Change and Continuity: Agriculture in Palanpur

A central theme in all the studies of Palanpur that have been undertaken to date has been the changing nature of agriculture. One of the reasons for selecting Palanpur from amongst the many villages that Christopher Bliss and Nicholas Stern considered prior to launching the 1974-75 survey was that this village was suitable for analyzing the changing nature of agriculture, particularly the impact of technological changes in the wheat economy1. This focus on agriculture is evident in the first book on Palanpur by Bliss and Stern (1982) which documented the structure of agricultural production in detail. Importantly, in that study Palanpur was also used as a testing ground for many of the existing economic theories concerning production in agriculture relevant to developing countries. Notable among these were the various theories of tenancy (under certainty as well as uncertainty), factor market inter-linkages and formation of wage rates. The theories were probed using data which were carefully and meticulously collected by a team led by Christopher Bliss and Nicholas Stern through active observation during an extended stay in the village. It was the care and detail with which the data were collected and verified which allowed the authors to shed light on many dimensions of agrarian transformation in Palanpur that had hitherto not been available from secondary data sources