Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
were just as surprised with the good quality of the chocolate. As a result,
Chocolat Stella wanted to continue the Incredible India line and sell the
chocolate at major European outlets such as Marks and Spencer. Panakal
also mentioned that Chocolat Stella was currently the only manufacturer
marketing single-
origin Indian chocolate in Europe.
As promised, by 2013 Kerala's chocolate was being sold at major urban
outlets in European and Indian cities. Certified organic producers in dis-
tricts like Wayanad were also receiving more per kilogram of cocoa
—50
rupees more than the 36 rupees per kilogram they earned in 2011. Addi-
tional organic farmers groups in Kerala have been recruited for this ven-
ture with Chocolat Stella, including Hops Adimaly and Organic Malabar.
Together they exported sixty tons of cocoa to Europe in 2012.1
The debut of the organic chocolate bar was not the only promising
development during my time in Kerala. K AU faculty were also developing
and rolling out organic farming curricula and modules. In October 2010,
a professor from K AU, Dr. A. K. Sherief, invited me to participate in one
such training module he had developed for his undergraduates. He and
I had met over a year earlier, during my first research visit to Kerala in
2009. He had been extremely excited about my interest as an American
in India's organic farming research and development.
Over the course of three days, Sherief 's students and I visited with an
organic farmer in neighboring Kollam District, observing and learning
about his organic farming methods. The students took diligent notes on
how to make organic fertilizer mixtures, including versions of pancha-
gavayya. The farmer also imparted information about growing seasons,
marketing opportunities, pest control, and other aspects of organic pro-
duction. He confided that he was worried about the erratic seasonal rains,
high labor costs, and yield output. “I'm telling you all of this,” he said to
the students at the end of the session, “because you're probably going to
become agriculture officers one day, and you need to know what farmers
are thinking and doing.”2
This sort of training and interaction between organic farmers and
students is relatively new in Kerala and at K AU, and the idea for it came
from Sherief, an original commenter on and supporter of the 2010 organic
farming policy. He believes that it is important to train students coming
