Agrarian Crisis and Farm Incomes in India

The agrarian crisis in India is, first and foremost, a crisis of incomes from agriculture. Given this, the book under review—Farm Income in India: Myths and Realities—deals with one of the key aspects of agrarian conditions in contemporary India. Why does agriculture give meagre incomes to farmers in India? The answer to this question opens doors to an understanding of many contemporary development challenges that India faces.

A Narayanamoorthy has been studying farm incomes for a long time and has written extensively on the subject. However, most of his writings have been published hitherto in scholarly journals. Since readership of scholarly journals is typically confined to narrow disciplinary boundaries, it is heartening news that the work has now been made accessible in the form of a book. While this would help bring more attention to this important body of work, unfortunately, the form in which the material is presented in the book limits its access to technically trained scholars. The book is essentially a collection of papers written by the author on related issues. Each of these papers deals with a specific question. This is very helpful as, by merely skimming through the chapter titles, the reader gets to know what to look for in each chapter.