Cereal Production in the Sugarcane Belt: Commercialisation and Smallholder Tenants in a Western UP Village

This article examines the impact of the expansion of sugarcane cultivation on cereal production and certain features of agrarian relations in Harevli village in western Uttar Pradesh. It draws on longitudinal data collected in the village in 2006 and 2023. The expansion of sugarcane cultivation has reduced the area under wheat and paddy, though wheat output has remained stable because of rising yields. Relatively rich landowners focus more on sugarcane than cereal cultivation, and have increasingly leased out land for wheat and rice cultivation to land-poor Dalit and Other Backward Class households. This tenancy has enabled greater access to land for poor peasants from these caste groups, who now cultivate most of the cereal grown in the village. However, economic outcomes remain unequal as high rents and interlinked contracts depress profitability. Even though most poor peasants earn marginal or negative returns, tenancy endures as a means of ensuring household grain supply.