Matthan, Tanya 
ORCID: 0009-0008-3718-1462
(2025)
The seed and the well: navigating agrarian risk in the Anthropocene.
In:
Environmental Studies from India: Engaging with the Planetary Ecological Crisis.
Oxford University Press, pp. 263-282.
ISBN 9780198984092
Abstract
This chapter examines the entanglements of climatic and agrarian risk against the backdrop of a broader crisis of Indian agriculture. Building on ethnographic research in the Malwa region of central India, the chaper focuses on two major drivers of agrarian change since the 1980s: the introduction of soybean as a primary monsoon crop and the spread of irrigation through private borewells. Specifically, it shows how these capitalist agrarian transformations intersect with climatic change to produce and enhance risk for smallholder farmers. Drawing on the rich traditions of critical agrarian studies and political ecology, the chapter argues that these entwinements reveal that climate change unfolds within and is articulated through specific socio-spatial and historical contexts. Moreover, it demonstrates that the contours of the agrarian present might be discerned in often mundane and minute shifts in everyday practices and processes of cultivation.
| Item Type: | Book Section |
|---|---|
| Additional Information: | © 2025 Oxford University Press |
| Divisions: | Geography and Environment |
| Subjects: | S Agriculture G Geography. Anthropology. Recreation > GE Environmental Sciences G Geography. Anthropology. Recreation > G Geography (General) |
| Date Deposited: | 07 Jan 2026 17:18 |
| Last Modified: | 13 Jan 2026 10:33 |
| URI: | http://eprints.lse.ac.uk/id/eprint/130885 |
Actions (login required)
 |
View Item |
