Living beyond means in the Indian Punjab: intensive agriculture, ecological crisis and the role of the state

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Punjab was located at the centre of India’s Green Revolution efforts during the 1960s, which led to a dramatic economic transformation of its rural economy. However, Punjab agriculture has come to be associated with widespread ecological degradation in recent decades on account of its intensive cultivation practices. This paper presents an account of the complex local political economy which jeopardizes Punjab’s transition away from its water-guzzling rice-wheat monocultures. In doing so, it concludes that a promotion of agroecology through active state support may be the only way to resolve Punjab agriculture’s economic and ecological predicament.