Revolutionary central leaderships usually desire agrarian transformation from individual to collective agriculture from out of macro perceptions not initially shared by the peasantry. This paper seeks to understand, from a comparative study of experiences in North Viet Nam, Tanzania and Ethiopia, what are the possibilities and policy issues for achieving peasant participation in such transformation. The study suggests that there must be evident material compulsion for the peasantry to voluntarily adopt collectivism. But this is not enough. Natural inclination of the peasantry under such circumstances towards co-operation in production may be destroyed by an attempt to force the pace of transition to collectivism. What is needed is a careful strategy of steering the peasantry through progressive praxis in collective agriculture, in which co-operation in production develops organically as a productive force in terms both of peasant motivation and their capability for managing the complex collective tasks. There is thus an evolutionary stream in participatory transition to collective agriculture. This at any stage should be more advanced the earlier it starts, and it is never too early to begin, even before a macro-political change takes place.
The present study analyses the problem of adoption of high yielding varieties of rice during the rainfed aman season in Bangladesh. Drawing on information from a village survey, the analysis confirms some of the well-known results (for an incomplete diffusion process) regarding effects of farm size and tenurial status on the decision to adopt and the extent of adoption. In an attempt to probe further the causal relationships behind adoption the analysis was extended to consider characteristics of farm households. Two variables reflecting consumption requirements and family labour availability relative to land were found to contribute significantly to the explanation of variation in adoption and its extent across farm sizes.
The paper identifies some of the demographic, background and socio-economic characteristics of women that affect cumulative fertility and examines the magnitude of differentials in cumulative fertility due to these factors using data from the Bangladesh Fertility Survey. Multivariate techniques are adopted in the analysis to understand the net effect of each of the factors. The results indicate the predominance of demographic variables such as age, age at first marriage and number of times married over other types of variables in the determination of fertility behaviour in rural Bangladesh. However, some of the background and socio-economic variables such as religion, wife’s work status and husband’s occupation turn out to be significant predictors of fertility behaviour for older women. There is also some indirect evidence to suggest the presence of some kind of involuntary control on fertility behaviour through such mechanism as prolonged breastfeeding, in fecundity or sub-fecundity, pregnancy wastage etc. among various sub-groups of the population which are suffering from an extremely poor standard of living.
This paper critically evaluates the plausibility and consistency of various findings of the 1974 Census of Bangladesh. However, the objective of the paper is not merely to reveal the defects per se. It purports to show how the methodology of research on various issues relating to population statistics can be significantly affected by the interpretation one gives to the data discrepancies and by the manner in which one attemp’s to correct those discrepancies. This is done as a part of a larger study which aims at analysing the mechanisms through which research, policy making and administration adjust to and thrive on poor quality of statistical data.
