Articles by S S Madalgi


During the last few years, the agricultural sector has benefited from a high level of prices which has turned the terms of trade in its favour. Quantitative assessment of the impact of this factor on incomes of farmers and on incomes of various size-groups of farms is not all available.

Growth in number of small farmers is mainly the result of (as is the growth of agricultural labourers the result of) population pressure and lack of non-farm employment. Benefits of development have not percolated to this sizeable section of the rural population.

The acute poverty of the masses in India is reflected in the extent of their undernourishment Much of this poverty and consequent hunger are concentrated in rural India, particularly in areas where there is a high concentration of landless labour, where the per capita area under cultivation is small, and where productivity is low. The undernutrition is partly due to lack of purchasing power and partly due to shortage of foodgrains.