Adoption of Modern Agricultural Technology by the Koya People, an Ethnic Minority in India
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Journal of Developments in Sustainable Agriculture/ : ,,/ῌ ,-3 ( ,*+* ) Adoption of Modern Agricultural Technology by the Koya People, an Ethnic Minority in India Hiroyuki Tsunashima* Research Center for Urban Safety and Security, Kobe University, Rokkodai, Nada, Kobe,0/1ῌ 2/*+ , Japan Ethnic minorities in India mostly live by agriculture in hilly forested areas. Despite the various e# orts of the government, the response of the ethnic minorities in modernizing agriculture has been rather sluggish. The greatest concern of the past research on ethnic minorities in India was how they could adopt mainstream agricultural technologies as a complete package. However, a field survey in a village of the Koya people revealed that they have a di# erent idea of agricultural development. In this regard, this paper elucidates how they have interfaced modern technologies with their traditional cropping systems. The results show that the traditional cropping systems consist of invisible but knowledge intensive farm tasks such as decisions on fertilization and choice of crop/variety. During the survey period, an increasing number of villagers started cash cropping with large amounts of chemical fertilizers and pesticides. Simultaneously, land lease contracts related to cash cropping have also been common. This paper also discusses the significance of this new trend in land use. The high-input system for cash cropping is costly and exposed to the mainstream market economy. Thus, cash cropping is accompanied by the risk of sudden decline in the selling price. The data shows that the land lease system has a function of redistributing cash income within a village community, and that the Koya people view land lease in a di# erent light than reported in past research. In conclusion, this paper suggests that the Koya people can be a good example of a realistic alternative to mainstream agricultural development. Key words: agroecological perception, cash income, crop choice, indigenous knowledge and technology, land use ῌῌῌῌῌῌῌῌῌῌῌῌῌῌῌῌῌῌῌῌῌῌῌ Introduction improved seeds and chemical fertilizers could not be e# ectively utilized, because the topography was Ethnic minorities in India called “scheduled unfavorable for irrigation, and moreover, small- tribes” live mostly by agriculture in the hilly fore- scale land holding discouraged e# orts to install sted areas with limited access to natural resources, irrigation facilities. Several succeeding studies con- information and markets (cf. Mehta and Shah, ducted on di# erent ethnic minority groups reported ,**-; Shah and Guru, ,**- ). Consequently, they that governmental agencies still almost always fail have lagged behind mainstream agricultural devel- to disseminate mainstream agricultural technol- opment (cf. Thakur and Thakur,+33. ; Gulati and ogies among the ethnic minorities (cf. Hansda, Kelley,+333 ; Guilmoto, ,**, ). +33. ; Iyengar, +33. ; Kornel, ,**0 ). The greatest Past research on agricultural development for eth- concern of the past research was how ethnic mi- nic minorities has discussed this lag in detail. norities could adopt mainstream agricultural tech- Investigating the socioeconomic condition of the nologies as a complete package. Today, however, it Koya people, Ramaiah (+32+ ) made one of the has become obvious that the simple transfer of the earliest systematic studies on agricultural develop- package is not realistic in an area where ethnic ment for ethnic minorities in India. He argued that minorities live. Received: April, , ,*+* , Accepted: December +* , ,*+* * Corresponding author: Research Center for Urban Safety and Security, Kobe University, Rokkodai, Nada, Kobe, 0/1ῌ2/*+, Japan. Tel:ῌῌ2+ῌῌ 12 2*- ῌ 0,/0 , Fax: 2+ ῌῌ 12 2*- ῌ 0*,2 , E-mail: [email protected] 226 J. Dev. Sus. Agr./, ( ) During the period when I was making an investi- gation into indigenous knowledge and technology of the Koya people, I observed farmers to be adopt- ing some modern technologies according to their own choices. Also I found a new trend in land use that followed the adoption of these technologies. I was convinced that the case of the Koya people could be a good example of a realistic alternative. Accordingly, on the basis of my own investigation in a village of the Koya people, the present paper elucidates how they have interfaced modern tech- nologies with their own cropping systems. In this paper, existing cropping systems are firstly outlined with the extent to which the modern tech- nology has been adopted. Secondly, the relation- ship between the technology adoption and agro- ecological perception of the Koya people is de- Fig.+ . Location of the study area. scribed. Thirdly, the new trend in land use is re- vealed and its significance in future agricultural development is discussed. In conclusion, this paper provides a di# erent perspective from past research on economic activities of ethnic minorities. Methods Study area The Koya people are viewed as a typical sched- uled tribe (ST) as they live mainly by agriculture and forest product collection. They reside in hilly forested areas along the Godawari River in the northern inland part of Andhra Pradesh State (Fig. +). This area, where three Statesῌ Andhra Pradesh, Chattisgarh and Orissaῌ border each other, has a significantly denser population of various STs than any other part of South India. Khammam District has the highest ratio of STs to the total population Fig., . Topography of Chalampalem. of Andhra Pradesh (,/ῌ ). The Koya people have The contour lines indicate altitudes of.* m, 0* +** the second largest population (-/, , *** ) among -- m and m. The gray zones with broken lines indicate reserved forest. The hemmed line indi- STs in Andhra Pradesh, and the greatest population +32+ cates a road. in Khammam District, according to the Cen- Source: Government of India (+321 ). sus (Subramanyam,,**- ). The fieldwork was conducted in a village of the Koya people in Bhadrachalam Mandal. The study chili-trading center in Chattisgarh State. village, named Chalampalem, is an administrative Data collection village consisting of three hamlets called Erragattu, The fieldwork was carried out from December Chalampalem and Bandarigudem (Fig., ). All ,**, to August ,**- and from September ,**. to households in the neighboring administrative vil- April,**/ . At the beginning, I explored the entire lage to the south, Nandigama, are made up of non- study village with a mobile GPS to draw a farmland tribal people. A paved road goes from Chalamp- map. It showed uneven spatial distribution of alem through Nandigama and leads to Jagdalpur, a cropping patterns. Then I surmised that soil condi- Tsunashima: Modern Agricultural Technology and the Koya People 227 tions should a# ect crop choice of farmers and they to every crop that interviewees grew in,**, , they might have their own soil taxonomy. were asked what they considered a good yield to be. The investigation of villagers’ soil classification In April and May,**/ , the second all-household was undertaken by transect walking through the survey was carried out in the same manner as the site guided by a villager. He showed me several soil first all-household survey. A farmland map was types and their characteristics. Later, based on the also drawn again. results of the sample household survey below, I Throughout the fieldwork period, observation of specified the two main soil types in the study vil- farmwork was also conducted whenever necessary. lage. In June,**- , I observed soil profiles by digg- Implements and materials used were recorded for ing three observation pits for each of these main each task. Farmers were interviewed about the soil types along the transect line. necessity and significance of each task in an infor- In order to collect data on the present situation mal manner. Informal interviews with particular of each cropping system, it was necessary to con- key informants were also held whenever necessary. duct a household survey with questionnaires. Be- Information about the installation and purchase fore this, with the aim of briefing myself on the costs of irrigation implements and wages of agricul- current change in agriculture, I conducted group tural laborers was collected. interviews in each hamlet on di#$ erent days in For all interviews, I used Telugu, the o cial March,**- . The participants were +* to ,* resi- language in Andhra Pradesh, with additional assis- dents of each hamlet and members of a local NGO tance from young villagers. engaged in rural development activities based in Data analysis Bhadrachalam. In the group interview, we dis- Data collected through the household surveys cussed the-* -year pattern of changes in cultivation was sorted by cropping system so that di# erent methods, particularly with regards to the introduc- cropping systems could be compared with each tion of the modern technology. In this regard, the other. The data on farmers’ behavior was used for participants mentioned a recent trend toward land identifying the extent to which the modern technol- lease with an economic motivation. ogy had been adopted. The first all-household survey was conducted in In order to provide an overview of farmers’ agro- April and May,**- . I visited each household to ecological perception, the principle of the villagers’ interview members who were playing a central role soil classification was firstly inferred from the ob- in the farmwork. I collected information on family servation of the soil profiles. Secondly, the data structure, agricultural land holding, agricultural