Why Kerala can’t encash its cash crops

The Kerala agriculture sector is on the brink of collapse.

The Kerala agriculture sector is on the brink of collapse. The prices of the state’s key commodities—high-value cash crops such as pepper, cardamom, rubber, cocoa, nutmeg and areca nut—have been on an unchecked slide with no break in sight. Pepper prices, which were around `700 a kg last year, have come down to `400 a kg while rubber prices, which had gone up as high as `158 a kg now hover around `120 a kg. If the farmers are jittery, nobody can blame them.

This comes at a time when the prices of vegetables, egg and chicken, for which Kerala mostly depends on neighbouring states, have shot through the roof. And the price of fish, the staple diet of the average Malayali, has also skyrocketed. True, the state has not seen farm distress and suicides like in other states, thanks to the income generated from non-agriculture sources. But if the trend continues, such a spectre too could soon loom large over the state.

The farm sector’s contribution to Kerala’s economy has been dwindling over the past several years. The sector has witnessed a negative growth rate in the recent years: (-) 6.31 per cent in 2013-14, (-) 1.09 per cent in 2014-15 and (-) 2.9 per cent in 2015-16. The share of agriculture and allied sectors in the total Gross State Domestic Product (GSDP) of Kerala has also declined from 14.38 per cent in 2011-12 to 11.48 per cent in 2014-15 and 10.38 per cent in 2015-16.

The triggers: the falling global price of rubber which is at `100 a kg; in the case of pepper it is the low-quality Vietnam variant that is wreaking havoc. Farmer distress figures way down in the priority list of a public that seems engrossed either in political dramas or sleaze cases. Surely, it is high time the principal players deem it fit to incentivise farmers engaged in the losing prospect of growing cash crops or encourage them to grow food products that make Kerala less vulnerable to inflow from other states.

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The New Indian Express
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