Peasants, Food and Agrarian Change
with Dr. Haroon Akram-Lodhi
More than 3.4 billion people live in the countryside of developing countries. The vast majority of these women and men rely, to a lesser or great extent, on small-scale farming as the basis of their livelihood. By some counts 70 per cent of the world's food is grown by small-scale peasant farmers – but at the same time some 70 per cent of the world's poor live in the world's rural areas. So the world's food is grown by the world's poorest people. If global citizens want to address human inequality we have to start by understanding how the world's largely ignored peasant farmers have become the epicenter of global poverty. After all, if we want the world to become a better place a good place to start would be among the lives of the world's forgotten peoples that provide the bulk of humanity with their food.

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Historically, peasants have lived in communities with unique mechanisms of redistribution. These mechanisms have broken down as peasants have become exposed to modern economic processes.

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If we want to understand the role played by peasants in the emergence of modern economies, we have to understand what might be meant by economic development.

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The key differences between the economic characteristics of developing countries and the economic characteristics of developed countries are discussed.

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The basis by which peasants live, work and care is the household. Within peasant households divisions of labour between women and men and girls and boys are clearly seen.

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The first investigations of how peasant households allocated their resources within themselves was by the Russian A.V. Chaynov, who remains influential to this day.

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As a general rule of thumb, women allocate their time differently than men. So what do women and men do differently?

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