Green revolution with a difference

Kannur: Those were the days when the farmers, especially those in the Western Ghats region, had started feeling the fluctuations in the market, which also shook their financial foundation. While some embraced death, some took the paths of agitation. But there were others who thought neither would help them alter their fate.
It was from that thought the idea of a farmers’ collective emerged, which took the concrete shape of Fair Trade Alliance Kerala (FTAK) in 2005, adhering to the European standards of fair trade.
Now it has nearly 5600 farmers as members and it strictly adheres to the principles of food security, biodiversity and gender justice, said Thomas Kalappura, chairman, FTAK, on the sidelines of the organisation’s annual seed fest and the tenth anniversary of the organization, which was held at Karuvanchal in the district last week.
“While such fests give the farmers a chance to showcase and market their products, including fruits and vegetables that don’t come under the purview of fair trade, it also helps our philosophy reach more people,” he said. Crops like cashew, coconut, coffee and some spices are included in fair trade but most of the farmers do vegetable cultivation along with this adhering to the organic standards and they market it on their own.
Now most of the farmers are making good revenue through FTAK, which has marketing tie up with an organic store in Kozhikode, said Anniamma Joy, who leads a self-help group of women farmers.
“Whatever be the market fluctuations, FTAK ensures us a steady income, which is higher than we get from the market,” she said.
Now 3200 members of FTAK have got organic certification, which also helps rejuvenate the soil and their products have got good acceptability. The seed fest also aims to preserve the seed varieties from extinction by promoting its sale and exchange among the farmers.
Apart from higher profit, what makes the concept acceptable to the farmers is that it brings some predictability about the revenue, said Tomy Mathew Vadakkancheril, promoter of FTAK.
“Though we cannot make the commodity market a level playing field immediately, we can reduce the unevenness and that is what FTAK is doing, thus attempting to make the market relatively less unequal,” he said.
Agreed A K John, the founder chairman of FTAK. In the last ten years the FTAK helped the farmers get nearly Rs nine crore more than what they would have got from the open market, he said.
Fair trade pioneer from Australia, Andy Good, said fair trade is a billion dollar business today but it supports justice in the market.
“This is a new way to finance farmers and the fair trade products create an intangible value to the market,” he opined.