Vol. XLVI, No. 9, February, Kannan, K.P.  (2011)

The revival of agriculture in an increasingly diversifying economy like Kerala in India requires addressing issues like technology, organization and environment through the means of the functional planning process in the state.

Kerala has evolved as a unique state in India in many ways. This state stands out in terms of its education and health outcomes as well as with respect to the per capita income, which is now the highest in the country. The agricultural sector is the state, however, is afflicted by a fairly long period of stagnation similar to the rest of the country. The fact that the state has a very low land-man ratio and shortage of labour makes the challenges to rejuvenating agriculture in Kerala different from those in other parts in India. The role of large-scale labour migration to the Gulf countries also makes the case of Kerala agriculture incomparable in nature.

The agricultural sector in Kerala has registered an abysmally low growth rate of 0.21 percent between 1997-8 and 2007-8, when manufacturing and service sector grew by more than 9 percent. Stagnation has followed the earlier decade of high agricultural growth. This has also led to a significant loss of gross cropped area in the state. Both from the point of view of environmental benefits and for securing the livelihoods of those dependent of land and agriculture, it is imperative that the agricultural sector is successfully revamped.

Kannan in his paper explores the possibilities and pathways of agricultural rebound in the future. Recognizing the land and labour shortage in the state, he argues for a deepening of the intensive margin of agriculture but not always through the prevalent seed-fertilizer chemically intensive cultivation. In the context of favourable and unfavourable factors presently influencing agriculture, the author tries to locate the role that unconventional agriculture, including new institutional and organization reforms, can play in making agriculture profitable and vibrant. The paper is based on a historical and qualitative analysis of the agrarian development in Kerala, largely using secondary data sources. The case of rice cultivation is also attributed a special focus in the study.

Higher level of education among farmers, dense presence of farmers’ organizations, large network of credit societies and research centres and the participatory local self-governments are held as favourable conditions for taking agriculture into a higher technology regime through innovations and organizational changes in cultivation. However, the poor public irrigation, small size of landholdings, inadequate skills of farmers to absorb higher cultivation technologies are some of the challenges before improving the productivity of agriculture. The Kerala agriculture is also characterized by high wages due to trade union bargaining power and ‘pull’ factors from secondary and tertiary sectors and also due to high income opportunities in the Gulf countries.

Rice cultivation has been particularly suffering over a long time. The high wages also play a role in farmers shifting to lower labour-intensive crops like coconut or rubber. The share of rice in the total cropped area has reduced from around 30 percent in the 1970s to just 8 percent currently. Given the need to preserve the rich fertility and bio-diversity in Kerala, it is an environmental requirement that rice cultivation, which helps crucially in water retention, is supported and encouraged. The author points out that the rice productivity at 2.5 tonnes per hectare is too low to be viable and therefore raising productivity is imperative for achieving economic viability.

Given this situation, higher productivity of labour is necessary for rice cultivation and for agriculture in general in the state. The author argues that it may not be always desirable to use chemically intensive cultivation technique to attain high productivity due to the adverse effects that this causes on soil fertility and human health in the long run. Bio-fertilizers and non-conventional pest management need to be used innovatively for technological advancements. What the paper points out is the inadequate attention that is paid to organizational issues in farming while introducing better technology. In this regard, it is felt that a ‘group approach’ to farming can go a long way in solving the constraints of tiny holdings of farmers.

Not only can farmer groups successfully invest in indivisible farm machinery thereby improve the technology of their cultivation, but groups can collaborate with panchayats (local self governments) to better manage their land and farming assets. The successful examples of group-leasing of land for rice cultivation by Kudumbashree (women’s self-help groups), supported by the recent government policies of incentivizing rice cultivation can be worthy of emulation. The author proposes that along with this ‘group’ initiative, an innovative policy can be the creation of rural Land-Labour Banks (LLBs) managed by panchayats. Land-owners unable to cultivate their lands in a viable manner can add their lands to the LLBs, which can then use the common pool of agricultural labour to undertake collective cultivation of village lands.

The author concludes that reviving the agricultural sector in Kerala through various innovations in technology and organization essentially requires commensurate government support. Large public investments are necessary for incentivizing agriculture, though in a sustainable manner. It is therefore necessary for the existing planning process in the state to deal with agriculture from the environmental and technological perspectives and provide financial support to innovative measures.