The Young Desert Farmer

A small dry sluggish feudal village in western Rajasthan came alive after the villagers managed to pump irrigation water from great depth. Tan Dan and his livestock breeding clan became commercial farmers more powerful than the former feudal lords. Tenants became landowners participating in the casteridden political game of the area.
Tan Dan tried modern farming based on agricultural science. Methods that seemed strange to many and partly faced opposition. The big boost in cereal production with new seed made resourceful farmers rich around 1970. Poor villagers and town people faced at the same time food shortage due to monsoon failures, hoarding and outdated agricultural methods. Some young farmers including Tan Dan were sent to USA to learn modern commercial agriculture. Still he felt it was something wrong with an approach based on boosting production of the already rich farmers, asking the poor masses of village peasants to copy them. Tan Dan had many ideas of improving agriculture for those farmers, who lived out of touch with government extension officers, but he often failed in getting others to adopt innovations he tried himself. Old feudal relationships and attitudes, as well as ageold religious beliefs and customs were obstacles difficult to come around. Profitable novelties such as high-yielding dwarf wheat spread like wildfire, though, and also Tan Dan's brothers had to admit that Tan Dan had ideas that could be useful.
The book is also about other aspects of Rajastani village life, that Tan Dan experienced as a child. Such as the fate of a young widow, and the violent resistence from some groups, when a school started for children from all castes. Tan Dan followed the struggle as an insider, as he was in the first batch.