Paper short abstract:

This paper is about the digitalisation of farm practices and the challenges faced by the marginal and small farmers in India. The paper argues that the economics of production in such minimal holdings do not lend themselves to the adoption of digital technologies in farming.

Paper long abstract:

In India, marginal (owning < 1.00 hectares) and small farmers (owning 1.00 to 1.99 hectares) form the bulk of the agrarian community. In the last decade, as part of government policy, digitalisation in farming is being increasingly promoted as particularly beneficial for small farmers.

This paper uses preliminary findings from research on the digitalisation of food assistance (ESRC funded and SOAS based). The study argues that digital technologies do not benefit small farmers and may even reinforce existing power imbalances. It uses evidence from Chhattisgarh in central India. Chhattisgarh is classified as one of the least developed regions of the country and is one of the poorest states. Marginal and small farmers form approximately 80 per cent of the farmers. Data for the study comes from qualitative interviews of 22 respondents selected purposively from twelve villages in three clusters. These villages are far from the administrative headquarters and face problems with connectivity in terms of roads and electricity. In this primarily rain-fed, single crop area, none of the respondents had adopted any of the technologies related to precision agriculture. The current phase of the study explores the reasons for this. As a comparative case study, we plan to examine the claim of successful digital farming among small-holder chilli farmers in the state of Telangana to examine how they have been able to overcome the challenges faced by the farmers in Chhattisgarh.