I’m always somewhat ambivalent about the kind of story I saw today on Kangla Online about how some farmers in Senaputi district in north-eastern India are taking up the cultivation of Stevia. This is a South American herb in the Asteraceae which is widely cultivated around the world as the source of an alternative to artificial sweeteners.
On the one hand, it is always good to see farmers diversifying and experimenting, including with exotic crops. On the other, you wonder whether there isn’t a local – and locally used – species that might have been promoted and commercialized in this way. And will the money farmers raise from Stevia be sufficient to buy them and their families the nutritious food they will no longer be growing on their land?
What were they growing and how nutritious was that? And why would they not be growing said nutritious stuff anymore, perhaps on other plots? Might they be growing Stevia in the dry season on fields that were otherwise left fallow? Do you know? I do not, but I would start with the assumption that these farmers know what is in their best interest. It is a tough life for many Indian farmers. Knowing nothing about the specifics of this crop, I would rejoice if through diversification some farmers can make a few rupees.
They may know what is in their self-interest, but they may not necessarily always be able to act on it. There’s a lot of other pressures out there. Were they forced to do this by land-owners? You’re right, we don’t know enough. But I’m a pessimist.