Documenti di Didattica
Documenti di Professioni
Documenti di Cultura
LEAD
Pulapre Balakrishnan
MARCH 02, 2017 00:04 IST
UPDATED: MARCH 02, 2017 01:44 IST
Kerala needs a new politics if its economy is to adjust to rising food prices and a shrinking Gulf economy
A picture, they say, is worth a hundred words. Two pictures related to Kerala, though separated by decades and differing
in content, speak to us strongly of how we may secure its future. Thus, a photo in a leading Malayalam newspaper
shows the Chief Minister of the State meeting the Prime Minister of India. An amiable Pinarayi Vijayan is seen extending
http://www.thehindu.com/opinion/lead/foodonitsownterms/article17388839.ece?homepage=true 1/7
3/2/2017 FoodonitsowntermsTheHindu
flowers to Narendra Modi, who accepts it betraying no emotion. The power equation is astutely conveyed by the caption
Ariyetra meaning How much rice in Malayalam. The Chief Minister was in the national capital in January seeking a
greater allocation of rice to the State. Then there is a painting by Anjolie Ela Menon. Titled Malabar, it is a canvas smeared
with green paint bearing no detail. Presumably it was the artists impression of the paddy-filled landscape of Kerala when she
first encountered it decades ago. How is it possible that a State once identified by the wealth of its agriculture has been
brought to the sorry state whereby its Chief Minister must travel to Delhi to ensure that his people are properly fed? It can
only reflect the failure of public policy.
http://www.thehindu.com/opinion/lead/foodonitsownterms/article17388839.ece?homepage=true 2/7
3/2/2017 FoodonitsowntermsTheHindu
If the State is to remain an autonomous entity, it must reduce all forms of one-way dependence, even vis--vis the Indian
Union. A far firmer base of food production would be one aspect of this. In a world of creeping climate change, the global
supply of food is set to shrink.
There is a factor other than the legal architecture discouraging the leasing of land that works against agricultural prosperity.
This is the natural environment, which in Kerala today is less hospitable to agriculture of any kind, let alone paddy cultivation.
This has come about due to the depletion of groundwater and sand mining of the riverbeds to provide material for luxury
house construction. There has also been the alienation of agricultural land already referred to. Land need not be turned into
real estate to lose its fertility. Using fallow paddy fields as exhibition grounds or for shopping festivals, even when the
structures made are temporary, could degrade the land permanently. Kerala needs a land use policy that conserves every bit of
its natural capital. As part of this, the State could consider acquiring all unused paddy land and making it available to the
Adivasis on long-term lease. This would ensure its preservation, saving Kerala from the hardship that is assured if the present
situation of more plastic than grain clogging the rice paddies continues.
Kerala needs a new politics if its economy is to adjust to the emerging scenario of rising food prices and a shrinking Gulf
economy which is sure to impact livelihoods. Public policy is likely to adapt only if political parties are pressurised by a
citizenry alerted to the limits to distributivism. An instance of how this can work is the return of paddy cultivation to vast
tracts of the Aranmula Puncha, an iconic agricultural landscape in central Kerala, after citizen action prevented its diversion to
build an airport. The regeneration has been made possible by active support from the government machinery. When such
synergy is replicated across the State, its future Chief Ministers need not travel to Delhi seeking food.
Pulapre Balakrishnan is Professor of Economics, Ashoka University, Sonipat and Senior Fellow, Indian Institute of
Management, Kozhikode
http://www.thehindu.com/opinion/lead/foodonitsownterms/article17388839.ece?homepage=true 3/7
3/2/2017 FoodonitsowntermsTheHindu
http://www.thehindu.com/opinion/lead/foodonitsownterms/article17388839.ece?homepage=true 4/7
3/2/2017 FoodonitsowntermsTheHindu
http://www.thehindu.com/opinion/lead/foodonitsownterms/article17388839.ece?homepage=true 5/7
3/2/2017 FoodonitsowntermsTheHindu
http://www.thehindu.com/opinion/lead/foodonitsownterms/article17388839.ece?homepage=true 6/7
3/2/2017 FoodonitsowntermsTheHindu
http://www.thehindu.com/opinion/lead/foodonitsownterms/article17388839.ece?homepage=true 7/7