Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
2
Crisis in Indian Agriculture
Bananas, particularly salty, deep-fried plantain chips, have become an
increasingly popular snack and gift in Kerala. People eat them during af-
ternoon teatime, bring over bags of freshly made chips when visiting the
homes of friends and family, and regularly snack on them while on the go.
These and other snacks are so popular that environmental activists
complain that the growth in banana consumption has turned one of the
northern districts of Kerala, Wayanad, into Vazhanad, translating into
“land of bananas” in English. Since 1961-1962, the cultivated area devoted
to bananas in the state has increased by close to 40 percent.1
At a class on food safety for new organic farmers, K. M. George, coor-
dinator of the organic farmers' group Organic Wayanad, remarked cyn-
ically that the district deserved a different name; he called it a “doctor's
Dubai” as a result of anecdotal evidence documenting a surge in cancer
rates and the great need for doctors in the area. W hile many people from
Kerala were emigrating to countries in the Persian Gulf region in the
hopes of inding beter employment, George contended that Wayanad
could be the economic equivalent for medical practitioners, given its in-
creasing number of cancer patients. He believed the district's abnormal
incidence of cancer was the direct outcome of greater pesticide use for
banana cultivation.
2
Using a back-of-the-envelope calculation, George estimated that farm-
ers applied several hundred metric tons of furadan to banana fields in
Wayanad's 2,131 square kilometers of land in 2009. Furadan is a chemical
