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Agriculture | How a successful collective of smallholder farmers in India is showing the way -Deborah Doane

How a successful collective of smallholder farmers in India is showing the way -Deborah Doane

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published Published on Nov 13, 2015   modified Modified on Nov 13, 2015
-The Guardian

A not-for-profit group of small-scale farmers in India is succeeding where others have failed – what is the Fair Trade Alliance Kerala doing right?

A walk through the annual Kerala seedfest, in the sultry heat of India’s Western Ghats, is like a walk through a proverbial garden of Eden; okra the size of a hand; deep purple coloured runner beans; 26 varieties of chillies from one village alone. The size and colours of multiple bananas on offer here make a mockery of the fact that your average supermarket sells just one type.

With women and men standing proudly alongside their produce, this celebration of seeds and biodiversity is the future of farming: it is abundant, resilient and most importantly, smallholder led.

As farmers cope with the dual crises of a changing climate and rising population, the debate rages about the future of agriculture, with large-scale agribusiness being pitted against smallholders. In one corner, agribusiness is perceived as more efficient and technologically savvy; in the other corner, the smallholder is portrayed as less productive and in need of charity. Scale is generally perceived as the measure of success in farming, as with everything else: farmers are effectively told to expand, innovate, or move on.

But a collective of 4,500 farmers who call themselves Fair Trade Alliance Kerala (FTAK) are at the annual gathering to demonstrate their own third way: small scale, innovative, market-embracing and sustainable.

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The Guardian, 11 November, 2015

The Guardian, 11 November, 2015, http://www.theguardian.com/global-development-professionals-network/2015/nov/11/how-a-successful-collective-of-smallholder-farmers-in-india-is-showing-the-way


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