摘要：There is a definite need to go beyond the po-litical economy framework which empha-sizes the dualistic nature of the agricultural sector viz., plantation and peasant. The agricultural sector constitutes cultivators with varying levels of: (i) commitment to agricul-tural production, (ii) access to resources and (iii) linkages between and among themselves by a host of social and economic relations. Furthermore, the interplay among them is not necessarily determined by any given period by conflictual relations between large (plantation.) and small (peasant) holdings, but is to be located in the nature of the intra-agricultural sectoral links and not least their connections with the non-agricultural sector. This latter phenomenon is virtually ignored in the literature. Yet one of the basic features of West Indian agricultural social structures is the fact that all strata engage in non-agricultural occupations. Additionally, the role of the State although acknowledged is barely contained and integrated into analysesof the sector, in spiteof its impact, not least in the definition of options available to members of various agricultural strata.
