In this volume leading historians and economists from India and the West consider some persistent features and variable forces which explain changes through their impact on different levels of decision-making in agriculture. New light is cast on both the pre-colonial periods, and on currentdevelopment policies and problems.

Like many other regional groups, the member countries of the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC)—Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka—have taken steps toward forming a regional free trade area. Will the SAARC Preferential Trading Arrangement (SAPTA) offer the substantial economic benefits, including food security, that South Asian leaders expect? This quantitative analysis compares the economic results of SAPTAwith two other trade liberalization schemes, (1) more liberal trade between SAARCand the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) countries, and (2) more liberal trade between SAARC and the world.

The liberalisation of trade in rice is likely to have huge welfare implications for countries dependent on its production and trade. This book explores the poverty and welfare implications of this liberalisation for India, Bangladesh, Pakistan and Sri Lanka, and identifies the effects on different groups within rice-dependent developing countries.

Economic policy analysis of the relationship between the political power of local government and productivity in the agricultural sector in South Asia - analyses the impact of social change on sugar cane agricultural production, as well as historical aspects of power structures in India; examines economic implications of local level power configurations, esp. As regards farm-level decision making; discusses determinants and varieties of rural mobilization. References, statistical tables.