Irrigation and imperialism: The causes and consequences of a shift from subsistence to cash cropping
研究了英属印度西部农民在灌溉政策下从自给作物转向经济作物种植的原因，发现农民有技术理由不灌溉自给作物，政府因财政压力转向支持甘蔗，却意外促进了粮食生产，增强了区域粮食安全。
Dependency theorists and others have suggested that villagers in British India were compelled to grow cash crops under canal irrigation and this made them more vulnerable to famines. Evidence on cropping patterns in western India c. 1900 shows that cultivators had good technical reasons for not irrigating subsistence crops. In response to fiscal pressures and cultivators’ choices, the government turned from a policy favouring subsistence crop irrigation to one favouring sugarcane. Paradoxically, this new policy also stimulated foodgrain production, providing greater subsistence security for the region.