Paper short abstract:

The paper analyzes capitalist development in agriculture through a longitudinal study in North India. Using data from 2006–2024, it examines how sugarcane commercialization reinforces caste-class inequalities, with state and market interventions benefiting dominant groups disproportionately.

Paper long abstract:

This paper examines the deepening capitalist dynamics in Indian agriculture through a longitudinal study of a village in Western Uttar Pradesh, India’s largest sugarcane-producing state. Drawing on quantitative data from the Foundation for Agrarian Studies (2006–2023) and the author’s ethnographic fieldwork (2022–24), as well as secondary sources, it analyzes the socio-economic impacts of the sugarcane boom driven by high-yield seed varieties (Co 0238), the growth of private sugar mills, and modernized marketing structures.

Sugarcane cultivation has expanded across castes and classes, with Scheduled Caste (SC) and Other Backward Class (OBC) land-poor households leasing land from dominant caste landowners. While commercialization has improved access to land and markets for tenant farmers, structural barriers persist. SC and OBC cultivators face lower returns due to high rents and limited access to formal procurement channels, forcing sales in informal markets at lower prices. Dominant caste-class landowners, in contrast, leverage state-regulated procurement systems, subsidies, and private networks to maximize profits. This paper highlights how commercialization is accompanied by unequal exchanges, interlinked transactions, and infrastructural improvements that disproportionately benefit owner-cultivators.

The research reveals how caste and class intersect to shape uneven outcomes, perpetuating economic vulnerability among marginalized groups. The findings demonstrate how the growth of agrarian capitalism in India, while expanding market participation, reinforces socio-economic hierarchies. Through the lens of sugarcane cultivation, the study finds the ways and mechanisms in which state and private interventions facilitate surplus extraction, intensifying inequalities in agricultural commercialization across social groups.