Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
state and close to those of Western European countries. Literacy is almost
100 percent, and education is universal.7 It has the highest female-male
sex ratio in India, since infanticide of girl children is rare here (but com-
mon in other states). In fact, Kerala is one of the few Indian states where
women outnumber men. Its population growth rate is also lower than the
Indian average. Unlike most other states in India, Kerala achieved low
birth and death rates (known as a “demographic transition”) in the 1980s.
The current fertility rate is below the replacement rate, at 1.7 children per
woman. Kerala's mortality rate is low as well, as life expectancy is close to
seventy-
six years for women and seventy-one years for men.8
It is these high social indicators—in a country struggling with hun-
ger and poverty—that have bestowed upon Kerala its reputation for
being a model for development. Moreover, the state atained this high
HDI without corresponding economic growth and the high consumption
and environmental degradation that often come with such growth. This
level of development contradicts what economists and environmentalists
predict: that social development and a demographic transition can only
occur after a country obtains a certain level of economic development.
In our globalizing world, where developing countries prioritize eco-
nomic growth as the chief policy priority—oten at the expense of social
development—Kerala's achievements are noteworthy.
Furthermore, communities in the state are actively involved in labor
and environmental movements, as well as local and state politics. One of
India's first anti-dam movements occurred in Kerala, for example. In the
1970s and 1980s, the Save Silent Valley Campaign successfully defeated a
plan to construct a large, 120-megawat dam in the Western Ghats moun-
tain range. The national government subsequently turned the area into a
national park. This sort of vibrant political life has contributed to Kerala's
status as a model for development.
How exactly did Kerala come to be a model? And how is this important
to the story of organic farming in South India? Another way to phrase
these questions is to ask, How did the state's sociopolitical factors and en-
vironmental conditions influence its development decisions, particularly
around sustainable agriculture?
My interest in Kerala as a place and its status as a model—or, more pre-
