New Agro-Technology and Traditional Rural Family and Rural Power Structure: A Case Study from Odisha

Abstract

Agriculture holds a pivotal place in the economy of Orissa in terms of both income and employment around which economic privileges and deprivations revolve. For the people of Orissa agriculture is not merely a means of livelihood but a way of life. In this paper an attempt has been made to analyse the impact of new agro technology on the rural social institutions with reference to traditional rural family and power structure in Orissa.The study intend to explore the changing socio-political structure of the rural society. It seems that the agro technology along with other factors like education, westernization and modernization has led not only to an increasing productivity, but also brought about a fundamental change in the structure and function of rural family power structure. The study also revealed that the agro technology raised the class feeling weakening the traditional caste feeling in the village