Political Economy of Farming in India: Chronicling 50 Years of Scholarship and Transformation

“We do not want a solar power generation plant here. Our animals and nature will be destroyed. We eat rotis made of bajra and drink ghi; we are content. This will finish if the plant is constructed here.” An old farmer told us angrily during a recent phase of fieldwork in western Rajasthan. On another day, another village resident explained why some people seemed willing to give their land away to renewable energy projects: “a farmer who earns one lakh rupees annually from his land calculates that he could earn two lakh rupees if he leases his land to the company.”