Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
interview that “[the] government system is not properly working because
. . . government staff are only salary-taking machines—salary-taking
machines, ATMs.” Dayal's comments are similar to Chackochan's claim
that the Communist parties of Kerala are hypocrites. Their comments,
and several others about official corruption, signaled that proponents of
organic farming in Kerala are constantly ruminating about the place (and
morality) of their government in society. Many organic farmers and ad-
vocates are cautious about the role of government, and are unsure what
relationship civil society should and can have with it, especially in light of
Anna Hazare's very visible hunger strike.
W hat role (if any) government should play in regulating organic mar-
kets is not a question unique to Kerala or India. However, in the state
this discussion is informed by years of debate within the Left on how to
dismantle the feudal economic system. Part of the solution the Commu-
nist Parties initially came up with was to pursue both land reform and
the Green Revolution, to increase agricultural production and therefore
revenue for the state. As I showed in chapter 4, the Green Revolution be-
came enmeshed in Kerala's agricultural bureaucracy, rendering alterna-
tive methods of agriculture difficult to fathom and pursue, even given
the state's decades of progressive reforms. “Modern” agriculture, after all,
was promoted by leftist coalitions in Kerala's parliament. Syrian Chris-
tians, ironically, have been among the major beneficiaries of agricultural
reforms in districts like Wayanad. To further complicate maters, these
Green Revolution reforms led to the high rates of suicide in Wayanad's
Syrian Christian community, which, supporters behind the organic farm-
ing policy argue, organic rice cultivation for local consumption could help
avoid in the future.
The result of the various policies and political economic changes
in Wayanad was the increased cultivation of cash crops with chemical
inputs—and then, also, a turn toward certified organic agriculture for
export. In other regions of the state, particularly in lowlands suitable for
rice cultivation, where farmers like the activist Dayal is from and where
the Biodiversity Board's organic farming pilot is located, the government
maintained strong subsidies for growing rice. In these regions where
rice cultivation remains more popular, the organic farming policy has
