Archive · 3 Oct 2026
Maryam Aslany Says Debt Is Farmers’ Biggest Threat
Maryam Aslany studies farmers and the challenges they face.
Her new book looks at farming communities in places including India, Cambodia, Peru and Ghana.
She says farmers often have little money and live far from the cities where important decisions are made.
Farmers can still make their voices heard when they organise, as they did in India’s 2020–21 protests.
Aslany says debt is the biggest danger for many small farmers.
Some have to borrow money at very high interest rates.
Climate change adds pressure to farming systems that are already struggling.
She also describes the hardship of migrant workers who cut sugarcane in Maharashtra.
Economic sociologist Maryam Aslany’s book, Peasants: Makers of the Modern World, examines farmers and migrant labourers across several countries.
Her research began with rural change in India and focused on sugarcane growers in Maharashtra, including communities in Vidarbha and western Maharashtra.
Aslany says the 2020–21 farmers’ protests showed that organised farmers can still wield political influence, and expects protests to remain important.
She argues farmers face structural disadvantages because they are dispersed and resource-limited while political institutions, markets, capital and media are concentrated in cities.
Aslany identifies debt and high-interest moneylending as farmers’ greatest threat, with climate change worsening an already strained system.
- Who
- Maryam Aslany, an economic sociologist and author of Peasants: Makers of the Modern World.
- What
- Aslany discusses her research on farmers and argues that debt is their biggest threat.
- When
- In an interview about her new book; no publication date is stated.
- Where
- The interview discusses farming communities in India and other countries, including Cambodia, Peru and Ghana.
- Why
- Aslany says small farmers face high-interest debt and structural disadvantages, while climate change adds pressure.
Farmers’ Challenges
Aslany’s Assessment
Debt and climate change
Farmers’ Challenges
Climate change is raised as a possible leading threat to farmers.
Aslany’s Assessment
Aslany says debt is the biggest threat; climate change worsens an already troubled system.
Farmers’ political influence
Farmers’ Challenges
Farmers face structural weakness: they are dispersed, have limited resources and cannot leave their fields for long.
Aslany’s Assessment
Aslany says the 2020–21 protests showed organised farmers can still exert considerable political power.
- Book
- Peasants: Makers of the Modern World
- Publisher
- Bloomsbury
- Author
- Maryam Aslany, an economic sociologist
- Research focus in India
- Rural change and sugarcane cultivators in Maharashtra
- Farmers’ protests discussed
- The 2020–21 protests in Delhi
- Aslany’s view of the biggest threat
- Debt, including borrowing from moneylenders at astronomical interest rates
- Climate change
- Aslany says it intensifies a farming system already in crisis