Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
How and where these numerous global and local factors collide can
be best illustrated by Wayanad District, where the state's third-party cer-
tification institutions have roots. People in Wayanad have been fighting
with each other over the ownership of
land for centuries. The district
has also been the site of state agricultural experimentation and, more re-
cently, large-
scale biodiversity conservation. Given its geography and his-
tory, it exemplifies the tensions over proper organic agricultural practices
in the state's organic farming countermovement.
Early in my time in India, when I notified neighbors and friends in
Thiruvananthapuram that I was planning to spend many months in
Wayanad, I got an assortment of reactions. One woman with whom I
had grown close while I lived in the city, which is at the opposite end of
Kerala from Wayanad, gasped when I told her I planned to live in this
northern district. She commented that while it was beautiful, it was still
just a jungle. Several organic farming activists, like George, lamented that
Wayanad was historically Vaillenad, the “land of paddy fields.” Now, how-
ever, due to the destructive behavior of the recent setlers, it had become
Vazhanad, the “land of bananas.” Environmental organizations like the
Thiruvananthapuram-based Thanal have become so concerned with
Wayanad's agricultural transformation that it has acquired land in the
district to set aside for conservation. Historical documents, on the other
hand, translate the name “Wayanad” into
Vananad
, the “land of forests.”26
So, was Wayanad a jungle now, or entirely a banana plantation? Did it
used to be a jungle, or full of paddy fields? W hat was it supposed to be? A
jungle or an agrarian landscape?
Implicit in these debates about what Wayanad is and should be are
questions about what “real” nature is, what the right form of land use is,
and what relationship humans should have with the environment. For
some people and groups, Wayanad is merely a jungle. For others it should
be the land of paddy fields; and for still others its biodiversity needs to
be protected against the expansion of agriculture. These differences of
opinion are seeping into Kerala's organic farming movement, affecting
judgments about the type of agriculture farmers should be engaged in.
The contemporary debates about land use in Kerala and Wayanad
build on a long history. Neighboring kingdoms and the British colonial
