The development economist Michael Lipton, who has died aged 86, credited an important part of his education to the people of the village of Kavathe in Maharashtra state, India. His research there in 1965-66 anchored a lifetime devoted to understanding, explaining and advocating for poor rural people around the world.
Rather than being backward and conservative as some supposed, such communities acted rationally and managed resources efficiently. In his paper The Theory of the Optimising Peasant (1968), Michael explained that poor, small farmers were often reluctant to adopt new varieties of wheat and rice such as those rolled out in the green revolution of the mid-20th century, despite the average yield being higher than that of traditional varieties. This was because when the new varieties failed, because of drought or disease, they did so more spectacularly than traditional varieties, and thus increased the risk of hunger and destitution. When later generations of the green revolution crops reduced the risk, poor farmers adopted them with enthusiasm.
