A History of the Farmers' Movement

The post-green revolution era had two distinct features: a rise in agricultural productivity thanks to high-yielding seeds, use of chemical fertilisers, and improvements in irrigation techniques, and prices of farm produce not increasing commensurate with the increasing costs of production. The account clearly shows that even while the movement, the shape its demands took, as well as the agitational forms were moulded by the context of the crisis-demanding higher prices for agricultural produce and waiver of loans and power tariffs, etc-the author delves deep into the personality of Joshi in the various stages of the movement and his own attempts to shape the Shetkari Sanghatana's position on such important aspects as gender relations and caste-based discrimination in a larger political mosaic. [...]Dhanagare could have elaborated on the contents of the report by Joshi to the NF government in 1990 (in his capacity as chairman of the committee for drafting the agricultural policy appointed by the then Prime Minister, V P Singh) and delved deeper into it to see whether Joshi's precepts in the 1980s and his own perception of the Dunkel Draft and the World Trade Organization were reflected in that report. [...]there is a lot of scope to discuss as to whether Joshi, with his proximity to more than one Prime Minister (which the author outlines) could have brought about a difference in the lives of farmers in Maharashtra, or whether the crisis was of a systemic nature and beyond the precepts held out by Joshi in the 1980s.