis. It is found that between 1960 and 2014, the Bengal economy had witnessed two breaks in its output growth. The first break occurred in 1983 and was influenced by a break in the agrarian sector, an outcome propelled by the shift in the political regime and changes in policy prescriptions. The second break happened in 1993; it was preceded by the break in the service sector and a shift in the policy paradigm within the same political dispensation. This study has further investigated the characteristics of the various growth phases in terms of sectoral composition and policies. It is identified that the West Bengal economy has moved from a low growth phase to a medium or balanced growth phase followed by a high growth phase. The low growth phase had witnessed an agrarian impasse, industrial deceleration and political instability. In contrast, the medium growth phase recorded an unprecedented agrarian growth and political stability. The high growth phase has seen a huge growth in the tertiary sector and political instability during its later half. JEL Classification: R11

The Many Faces of Rural Capitalism

AbstractThe territorial growth and capitalist development of the United States that began in the late eighteenth century entailed ‐‐ among other things ‐‐ a massive expansion of agriculture that continued until the 1920s. Though based on private, freehold property in land there was no single pattern to this agrarian growth or to agriculture's integration into national and global flows of commodities, finance, and labor. Slave and non‐slave systems expanded in parallel until 1860, but even the destruction of slavery during the Civil War and the subsequent emergence of industrial and finance capitalism did not impose uniformity on American agriculture or undermine independent, household‐based farming.

Estudiar el estado para comprender las sociedades altomedievales: a propósito de un libro reciente

Alvaro Carvajal’s Bajo la mascara del regnum is an original and fruitful contribution to existing research on early medieval societies, based on Bob Jessop’s approach to state theory. This article suggests a number of points for discussion around three issues: agrarian growth, the forms and functions of justice, and conflicts over space. On the one hand, the potential of Carvajal’s approach can be verified beyond the aspects that constitute the core of the book. On the other hand, its originality makes very apparent (by contrast) some theoretical and historiographic problems that burden current research practice.

Trade and traders: An exploration into trading communities and their activities in early medieval Odisha

The article makes an effort to locate the emergence of merchant groups in the context of agrarian growth, availability of a marketable surplus, the rise of different types of exchange centres and political enterprises, which must have created their own requirements and facilitated the movement of goods and commodities. It also tries to factor in the transport and communication routes because coastal Odisha had a large hinterland moving up to the Chhattisgarh plains, as also access to southern Bengal and Jharkhand and beyond through the eastern littoral, especially Dandabhukti, among other routes. The rise of transregional states under the Somavaṁśīs and Later Eastern Gangas must have widened the orbit of activity for the regional mercantile groups. Practices and customs followed by the trading communities and their social competence are also investigated. The idea is to situate the developments in the region in the larger context of the issues and debates in the field of ancient and early medieval India. This essay is largely based on inscriptional sources and charts developments up to the fifteenth century.

From Kingdoms to Transregional States: Exploring the Dynamics of State Formation in Pre-modern Odisha

In what is today known as Odisha and in its adjoining areas, the closing centuries of the first millennium ce and beyond were marked by the shift from usual kingdoms to larger and more complex state systems, spread over several subregions/regions ( maṇḍalas). The socio-economic and cultural processes—ranging from agrarian growth and the rise of markets, merchants and towns to the shaping of a region-specific caste system and vernacular language and literature—which sustained these political developments and the new requirements such as the elaboration in the structure of administration and legitimation constitute the subject matter of this article. The transregional states under discussion are somewhat comparable with imperial formations insofar as they were conquest states and perpetuated unevenness and differences between spaces, peoples and cultures across the constituent spatial segments. However, in terms of their territorial dimensions and resources, they fell short of the empires and therefore may be seen to be located between the usual kingdoms and celebrated empires.

Transactional Costs Inhibiting Sustainable Entrepreneurial Agrarian Growth: Reflective Evidence from Small scale Farmers (SSFs) in South Africa

Transactional Costs Inhibiting Sustainable Entrepreneurial Agrarian Growth: Reflective Evidence from Small scale Farmers (SSFs) in South Africa

Fertilising techniques and nutrient balances in the agriculture industrialization transition: The case of sugarcane in the Cauca river valley (Colombia), 1943–2010

Population size and per capita food consumption are assumed to be the two greatest drivers of global environmental change. The intensification of agriculture for food and fiber production, and specially, for energy crops, affects ecosystems due to the use of limited soil resources (e.g. nitrogen, phosphorus, potassium and other macronutrients and micronutrients) which are necessary for their functioning, the release of pesticides, and the conversion of natural ecosystems. However, the location and extent of intensive agriculture and its associated ecological impacts within tropical countries is often well unknown. The purpose of this study is to provide an understanding of the fertilisation practices associated to the phase of sugarcane industrialization in an inter-Andean valley in Colombia. Changes in the nitrogen (N), phosphorus (P) and potassium (K) fluxes were calculated over time (1943, 1984, 1998 and 2010) by using the concept of social metabolism. We applied a nutrient balance model, which was especially created for past agroecosystems (historical studies). The N balances were positive and oscillated between 108 and 98kg N ha−1 year−1, with a relatively low N use efficiency (about 63% and 42% for 1943 and 2010, respectively). The main inputs were chemical fertilisation and irrigation, and the main outputs of N included harvested N and leaching due to low N use efficiency and high irrigation flows. By 2010, values of atmospheric deposition rose up to 35.6kg N ha−1 year−1, mainly because the nitrate concentrations in rain water were very high in comparison to previous decades. The K and P balances were positive and near zero, which represents an adequate management according to local conditions.The positive N balance in the four analysed years suggests that this element has been historically over applied. This has caused not only high production costs, but also, water and atmospheric pollution. The study of fertilisation systems is, therefore, essential to understand agrarian growth and the process of agricultural intensification. Calculations of N, P and K budgets can be helpful for understanding agroecosystem functioning and proposing more sustainable management strategies.

The Socio-Ecological Transition on a Crop Scale: The Case of Olive Orchards in Southern Spain (1750–2000)

In Europe, pre-industrial economies were fully dependent on agrarian production to meet most demands. The agricultural system provided the bulk of food, fibres, construction materials, medicines and fuel. It is estimated that 95 % of energy requirements during this period were met by means of noncoal organic sources (Fischer-Kowalski and Haberl 2007:225–227). With the onset of industrialization, agriculture was relegated to providing food or raw materials, for which it now requires significant external inputs. In recent years, interesting theoretical approaches have been developed to analyze the Socio-Ecological Transition (SET) in agriculture (Fischer-Kowalski and Haberl 2007; Gonzalez de Molina 2010) supported by case studies conducted on a national scale (Krausmann et al . 2008). The aim of this paper is to study the SETon a crop scale through an examination of olive groves in Southern Spain, given their major role in contemporary agriculture and that the fact that little is generally known about this type of crop. Olive trees have made a decisive contribution to the industrialization of agriculture and agrarian growth in the Mediterranean world through the application of technologies that chiefly aimed to increase the production of olive oil for human consumption (Infante-Amate 2011; Zambrana 2000). However, we also aim to demonstrate the radical change that took place in the socioeconomic and environmental functions of this crop. The use of the crop as a scale of analysis provides insights into aspects of the SET that are not apparent at more aggregated scales. Case Studies and Timeframe

The economic exploitation of the “Campo Arañuelo” and the rural economy of the Territory of Plasencia by the middle of the 15th century

The ‘Campo Aranuelo’, district of the Plasencia's land, until final of the century XV bill with a scarce population and abundant grasses. Neighbors of La Vera, the area Almonte-Tajo or of other districts of the term they move with their livestocks or they establish a second vicinity in her. The concession of Plasencia to Pedro of Stuniga in 1442, the existence of numerous seignorials estates in the term of Plasencia and a joint of demographic and agrarian growth will originate very important disputes on its use and exploitation by the middle of the XV century. This conflict will allow to have very important information on the trade of the cereal, the cattle cabins or the seasonal displacements in the term of Plasencia.

Agrarian Relations and Growth in Post Independent India — Long Term Logic of the Nehruvian Paradigm

Agrarian Relations and Growth in Post Independent India — Long Term Logic of the Nehruvian Paradigm

Agrarian elites and economic growth in nineteenth-century Portugal: The example of the Alentejo in the Liberal era (1850-1910)

The Alentejo is a southern Portuguese region which is generally recognized for the social and economic importance of the latifúndio system and for its economic backwardness, phenomena which are usually associated with the existence of a regional elite of the traditional type. This article seeks to review this question by examining the action of the economic elite which operated in the region during the second half of the nineteenth century, when modern capitalism was just beginning to develop in Portugal and Liberal institutions were being established. How this sociologically renewed and plural elite group conducted its private business dealings is described, and investment strategies and sources of financing are examined, as well as the management of farm businesses. Three aspects are highlighted here: the varied nature of investments, although over the long term there was an increase in the acquisition of land; investment carried out at the cost of growing indebtedness to the regional banks, the modern financial institutions which the elite helped to set up; and the high degree of involvement of land-owners in the running of large estates, which were marked by a trend towards division into smaller units, moves towards productive diversification, and the drive for technical progress and the modernization of rural buildings. Examined as a whole, this scenario suggests that the new economic elite which emerged with the triumph and development of Portuguese Liberalism in the nineteenth century was not a force for conservatism in the regional economy.

Land, Labour and Dalits in Independent India

This paper attempts to examine the changes ill the occupational distribution of workforce and their impact on economic development with special reference to Dalit (Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes) agricultural workers at the national level ill the post-independence period in the context of agrarian reform and agricultural growth. It also explores the linkages between incidence of poverty and extent of dependence on agriculture as landless labourers among the Dalits. The paper is divided into three parts. While the first part deals with the analysis of land, labour and poverty with special reference to Dalits at the macro level, second part presents some micro studies to understand the process of change in rural India. Third part summarises the paper and draws some conclusions.

The rise of Islam and the Bengal frontier, 1204-1760

In all of the South Asian subcontinent, Bengal was the region most receptive to the Islamic faith. This area today is home to the world's second-largest Muslim ethnic population. How and why did such a large Muslim population emerge there? And how does such a religious conversion take place? Richard Eaton uses archaeological evidence, monuments, narrative histories, poetry, and Mughal administrative documents to trace the long historical encounter between Islamic and Indic civilizations. Moving from the year 1204, when Persianized Turks from North India annexed the former Hindu states of the lower Ganges delta, to 1760, when the British East India Company rose to political dominance there, Eaton explores these moving frontiers, focusing especially on agrarian growth and religious change.

Hard times in 19th-century Sweden: A comment

An alternative interpretation, the growth/workload hypothesis, is given to counter the recent argument by Sandberg and Steckel (1988, Explorations in Economic History 25, 1–19) on overpopulation and malnutrition in Sweden around the mid-19th century. This explains the joint behavior of agrarian growth and labor demand, poverty, side employment, and nutrition within a regional framework. The mid-19th century is seen as a transitional period which succeeded remarkably well in avoiding pauperization despite strong population growth.

Forced commerce and agrarian growth

The paper explains why contractually interlocked agrarian markets differ from price—and quantity—adjustments under pressures of excess demand/supply in neoclassical general equilibrium analysis. Such contractual interlocking, arising (say) from the indebtedness of the peasants, gives rise to a contrived system of “forced commerce”. This commercial mode of exploitation not only exhibits unequal relations of economic power, but more important, it is also a mechanism for maintaining such unequal power structure, often at the cost of retarding agrarian growth. The paper thus emphasizes the need to understand the very notion of “market exchange” and “commerce” in backward agriculture from an unconventional viewpoint.