M.H. Khan, A.V. Chayanov and the family farms of the North‐West Frontier Province

Abstract

Mahmood Hasan Khan has argued that the agrarian structure of Pakistan's North‐West Frontier Province resembles that described in Russia in the early twentieth century by Alexander Vasil'evich Chayanov. The purpose of this article is to examine the validity of such an argument. After identifying changes in the agrarian structure of the Frontier since 1947, Chayanov's theory of peasant economy is empirically tested. Despite an absence of wage labour, none of Chayanov's static hypotheses are supported. It is concluded that the rural research of Khan, while technically proficient, does not explain processes of economic change in Frontier agriculture.