Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
not as lucrative or financially viable. One estimate claims that Kerala has
been losing over $1.1 billion on an annual basis as a result of these tariff
changes.45
Despite these negative effects, the Indian government has continued
to negotiate additional free trade arrangements with other countries.46
India's activities in this realm are part of a larger international trend, in
which several nations are pursuing free trade agreements in the hopes
of spurring economic growth. The results of free trade agreements for
countries around the world and their citizens have been mixed at best,
however. For example, the United States' involvement with the North
American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) has led to the loss of particular
manufacturing jobs in the country and an increase in environmental deg-
radation along the border with Mexico, as several factories have popped
up along the Mexican side to take advantage of freer trade, cheaper labor,
and weaker environmental laws.
As a result of all these changes in agriculture, at the turn of the twenty-
first century India faced a severe agrarian crisis. This time, the crisis
involved not just hunger and food insecurity but chemical poisoning,
farmer suicides, and declining agricultural productivity and economic
returns. For example, chemical-intensive agricultural practices spurred
the extensive die-of of Kerala's black pepper crops. Concurrently, the
declining price of another commodity, coffee, further strained farmers'
finances, impelling many to leave agriculture. Faced with large debts in-
curred in buying into the Green Revolution, several farmers also commit-
ted suicide—many by drinking pesticides.
The history of pepper and coffee cultivation in Kerala sheds light
on how the Green Revolution and the marketization of agriculture com-
bined to generate this agrarian distress. Native to the region, black pepper
has historically been one of Kerala's major agricultural products, called
“black gold” by explorers such as Marco Polo and Christopher Colum-
bus.47 Over 90 percent of India's pepper is grown in this one state.48 Black
pepper planting guides from the country's commodity boards and agri-
cultural offices frequently reiterate the long-standing fame of the state's
pepper crop. The foreword to the 2009
Black Pepper Guide
from the
