ISSN (Print) - 0012-9976 | ISSN (Online) - 2349-8846

Articles by Richa KumarSubscribe to Richa Kumar

India’s Green Revolution and Beyond

The widely accepted “success” of India’s green revolution in making the country self-sufficient in foodgrains has made it the model for all agrarian futures envisioned in the country. This article argues that this vision of the future is based on a selective understanding of India’s agrarian past as backward and needing redemption. There is inadequate evidence to support the claim that India was food-insecure in the 1960s. Moreover, evidence suggests that India’s food and nutritional insecurities today are the aftermath of the green revolution strategy promoted since the 1960s. This article is a small contribution towards comprehensively outlining that past so that we can begin to imagine a new vision for India’s agrarian future.

 

Risking the Farm

The Future of Indian Agriculture: Technology and Institutions edited by Nilabja Ghosh and C S C Sekhar, New Delhi: Academic Foundation, 2013; pp 263, Rs 895.

Mandi Traders and the Dabba: Online Commodity Futures Markets in India

Through ethnographic interviews with soybean traders in a mandi or market yard in western Madhya Pradesh, this paper explores the intersection of the online commodity futures market created by the new technology with the physical market of commodities, intermediaries, and life in the mandi. Known as "dabba" in local parlance, the online futures market was much maligned by traders who described it as "nothing but speculation". This paper argues that the criticisms made by these traders need to be taken seriously because this group forms the backbone of the agricultural marketing system in India and their lack of participation takes away from the credibility and completeness of information on the online futures market.

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