Email: kalyani.thatte@students.iiserpune.ac.in

Affiliation: Indian Institute of Science Education and Research (IISER) Pune

Nationality: Indian

Political economy of cropping pattern changes and increasing vulnerability of small farmer households in Marathwada region, Maharashtra, India

Abstract

This article explores the inequities and vulnerabilities pertaining to cropping pattern changes in the Marathwada region of Maharashtra, India, using the case of two crops, namely soybean and sugarcane. Analysis of these two crops is important as the introduction of soybean and increasing area under sugarcane have transformed the agricultural landscape of this drought-prone region, which was dominated by rainfed kharif (Monsoon) season. Sugarcane is a year-long water guzzling crop, whereas soybean cultivation in kharif season has brought a shift in crops cultivated during the kharif and rabi (Winter) seasons. Analysis of these changes is further important to understand increasing groundwater use, land use changes, and household aspirations. This article is based on data from 184 households from two villages in the region, along with the analysis of policy documents, reports and key informant interviews.

Soybean was introduced in the region to meet the demand for pulses and edible oil. Wider acceptance of soybean in the region is attributed to systematic institutional support in the form of minimum support prices, extension services, short duration of the crop and the international market for oil cakes. Soybean has thus emerged as an important kharif cash crop in the region in the last two decades, replacing the traditional kharif crops of sorghum, cotton and pulses. Sugarcane, a traditional crop in the region, witnessed increasing area due to factors such as fair and remunerative prices, emergence of cooperative and private sugar mills, increased use of groundwater through wells and borewells, state-level schemes such as watershed development and water resource development programmes. There has been increase in the area under sugarcane cultivation amidst increasing water stress. While households look for assured prices, market availability, and comparatively low capital investment that sugarcane offers, at a systemic level, sugarcane cultivation has raised concerns of equity and sustainability. Fluctuating market prices, lack of nutritional security in the absence of cultivation of rabi crops, and increasing monocropping are some of the results of soybean cultivation. Sugarcane cultivation has led to increase in number of borewells and falling groundwater levels. Not all farmers can afford to drill borewells, especially small and marginal farmers, leading to increasing vulnerability of these households amidst increasing water stress, furthering agrarian distress.  

Our analysis shows that institutional and structural factors beyond the control of the household constrains the choices that they have. Aspirational issues, often times less acknowledged in critical scholarship, lead to increased competition for unsustainable use of natural resources such as water. Large farmer households, well endowed by availability of assets and capital, are able to modify and adapt to changes but the small and marginal farmer households become more vulnerable. The article calls for revisiting some of the classical ideas in agrarian and livelihoods studies, in the light of new field evidence emerging from different areas of agrarian South Asia. 

Bio

Kalyani Thatte is a doctoral researcher in the Humanities and Social Sciences department at Indian Institute of Science Education and Research (IISER) Pune, India. She has an undergraduate degree in Economics from University of Pune, India (2013) and a Masters in Rural Development and Governance from Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Hyderabad, India (2015-17). Before joining the PhD programme at IISER Pune, she worked as a fellow under the Maharashtra Chief minister’s Rural Development Fellowship programme (2017-18) and as a researcher for Anandwan Groundwater Corpus Alliance, a programme by Maharogi Seva Samiti, Warora, Maharashtra (2018-2020).

Kalyani’s interest in understanding agrarian issues developed during village visits in the interiors of Maharashtra, which started during her Masters. Within the broad spectrum of agrarian issues, she is more interested in working on the interlinkages between water, agriculture and livelihoods. Her PhD research focuses on understanding inequities in groundwater access, focusing on the Marathwada region. She has completed fieldwork for PhD and is currently analysing field data and writing up her dissertation. She intends to continue to engage in field level activities, and hopes that her academic research will help create better action and interventions on the ground.