Internal Forces of Change in Agriculture: India and Japan Compared 1

This chapter discusses some aspects of the histories of Indian and Japanese agriculture in an Asian comparative perspective. Its focus is the identification of internal forces of change in Asian agriculture, and its explicit yardstick is the Japanese experience. In particular, three aspects stand out as crucial for the development of Japanese agriculture or, more generally, Asian agriculture. First, small farmers acted as internal forces of change. Even when they did not own land, they were often actively involved in technological and managerial improvements. There is no clear-cut answer to the question of whether Asian agriculture should have opted for large-scale fanning, or had good economic reasons to remain small-scale, but it is clear by now that small-scale production does not always imply backwardness, nor does large-scale farming necessarily mean 'capitalistic'. A rough guide to the case of the cultivation of rice, the single most important crop in Asia, is that it is more or less scale-neutral. ² Second, the strength of small-scale production arose from both the development of labour-intensive technology and its ability to absorb labour, particularly family labour. Managerially-independent farmers had better incentives and opportunities than large-scale farm managers to fully absorb labour and adapt new tools, seeds and methods. This stronger incentive and the more detailed coordination among workers more than compensated for disadvantages. And it acted as a major force of change in production methods. Whenever land became scarce, small-scale production had a chance to push this 'technology choice' further, and was able to retain its competitive edge. ³ Third, Asian agriculture responded to Western impact, not by shifting to Western-style farming, but by incorporating Western technology and organisations into small-scale agriculture. The integration of Asian peasant producers into the world economy meant, in many cases, the destruction of traditional social structure and the reorganisation or emergence of economic and social stratification. Nevertheless small-scale production appears to have persisted, along with the development of some large-scale farming. ⁴