Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
other organizers who had participated in making the policy shared sim-
ilar views. They, too, strongly admonished against certified organic ag-
riculture for export. Thanal's position, therefore, was not unique. Many
proponents, including farmers such as Dayal, argued that certified or-
ganic farming practices fixated on generating money, promoted cash crop
agriculture over necessary staple food items like rice, and did not benefit
Kerala, historically short of food.
A prominent figure in Kerala's LDF government reiterated this perspec-
tive in an interview: “Some people in Kerala, even some farmers, their
interest is to make money, in the sense if it is organic, they will get more
money.” This angered him. “Let us not bother about people in America
or Europe,” he asserted. “Let us be concerned about our own people in
Kerala. Let us produce and give it to our own people so that the health of
our people is not affected [by pesticide poisoning].” This official did not
believe that certified organic agriculture for export benefited the Kerala
populace as a whole. He, too, held the belief that farmers growing crops
for export were concerned about individual profit, as opposed to the
greater good. He considered these farmers not to be authentic organic
farmers, because, in his opinion, they most likely would not maintain sus-
tainable agricultural practices in the long run.
One young laborer and CPI(M) party member with whom I spent time
repeated these opinions. He justified his views by pointing out that the
number of certified organic farmers in Wayanad District and throughout
India were decreasing.11 According to him, some farmers left organic ag-
riculture once the prices of certain commodities on conventional markets
skyrocketed. Like Dayal, he argued that to make money quickly, these
farmers abandoned organic practices so that they could sell their products
on nonorganic markets. He also alleged that certification agencies were
competing with each other in districts like Wayanad and would lower
standards of soil conservation and biodiversity protection to collect an-
nual fees from farmers more easily. Certified organic farming for export
was a corrupt system in India, he believed.
Given these setbacks to certification, Thanal and the Biodiversity
Board have proposed another solution to ensure the reliability and trust-
worthiness of organic food supplies: the Participatory Guarantee System
