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Rethinking the “Agrarian Question” Through Cross-Regional Comparative Analysis
Chair(s): Patrick Clark (St. Mary's University, Canada)
This roundtable will be a dialogue between researchers working on the “agrarian question” in Latin America and South Asia. The “agrarian question,” conceptualized as an empirical question regarding the future of peasant agriculture in the face of a capitalist political economy and the implications of this for social and political change, has both empirical and polemical dimensions. In the contemporary context, those advocating in political or normative terms for small-scale or peasant agriculture, referred to historically as “populists,” draw to varying degrees on the ideas of the most important theorist of peasant agriculture, Russian agricultural economist Alexander Chayanov, whose ideas are transposed with the contribution of Marxists like Karl Kautsky and Vladimir Lenin. With the decline of centrally planned economies, the continuity of smallholder production in the face of globalized capitalism, and the rise of food sovereignty discourse and La Via Campesina at the global level, smallholder or peasant farming has been embraced by sections of the political Right and Left in different regions. While agrarian populism has arguably proven more resilient and politically multi-variant than the political prescriptions of Marxists, the political economy analysis of Marxists continues to have considerable explanatory power. Though peasant and family farming has adapted and, in some cases, thrived in capitalist market economies, the contributions of Marxism better explain the consolidation of agriculture in regions like North America as well as different regions within countries or the production of particular communities. This roundtable is a first step towards future collaboration on comparative research on processes of agrarian change in both regions. The contributors will consider the different responses of national governments in managing processes of agrarian change and how these explain differences across different cases.
Presentations of the Symposium
"Embedded Neoliberalism" and the Resugence of Agricultural Cooperativism in Peru
Patrick Clark St. Mary's University
This presentation will discuss ongoing research in Peru about the re-emergence of smallholder producer cooperatives as a Chayanovian or a “via campesina” path of rural development in Peru since the turn towards neoliberalism in the 1990s. The 1970s agrarian reform process in Peru brought with it the creation of state-led cooperatives, most of which disappeared during the economic crisis of the 1980s. However, since the turn towards neoliberalism in the 1990s, smallholder agricultural cooperatives have seen a resurgence in Peru. Some of these cooperatives have received different state support as part of export promotion policies of the Peruvian state as well as the turn towards environmental protection. I theorize this resurgence of agricultural cooperatives during the last decades as an example of “embedded neoliberalism.”
Producer Well-Being in the Face of Production Squeezes in the Costa Rican Coffee Sector
Marcela Ortiz Imlach York University
This presentation will discuss the situation facing small-scale coffee producers in Costa Rica based on research conducted between 2012 and 2022. Between the 1950s and 1980s, the Costa Rican state developed policies that helped small and medium-scale producers expand coffee production, including public credit, support for infrastructure and other subsidies and incentives. Neoliberal policies in the coffee sector intensified different squeezes in production and social reproduction theorized by Alexander Chayanov, including those related to household labour/ demographics, price shocks and ecological/ land squeezes. However, the research findings discussed in this presentation found that some intrinsic features of rural living motivate these producers to maintain their farms despite these squeezes.
The Bharatiya Kisan Union Ekta Ugrahan and the Agrarian Question in India
Paramjit Singh York University
The paper examines the potential of left-wing mass politics, particularly non-violent mass line strategies employed by left-wing unions, as an alternative approach to addressing the agrarian question in India. Focusing on the Bharatiya Kisan Union Ekta Ugrahan, the study aims to explore how this union’s resistance to imperialism and the neoliberal state’s agrarian policies contributes to the ongoing struggle to resolve the agrarian question. By critiquing the state-led project, which often fails to address the root issues faced by the peasantry, the paper evaluates the efficacy of left-wing political mobilizations in offering a more inclusive, grassroots-driven solution.
