What does agricultural involution mean?

"Agricultural Involution" is a study of Indonesia published by Clifford Geertz in 1963.

Gertz found in his field research that there is a dual development between Java and the outer islands. With the help of technology, production in some areas of the outer islands is becoming more and more capital-intensive. ; And some places in Java are constantly developing in a labor-intensive direction (Geertz, 1963:62). The island of Java gathers 2/3 of Indonesia's population and is mainly engaged in food production and small handicrafts; while the outer islands are scattered over a vast area outside of Java. The entry of colonists has resulted in the production of highly efficient, large-scale industries mainly for export. industry.

Due to a lack of capital, a limited amount of land, and administrative obstacles, the Javanese are unable to expand agriculture outwards, causing labor to continue to fill limited rice production. When summarizing this process, Geertz used the concept of "agricultural involution".

It is impossible for the Javanese themselves to transform into a part of the capital economy, nor to transform the already widespread intensive agriculture into extended agriculture. Because they lacked capital, they were unable to shed excess labor, and administrative barriers prevented them from crossing their borders (since the rest of the land was covered with coffee trees). In this way, slowly, steadily, and ruthlessly formed the labor-stuffed agricultural model of Sawash in 1920: countless laborers concentrated in limited rice production, especially in areas that had improved due to sugarcane cultivation. Improved irrigation conditions and increased yield per unit area.

After 1900, even if dry farming developed, people's living standards only improved very slightly. Since rice cultivation can stably maintain marginal labor productivity, that is, the input of more labor does not lead to a significant decline in per capita income, it has at least indirectly absorbed almost all the excess population generated after the entry of Westerners. For such a self-defeating process, I call it "agricultural involution."

(Geertz, 1963:80)?