From Agrarian Crisis to Global Economic Crisis: Neoliberalism and the Indian Peasantry

Abstract

The rural economies in most developing countries were already gripped with stagnation prior to the unfolding of the current crisis as a result of the structural adjustment measures that had been adopted in different guises and for varying lengths of time. Cutbacks in public expenditure on agriculture, which were a common feature of the neoliberal agenda, have mostly had negative implications for the rural economies of the South, and particularly so for smallholder peasant agriculture. The impacts of the current crisis are therefore being felt in contexts where production conditions (for smallholder agriculture) were already adverse, and where the rural population was already vulnerable and food-insecure.