After Excessive Pesticide Use Kerala Goes Organic

The New Indian Express reports that almost a year-and-a-half ago the state of Kerala in India finally recognised the dangers associated with the excessive use of pesticides. A campaign launched by food safety officers in the state raised awareness of how dangerous pesticides are to the health of the population. This has resulted in an increase in people converting available land to organic for growing their vegetables. 

You can read more here.

The basics are in place – there is obvious potential

The federal state of Kerala in the south-west of Indian has, like a number of the country’s other federal states, done a lot to promote organic agriculture. However, the bottleneck continues to be the still limited access to the market, especially for cooperatives and small independent firms. The producers are predominantly small farmers who grow a wide variety of crops on 1- 3 hectares. The difficulty often lies in coordinating demand and targeted marketing. A further obstacle is not infrequently logistics. According to the research institute Forschungsinstitut Biologischer Landbau FiBL, 36% of organic farmers worldwide live in Asia, where many of them are the source of a range of organic raw materials for markets in the west.

You can read a detailed article here and watch a video.

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