The book brings together original, state-of-the-art historical research from several continents and examines how mainly local peasant societies responded to colonial pressures to produce a range of different commodities. It offers new directions in the study of African, Asian, Caribbean, and Latin American societies.

Sandip Hazareesingh is Research Fellow in the History Department at the Open University, UK. He is the author of The Colonial City and the Challenge of Modernity (2007), and is currently researching the interactions between peasant livelihoods, colonial policies, climate and environment in nineteenth and twentieth century western India.

Harro Maat is Sociologist and Historian of Agricultural Science and Technology at the Knowledge, Technology and Innovation group of Wageningen University, Netherlands. His main focus is on crop improvement in the colonial period and current (bio)technologies for international development in India, South-East Asia and Africa.