Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
Nearly 70 percent of the species found in these areas are critically endan-
gered or almost extinct.39 On its website, WWF claims that agriculture
is one of the biggest threats: “The Western Ghats were once covered in
dense forests. Today, a large part of the range has been logged or converted
to agricultural land for tea, coffee, rubber and oil palm, or cleared for live-
stock grazing, reservoirs and roads.”40
Thanal and the state's Biodiversity Board endorse a similar logic,
although they are more nuanced in recognizing the importance of ag-
ricultural biodiversity, or agrobiodiversity, in the Western Ghats. Agro-
biodiversity is a recent derivative of the concept biodiversity, defined as
local and traditional knowledge and practices about crops, as well as the
diversity of these crops.41 Agrobiodiversity emphasizes that the diversity
of plants in lived landscapes are just as important to protect as what some
environmentalists might consider “wild” biodiversity.42 According to the
Biodiversity Board, growing organic rice is compatible with maintaining
biodiversity in the Western Ghats, since paddy cultivation preserves wet-
lands, natural geographic features of the tropical ecosystem. Moreover,
human populations have been cultivating rice in the region for centuries,
and rice paddy fields are important habitats for birds like the baya weaver.
The Biodiversity Board atributes biodiversity decline in the West-
ern Ghats to another type of agriculture: that which is cash crop.43 The
board's former chair, V. S. Vijayan, expressed to me his concern that
GMOs were making their way into the Western Ghats, as a result of agri-
cultural experiments by institutions like the Agriculture Department and
improper farming by those interested in quick profits and Green Revo-
lution technologies. Vijayan considered cash crops to embody this agri-
cultural intensification, thereby being a threat to the biodiversity of the
region.44 As the board's Kerala State Environment Policy states: “[The]
conversion of paddy fields for cash crops, construction and other develop-
ment activities has made serious erosion in food production in the State.
As much as 5 lakh ha have been reclaimed in 30 years since 1971. . . . [The]
highest priority must, therefore, be given to the protection of paddy fields
and revival of paddy cultivation.”45 Cash crop agriculture has been com-
promising the landscape of Kerala, argues the board. As a result, it has
