From Zero-Sum Games to Armageddon

From Zero-Sum Games to Armageddon Abu Abdullah Rural Bangladesh: Competition for Scarce Resources by Eirik Jansen; Norwegian University Press; pp 35] THE story Eirik Jansen has to tell about Bangladesh agriculture, developed over ten chapters, is a simple one with a bleak conclusion. Rural Bangladesh is characterised, and its dynamics determined, by an unrelenting competition over scarce resources. The rich farmers, those with a surplus, compete to acquire land, not from each other, but from those farmers with a deficit budget. The usual method of acquisition is through a credit relation where the deficit farmer's land is used as collateral, and is ultimately transferred to the lender when the borrower proves unable to repay the loan. The rich have an unquenchable thirst for land, but are unable or unwilling to utilise it more productively. The poor for their part compete among themselves for the opportunities, limited as that are, that the rich can offer them' to balance their budget