In Search of the Capitalist Farmer-A Comment

A Comment R S Rao ASHOK Rudra has made a penetrating analysis of the economics of large-scale farming with a view to empirically identifying the capitalist farmers (Reviews of Agriculture, September 1969, December 1969 and June 1970). He came out with the almost negative result that the 'capitalist farmer' may not exist: "The interesting results above pertain more to the economics of mechanisation than to the anatomy and physiology of the animal which has been named the capitalist farmer even before his existence has been established". The present note limits itself to the methodology Rudra adopted in his exercise and does not go into the identification of capitalist farmers in Punjab.