Economic Differentiation in Peasantry and Relative Efficiency of Owner Versus Tenant Cultivation: An Empirical Investigation

This paper attempts to enquire into the relative efficiency of owner tenant cultivation (on per acre basis) on two Orissa villages following the widely prevalent fann-size grouping as well as labour exploitation index formulated In the Marxist framework. It critically examines the inadequacies in the former method for not taking into account resource endowment of household relative to Its production capacity and consumption needs in the changing agrarian situation, and for assuming that peasantry is undifferentiated. Accordingly, it argues that in a situation of hierarchical possession of land and non-land means of production Marxlt theory of class differentiation in peasantry seems to be a suitable analytical alternative to look at the agrarian structure In a historical perspective. Therefore, labour-exploitation index could adequately capture certain qualitative differences between the classes with respect to the way production activity is organised, and the resultant yield differences.