AGEX 1003/AGRI 0202 Caribbean Agriculture/Sociology of Agriculture PDF

AGEX 1003: Development of Caribbean Agriculture / AGRI 0202: Sociology of Agriculture Peasantry  ▪Define the concept Peasant ▪Characteristics of West Indies Peasantry Overview ▪Periods of the growth of Peasantry ▪The role of Peasantry...

AGEX 1003: Development of Caribbean Agriculture / AGRI 0202: Sociology of Agriculture Peasantry  ▪Define the concept Peasant ▪Characteristics of West Indies Peasantry Overview ▪Periods of the growth of Peasantry ▪The role of Peasantry ▪Government’s Policy towards Peasantry Peasant Development in the West Indies Who is a ▪Someone who has no long established “ties of tradition and sentiment” to the land which he Peasant? controls.  ▪Started - At emancipation in 1838 ▪It was made up of ex slaves who after slavery started small farms wherever they could find land. Peasantry o Continued to work on plantation for small wages. ▪A negative reflex to enslavement, mass production, mono-cropping and metropolitan control.  ▪Recent in origin ▪Its growth - in numbers and acreage controlled - was consistent during the first 50 - 60 years of its Characteristics existence of WI ▪ It exists alongside and in conflict with the Peasantry plantation ▪It did not depend exclusively on cultivation of the soil for its income and subsistence  ▪Combined the cultivation of their land with activities like fishing or shop keeping and casual estate work Characteristics ▪Operated on approximately 2-acre plots of WI Peasantry ▪Founders and residents of the new village cont’d communities which sprouted near the estates and occasionally in the mountains immediately after emancipation  Three (3) stages can be identified: The Growth of 1. Period of Establishment Peasantry 2. Period of Consolidation 3. Period of Saturation  ▪From 1838 -1850-60 ▪Rapid acquisition of land holdings 1. Period of ▪Combination of factors explain the ex-slaves desire Establishment to leave estates at emancipation and to establish themselves as independent cultivators. ▪➔system of tenancy, low wages, occupational difference.  ▪Planter dominated legislatures e.g. against squatting on Crown Land 1. Period of ▪Many planters were in debt and therefore disposed Establishment small portions of land cont’d ▪The land was of variable quality: oMarginal land, not surveyed and uncleared  ▪The rapid increase in the number of peasants continued ▪Increased in the period of 1860 - 1900 2. Period of ▪The emergence of a “new peasantry”: Consolidation oincrease in the number of farms of more than five (5) acres odramatic change in the peasant’s pattern of production ▪Shift from provision to mixed production & export crop production e.g spices, arrowroot, cocoa  ▪Failure of the peasantry to expand at its earlier pace ▪In general, the shortage of land for continued peasant expansion imposed a limit on this type of development ▪Peasantry in some territories has been declining in 3. Period of numbers oDecrease in smaller holdings Saturation oIncrease in larger holdings ▪This pattern was not uniform throughout the West Indies. oContinued decrease in the Windwards oLarger territories showed increase in larger holdings  ▪Peasant activity modified the character of the original pure plantation economy and society ▪The peasants were innovators in the economic life of the community The Role of ▪They produced a great quantity and variety of Peasantry subsistence crops and livestock ▪They introduced new crops and re-introduced old ones ▪Diversified the basically monoculture pattern  After 1850s, they introduced or re-introduced the following crops: The Role of ▪bananas, coffee, citrus, coconuts, cocoa and Peasantry logwood in Jamaica cont’d ▪cocoa, arrowroot, spices, bananas and logwood in the Windward Islands  ▪All of these crops were subsequently adopted by the The Role of planters and became important elements in the Peasantry export trade by the 1870s. cont’d ▪Not all of these crops succeeded.  ▪The success of the peasants in combating attacks of disease on crops like cocoa and bananas was always The Role of severely limited by their shortage of resources of Peasantry capital and knowledge. cont’d ▪The plantation-staple economy was being mixed with elements of a peasant subsistence economy  ▪Peasants were producing cash crops as well as food ▪The peasants initiated the conversion of these plantation territories into modern societies ▪In a variety of ways, they attempted to build local The Role of self-generating communities. Peasantry oFounded villages and markets; cont’d oBuilt churches and schools; oClamored for extension of educational facilities, for improvement in communications and markets; oStarted the local co-operative movement  ▪Informal co-operatives made their appearance immediately after emancipation ▪Groups of ex-slaves pooled their resources to buy The Role of land, to lay down drainage systems, to build Peasantry churches and schools cont’d ▪Participation in more formal organizations came later eg in the Friendly and Benefit Societies, in the Jamaica Agricultural Society and particularly in the People’s Co-operative Loan Bank of Jamaica  ▪These Co-operative Banks were located in peasant communities and were intended to “encourage thrift and to provide the small farmer with loans on The Role of reasonable terms and at the lowest possible rates Peasantry of interest”. cont’d ▪By 1949, 119 branches of the bank with 72, 700 members had been established, and the bank had made advances and loans of nearly £2 million  ▪Government ignored the existence of the peasant class Government ▪They were left to themselves to experiment with Policy towards different crops and techniques the Peasantry ▪General backwardness in agricultural knowledge, inadequate credit and market facilities and the shortage of fertile land for peasant expansion  ▪Planters feared that peasant expansion would ruin Government the sugar industry by creating labour shortages Policy towards ▪They convinced official opinion in England that the Peasantry both the prosperity and civilization of the WI were cont’d dependent on the survival of the estate-based industry Government ▪Government attitude was modified only when discontent and restlessness among peasants and Policy towards labourers, combined with prolonged depression in the Peasantry the in the sugar industry during the 1890s and again cont’d in the 1930s to create a situation of crisis  ▪The establishment of the Jamaica Agricultural Government Society and the appointment of a traveling Policy towards agricultural instructor in the 1890s hinted at a new policy the Peasantry cont’d ▪The Report of the Royal West India Commission in 1897 seemed to point in a new direction Government ▪The Commission recognized that the peasantry was “a source of both economic and political strength”. Policy towards the Peasantry ▪It recommended land settlement and diversification cont’d of agriculture. Peasantry basically brought in the existence of small holdings mainly in the small islands.  ▪ Peasant: Someone who has no long established “ties of tradition and sentiment” to the land which he controls. ▪ Three (3) stages can be identified: 1. Period of Establishment 2. Period of Consolidation 3. Period of Saturation Summary ▪ Roles: omodified the character of the original pure plantation economy and society oinnovators in the economic life of the community oproduced a great quantity and variety of subsistence crops and livestock ointroduced new crops and re-introduced old ones oDiversified the monoculture pattern  Marshall, W. “Peasant Development in the West READINGS Indies since 1838” In Rural Development in the Caribbean.