India’s agro-ecological crisis and debt entrapments: A multi-scalar analysis on the political ecology of indebtedness

High levels of indebtedness and environmental degradation are at the core of India’s agro-ecological crisis, creating extreme forms of marginalisation and agrarian transformations such that it leaves a large part of the population socio-economically and ecologically vulnerable. However, the two phenomenon must not be singled out and understood with a siloed approach. They are intertwined to each and are bringing about deep-rooted systemic shifts which are enforcing extreme forms of inequalities. The purpose of this study is to understand the mechanisms by which debt and environmental degradation are interlinked with each other such that they have exacerbated India’s agro-ecological crisis. The study identifies three modes of linkages between debt and environmental degradation – dispossession, differentiation, and displacement; the biopolitics of debt; and commodification and financialisation of agro-commodities, in this case, soya. In the process, the study provides an overarching view of the financial landscape of debt rooted in environmental degradation and social relations of exchange – the types of debt, actors and institutions involved and parameters of environmental degradation.