Capitalist Development in Agriculture-A Note

A Note Utsa Patnaik In recent years there has emerged a tendency towards profit-oriented production and investment in land by a section of the cultivating population. Many observers think they see a new class of capitalist farmers emerging. There had been, however, no quantitative studies attempting to isolate the characteristics of capitalist farmers or to apply any criteria to identify the capitalists, Ashok Rudra with A Majid and B D Talib carried out a sample survey of big farmers in Punjab and, after attempting to isolate the capitalists from the sample by certain statistical methods, came to the conclusion that no group of capitalist farmers could be identified.