Agrarian Crisis and Agricultural Market Reforms in South Asia

South Asia is home to 0.5 billion multi-dimensionally poor people accounting for 29% of the total population (UNDP & OPHI, 2021). In South Asia, the agricultural sector provides employment to 42% of the workforce (Singh & Gill, 2020), a majority of whom, both men and women, are not only poor but also indebted (Guerin, 2014; Singh et al., 2020). It is well established that productivity and wages in the agricultural sector are very low: characterized by small farm size and differentiated exchange relations for inputs and products (Aga, 2019; Rawal & Verma, 2020). While regionally and socially uneven, the agrarian crisis is severe. There is a dire need to consider and enact agriculture sector reforms that may reduce the contradictions of agrarian transformation and support its victims. Indian economic reforms began in July 1991 with a focus on industrializing the economy for faster economic development. Agricultural reforms started slowly with pre-production and post-harvest measures (Harriss-White & Janakarajan, 2004). The experience of the last three decades has failed to answer the question of whether the economic reform programme has accelerated the structural transformation of the Indian economy. As expected, the agricultural sector’s contribution to the GDP has come down significantly. However, at 44%, the workforce’s dependence on agriculture continues to be high. The terms of trade have also remained mostly against agriculture, and thus, the cost of economic Millennial Asia 12(3) 265–276, 2021 © 2021 Association of Asia Scholars Reprints and permissions: in.sagepub.com/journals-permissions-india DOI: 10.1177/09763996211063444 journals.sagepub.com/home/mla