Real Markets and Environmental Change in Kerala, India

A New Understanding of the Impact of Crop Markets on Sustainable Development

Rene Veron

• Publisher: Taylor & Francis
• Year: 2018
• Print ISBN: 9781138329072
• eBook ISBN: 9780429827358
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Social Sciences
• Subtopic: Business General
• Index: Social Sciences

First published in 1999, this volume explores the environmental change which is an increasingly serious problem for Third World countries, and one that has a major impact on the health and livelihoods of the world's poor. In light of economic liberalization and increased agricultural trade, it thus becomes crucial to understand the varied impact of markets on environment and development. This book provides a new understanding of the relationship between crop markets, agricultural practice and sustainable development. Both theoretical argument an detailed case studies from the South Indian State of Kerala are used to demonstrate the way in which these factors interrelate and how market-induced changes affect human well-being and environmental sustainability. In conclusion, Véron suggests that appropriate regulation of markets and consumer pressure – rather than either 'free' trade or withdrawal from markets – have the potential to direct agricultural producers to apply more sustainable practices.

1 Introduction

1.1 Environmental Degradation and Markets in Developing Countries

At least since the 1992 UN Conference in Rio, it has been widely known that environmental degradation is an increasingly serious problem for Third World countries, and one that has a major impact on the health and livelihoods of the world's poor. Yet despite that knowledge, public attention tends to focus on global, forward-looking concerns such as the greenhouse effect and loss of biodiversity instead of very real current problems like soil degradation, water contamination and air pollution.

Third World environmental degradation results from increasing industrialization and urbanization, as well as the extensification and intensification of agriculture. The most serious agriculture-related effects include tropical deforestation, overgrazing of rangelands, soil erosion, salinization, and water and soil contamination (Bifani 1992: 99). Pollution and depletion of bio-physical resources are critical concerns for the growing populations in developing countries, where agriculture is a major source of income, employment and food security. Environmental protection and human wellbeing are interrelated, as shown in the World Commission on Environment and Development report Our Common Future (WCED 1987). It is now necessary to promote sustainable development, reconciling socioeconomic development and environmental protection.

Scholars have explained agriculture-related environmental degradation in developing countries in terms of underdevelopment and poverty (WCED 1987); capitalism and imperialism (Redclift 1987; Gadgil & Guha 1992); economic backwardness and technological stagnation (Karshenas 1994); spread of Green Revolution technologies (Glaeser 1987); underpriced natural resources and ill-defined property rights (Pearce 1988); resource use beyond the carrying capacity in tropical regions (Kirchner et al. 1984) and population pressure (Ehrlich & Ehrlich 1990). Recently, in light of economic trends toward global integration, policy liberalization and increased agricultural trade, scholars have begun to pay more attention to the impact of the market on environment and development. However, the study of this relationship has often been simplistic and general in nature.

Environmentalists, for example, tend to see the spread of the market as both destructive and inequitable: profit-driven development needs to clear land and people in order to build cities, factories and hydroelectric dams, and the acceleration of that process encourages overexploitation of natural resources by the poor and overconsumption by the rich (Mies & Shiva 1993). Further, growing urban-industrial market demand promotes the cultivation of resource-depleting cash crops that displace technologically appropriate, subsistence-oriented cropping patterns and the general ecological prudence of local communities (Kothari & Parajuli 1993).

At the other extreme, neoliberal advocates of free trade regard the market as the saviour of development and a protector against environmental degradation. According to the logic of “free-market environmentalists,” the extension of private property rights to environmental resources would automatically lead to economically and ecologically efficient resource allocation, which would in turn permit the “optimal” level of environmental protection. State involvement in this process would only lead to greater inefficiency, by hindering the voluntary exchange of environmental property rights between consenting parties (Anderson & Leal 1991), while subsidies of agro-chemicals and food would further lead to inefficient cropping patterns and unsustainable agricultural practices.

There is empirical evidence to support both these positions. But ideology has tended to encourage both sides to make selective use of examples and to ignore the diversity of environmental problems and socioeconomic processes at a local level. Even more complex theories of environment and development have generally failed to discuss the role of markets explicitly. The statement still seems to be true that “sustainable development is the objective of many perspectives on the environment, but the role of the market in defining the various outcomes is considered in few of them” (Redclift 1987: 11).

The aim of this book is to fill that gap, contributing to a more detailed understanding of the increasingly important relationship between crop markets, agricultural practice and sustainable development. Case studies on pineapple and cashew cultivation in selected localities in the South Indian state of Kerala are included to demonstrate the way in which these factors interrelate and how market-induced changes affect human well-being and environmental sustainability.

Empirical evidence can both challenge theoretical approaches to sustainable development and assist in the formulation of environmental policy, particularly by aiding the appraisal of various market-based instruments and regulatory measures. Although Kerala is surely a special case within India because of its excellent social indicators, the results of this study may nevertheless indicate a number of lessons for other Indian states and developing countries.

1.2 Key Concepts: Social Practice and Real Markets

This book maintains that the above-mentioned neoliberal-economist and structuralist-environmentalist positions work with disputable assumptions regarding cultivators. While neoliberals assume the farmer (as well as other agents) to be a “rational” homo economicus constrained only by scarce resources, structuralist approaches regard peasants as victims of circumstances, including socioeconomic conditions such as market forces.

But if one accepts the sociological perspective of Giddens (1979, 1984), human beings are not fully determined by structures, but are knowledgeable and capable agents. Therefore, knowledgeability implies that agents know a great deal about the conditions for – and consequences of – their actions, and are able to give reasons for their conduct. Capability means that all agents, through the consequences of their actions, exercise some – though not the same – degree of power that can transform existing states of affairs or courses of events. In other words, individuals are capable of doing things differently or even of making a difference.

Yet, the agent's consciousness, intentionality and rationality are not the main characteristics of human agency. For most actions, consciousness is not “discursive” but “practical,” belonging to tacit stocks of knowledge. That is, only if they are asked, are the agents able to offer reasons for their conduct (rationalization of action). Moreover, human agency is neither merely voluntaristic nor reducible to subjective intentions. On the contrary, for the most part, human agency is institutionalized, structured and routinized (and therefore referable to as social practice).

In this book, cultivators are assumed neither to be independent of economic, social, political, cultural and ecological conditions, nor to be completely determined by these conditions. Rather, I believe that cultivators as well as other social agents have the capability to partially change conditions; and conditions, in turn, structure human agency without determining it completely. For example, cultivators are capable of developing agricultural technology and, possibly, also of influencing agricultural relations and marketing. Paying special attention to social practices, this book places much stock in the cultivators’ capability, knowledge, perceptions and intentions, and also the cultivators’ own explanations for why they apply particular agricultural practices. This perspective also recognizes that knowledge, power, access to resources and perceptions of environmental change may not be homogenous, but differentiated by class, caste, ethnicity, gender and locality.

Another root of the sweeping generalization of the neoliberal and environmentalist positions is their use of an abstract concept of “the” market or market “forces” that neglects actual processes of buying and selling, as well as qualitative differences and social embeddedness of markets. However, empirical studies have found that markets are unique in space and time. Particularly in developing countries, markets tend not to be fully developed and they operate under conditions of imperfect competition. Furthermore, markets are embedded in social and political structures.

As opposed to the abstract markets, these markets are referred to as “real” markets (Mackintosh 1990), “actually existing” markets (Hewitt de Alcantara 1993) or “unromantic” markets (Harriss-White 1996b). Real markets – in the following simply referred to as markets – are neither synonymous with the private sector nor compatible with the neoliberal idea of the “free” market. Rather, all real markets are regulated to a certain degree – shaped formally and informally, by the state or other national, regional and local social institutions.

As markets are embedded, crop- and locality-specific, the crucial question is not whether more or less market (as opposed to regulation) is needed for development but rather what kind of markets or market regulation is needed; and what type of interrelation between markets, the state, social structures, technology and infrastructure contribute either to sustainable development or to underdevelopment and environmental degradation.

1.3 Chapter Overview

Following this outline of basic concepts, Chapter Two leads to the issue of environment and development. As indicated, environmental change is interpreted with the concept of social practice: Socioeconomic and environmental conditions influence agricultural practices, which, in turn, have consequences for the environment. After presenting the mainstream concept and constituents of sustainable development, the chapter discusses complementary and conflicting theories of environmental change and development (environmental economics, political ecology and community-based development). Special attention is given to the significance of crop markets for sustainable or unsustainable development.

Chapter Three focuses on market exchange, agricultural decisionmaking and socioeconomic development. Agricultural decision-making and overemphasis on farmers’ profit-maximizing motives are put into perspective with the importance of routinized social practice, and of security and non-economic goals. Then, the chapter recapitulates the concept of real markets and examines neoclassical, neo-Marxist and new institutional development theories in order to better understand the relationships between agricultural markets, state interventions, agrarian relations, infrastructure, technology and agricultural development. Environmental and development theories are then synthesized into three viewpoints that contain competing hypotheses about the relations between markets, environment and development. In this book, these viewpoints are used as “sensitizing devices” for the collection, analysis and interpretation of the empirical data.

Chapter Four outlines the methodology of the empirical study, clarifies the relation between the applied macro- and micro-level research, and introduces the two case studies. This chapter categorizes the conditions for agricultural practice into various technical-material and socioeconomic factors (including crop markets), operationalizes the concept of sustainable development with regard to socioeconomic and environmental consequences, and develops the cultivator classification used in the case studies. While the part on Kerala makes use of secondary material, the case studies rely to a great extent on primary data collected with qualitative methods over 15 months in 1994 and 1995. Starting with the cultivators’ practices as well as with their own views regarding pineapple and cashew cultivation, the case studies analyze the relative significance of crop markets for agricultural processes as well as the implications for sustainable development.

Chapter Five presents the regional context of Kerala. Apart from general information on Kerala's history, geography, society, environment and development, this chapter discusses the general conditions for farming in Kerala. Striking features of Kerala's agricultural sector include effective implementation of land reforms, small-holding structure, predominance of part-time farming, formalized labor relations and comparatively high wage rates, well-developed product markets and well-developed formal credit markets. An overall impression of the relative importance of particular socioeconomic and technical-material factors for overall agricultural development and environmental change in Kerala is also provided.

Chapter Six and Seven present the case studies on pineapple cultivation and on cashew cultivation, respectively. They first give background information on general patterns of production and trade, as well as descriptions of pineapple cultivation in Vazhakulam, Ernakulam District (Central Kerala), and of cashew cultivation in Mattanur-Iritty, Kannur District (North Kerala). Then, the agricultural, socioeconomic and technical-material processes related to pineapple cultivation and cashew cultivation, respectively, are analyzed. Each chapter starts with the cultivators’ own views. This is followed by an analysis of the significance of crop markets, agrarian relations, technology, infrastructure, bio-physical factors, cultural values and motives of individuals. Finally, the impact of market-induced agricultural processes on sustainable development is assessed.

Chapter Eight summarizes the main findings of this study. I will argue that crop markets can work both for and against sustainable development, and that their effect depends greatly on the socioeconomic and technical-material context in which they are embedded. Under conditions of relatively equitable sociopolitical structures, markets support development, and gains from trade are likely to be distributed over various sections of society. On the other hand, market-induced growth deepens negative effects created by other factors such as unequal access to resources or application of inappropriate technologies. Commercialization tends to lead to agricultural specialization, which can either involve environmentally unsustainable intensification or make possible concentrated cultivation of cash crops in areas where this is ecologically most suitable. This chapter also spells out the implications of these findings for development theory and government policy, and offers suggestions regarding future research directions. The book suggests that appropriate regulation of markets and consumer pressure – rather than either “free” trade or withdrawal from markets – have the potential to direct agricultural producers to apply more sustainable practices.

2 Environment and Development

The notion of sustainable development has drawn attention to environmental issues of development. As a consequence, a variety of explanations of development and environmental change have evolved since the 1980s such as environmental economics, political ecology and community-based development. These approaches to sustainable development refer to markets as a cause of, or potential solution for, environmental degradation. They also have both shaped and contested the evolving mainstream of sustainable development. In order to discuss sustainable development, however, I first need to clarify the ontology of the relation between environment and society.

2.1 Society-Environment Relations

In today's world, environmental change is to a high degree human-made. Human activities, including agricultural practices, lead to environmental change and have implications for development. Furthermore, all human actions and their implications are situated in an economic and social context in which individual interests vary and may conflict. Consequently, environmental change is as much a social issue as a physical phenomenon. Therefore, it is useful to draw on the social sciences in order to elucidate the relationship between society and the environment, and to study the origins and social implications of environmental change.

2.1.1 Social Practice and Environmental Change

Historically, the study of the relationship between humans and the environment has been a domain of geography. In the late 19th and early 20th century, most geographical approaches involved an environmental determinism (geodeterminism) that saw humans and societies as a product of their material environment. By the 1920s, geodeterminism was challenged by the concepts of possibilism (French regional school of geography), human ecology (Chicago School) and cultural landscape (Carl Sauer). In these approaches, however, the environment was regarded as something external to society and culture. In the 1950s and 1960s, the study of environmental relations faded on the academic agenda of human geography, as geography was redefined as an “objective” science that discusses spatial relations rather than society-environment relations (Barnes & Gregory 1997: 174-175). Moreover, in radical geography – the critical Marxist response to “objective spatialism” – spatial relations remained the focus of geographical theory (FitzSimmons 1997). Environmental relations were paid at least some attention in the theory of the social production of nature (see N. Smith 1984). More recently, the social construction of nature has been emphasized. This theory views the environment as inseparable from society. Knowledge about the environment is constructed in situative, culture-specific and also researcher-specific contexts leading to various discourses (webs of concepts, statements and practices) about the environment (Barnes & Gregory 1997: 178). Moreover, the definition of a particular situation as an environmental problem involves a judgement based on social, cultural and political orientation (Redclift & Benton 1994). Yet, there are different degrees to which the environment is socially constructed:

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Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Dedication Page
• Table of Contents
• List of Figures
• List of Tables
• Acknowledgements
• Gloassary
• 1 Introduction
• 2 Environment and Development
• 3 Markets and Agricultural Change
• 4 From Theory to Field Research
• 5 Kerala: Development, Environment and Agricultural Change
• 6 Pineapple Cultivation in Vazhakulam
• 7 Cashew Cultivation in Mattanur-Iritty
• 8 Markets For or Against Sustainable Development?
• Bibliography
• Index