Economy Journal of Political Agrarian South: the Natural Environment, Agro-ecosystems and Livelihoods The Rationalization of Agriculture in Kerala: Implications for On behalf of: Centre for Agrarian Research and Education for South at SANDEEP CHACHRA on (original) (raw)

A Stagnant Agriculture in Kerala: The Role of the State

Given the significant decline in agricultural production in Kerala in the last few decades, this paper elucidates how government policies and protective practices have created distortions in the agricultural market, hampering the growth of agriculture in the state. The distortions in the input market, namely, land, irrigation and the agricultural credit system as well as in the output market, namely, price and procurement, created by the restrictive policies and practices are discussed in this paper. The paper shows that disincentives generated by the successive governments in Kerala through imposing artificial barriers on the freedom of farmers and agricultural entrepreneurs resulted in the collapse of agriculture in the state. This study was conducted by Lekshmi R Nair, Centre Manager, CPPR-Centre for Comparative Studies and D Dhanuraj, Chairman, Centre for Public Policy Research.

Organic Agriculture in Kerala: A Counter-discourse from the Margins

Sociological Bulletin, 2019

The article seeks to look at the current organic boom in the state of Kerala as a counter-discourse to the agrarian crisis and the impending issues of food security, food price and health hazards in the state in the wake of the liberalisation policies and World Trade Organization (WTO) agreements. The Polanyan notion of countermovement (1944) is used to unearth Kerala’s agrarian crisis of the 1990s that stemmed up from the commoditisation of agriculture, which ultimately paved way for an agrarian countermovement in the form of organic farming in the late 20th century. It is argued that organic agriculture signals the emergence of an agrarian counter-discourse promoting greater engagement of the farmers from the fringes. The primary data for the article were gathered out of two empirical projects carried out in 2015–2016.

Regulate or Not? Retelling Kerala's Experience to Review the Neoliberal Agenda behind Agricultural Reforms in India

Artha Journal of Social Sciences, 2022

This paper is an analysis of the controversial reforms introduced in the agricultural market of India in 2020. The researcher does a comprehensive review of these reforms using data obtained from Kerala and interlinks the components in the existing literature to proceed for a macro-level examination. This is to critically understand the policy dimensions of the laws introduced and their subsequent repeal. The background and evolution of market-mediated reforms in the agricultural sector, the immediate drive for a new set of laws, the question of middlemen in the market, the structural inequalities, and the resultant power asymmetry in Indian rural society are addressed. There are also informed suggestions for possible ways to guarantee a Minimum Support Price (MSP). More than a systemic critique of the newly introduced (and later repealed) farm laws, the real problems in the agricultural market are placed to check the changing direction and agenda in market reforms.

Assessing Economic Viability in the Backdrop of Agricultural Sustainability in Kerala

The agriculture sector of Kerala has undergone wide-ranging changes in terms of ownership of land, cropping pattern, cultivation practices, productivity, and intensity of cultivation since her formation. Unlike the other regions in India, the farm front of Kerala is characterised by extreme diversity in its biophysical resource base and agro-climatic endowments providing multiple opportunities for raising a variety of crops. In earlier periods, the choice of cropping pattern was guided by agronomic considerations and consumption needs of farmers; but it seems that mainly market forces determine the emerging trend.1

Why Grow More Food- An Analysis of Some Contradictions in the 'Green Revolution' in Kerala - 1978

In theory, there are a number of reasons why Third World countries are concerned about increasing food production, including: (1) feeding the hungry, the rural landless poor (as well as the small landholders) and the urban poor; (2) enabling the owners of land (be they small self-cultivating farmers, or large producers for the market, or in between) to make a profitable living; and (3) other reasons relating to the state, to trade, and to the saving of foreign exchange. This paper, which explores data from two rice-Producing regions of Kerala, attempts to show how the first two goals of larger food production are essentially incompatible under the present social relations of production.

Agrarian Relations in Two Rice Regions of Kerala - 1978

The purpose of this paper is to examine the nature of agrarian relations in the two main rice regions of Kerala, Kuttanad (a low-lying area covering parts of Alleppey, Kottayam and Quilon Districts) and Palghat, in order to examine one, forces interfering with production and, secondly, the class relations that serve to impede a more equitable distribution of food and other commodities. The paper describes some of the striking contradictions in each area, and offers some tentative predictions for their future development.

Agrarian Questions in Contemporary India: Old Debates and New Realities

Orissa Economic Journal, 2020

This paper provides an overview of the debates on ‘agrarian questions’ from the perspective of the changing agrarian scenario in India. The contemporary relevance of the agrarian questions, which have a long lineage in the political economy literature, has been evaluated through the lenses of primitive accumulation and agrarian differentiation. Linking the agrarian crisis in post-reform India to the neoliberal economic policies, it is argued here that a framework that considers the different regional trajectories of agrarian change, the uneven nature of the agrarian transitions is better suited to understand the ongoing processes of agrarian change in rural India.