State-led agricultural subsidies drive monoculture cultivar cashew expansion in northern Western Ghats, India
Agricultural commodity production constitutes an important livelihood source for farmers but significantly contributes to tropical deforestation and biodiversity loss. While the socioecological effects of agricultural commodities such as palm oil, cocoa and coffee are well studied, the effects for c...
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sg-ntu-dr.10356-1605112022-09-26T02:04:57Z State-led agricultural subsidies drive monoculture cultivar cashew expansion in northern Western Ghats, India Rege, Anushka Lee, Janice Ser Huay Asian School of the Environment Earth Observatory of Singapore Social sciences::General Typology Cashew Farmers Agricultural commodity production constitutes an important livelihood source for farmers but significantly contributes to tropical deforestation and biodiversity loss. While the socioecological effects of agricultural commodities such as palm oil, cocoa and coffee are well studied, the effects for commodities such as cashew (Anacardium occidentale) have received less attention. Global cultivated area for cashew increased rapidly from 526,250 ha in 1980 to ~5.9 million ha in 2018. India is the world's second largest cashew producer, with cashew farms often occurring adjacent to remnant forests. To mitigate deforestation for cashew expansion, it is necessary to understand present-day land use policies and management practices that drive this expansion. Through semi-structured interviews (n = 65) and a literature review on agricultural policies in India, we evaluated the role of state-led land use policies in cashew expansion and characterised present-day cashew farming systems in the Sawantwadi-Dodamarg landscape in India. Agricultural subsidies introduced from 1980s to 1990s encouraged cultivar cashew expansion and influenced land use conversion from rice and privately owned forest to cashew. Farmers preferred cultivar cashew as they produced higher yields faster, although they required more agrochemical inputs and were susceptible to pests and wildlife depredation. About 80% of farmers had planted cashew farms by clearing forests in the past 30 years and expressed interest to continue the same. Farmers avoided applying for government-sponsored compensation for crop losses due to wildlife depredation and chose instead to expand cultivar cashew into forested areas. Our study deepens the understanding of how government-led agricultural subsidies drive farmers' uptake of cashew cultivars, farmers' cashew management practices, and how these factors drive deforestation in this landscape at the state and farm level. We recommend further research with equitable stakeholder participation in cashew farming systems to devise sound planning for forest conservation and sustainability standards for the cashew industry. Ministry of Education (MOE) National Research Foundation (NRF) Published version This work was supported by the Singapore Ministry of Education Academic Research Fund Tier 1 RG145/19 Grant secured by J.S.H.L. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript. This research was supported by the Earth Observatory of Singapore via its funding from the National Research Foundation Singapore and the Singapore Ministry of Education under the Research Centres of Excellence initiative. 2022-07-27T05:17:16Z 2022-07-27T05:17:16Z 2022 Journal Article Rege, A. & Lee, J. S. H. (2022). State-led agricultural subsidies drive monoculture cultivar cashew expansion in northern Western Ghats, India. PLOS ONE, 17(6), e0269092-. https://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0269092 1932-6203 https://hdl.handle.net/10356/160511 10.1371/journal.pone.0269092 35657959 2-s2.0-85131702149 6 17 e0269092 en RG145/19 PLOS ONE 10.21979/N9/FZSWO4 © 2022 Rege, Lee. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. application/pdf |
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Social sciences::General Typology Cashew Farmers Rege, Anushka Lee, Janice Ser Huay State-led agricultural subsidies drive monoculture cultivar cashew expansion in northern Western Ghats, India |
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Agricultural commodity production constitutes an important livelihood source for farmers but significantly contributes to tropical deforestation and biodiversity loss. While the socioecological effects of agricultural commodities such as palm oil, cocoa and coffee are well studied, the effects for commodities such as cashew (Anacardium occidentale) have received less attention. Global cultivated area for cashew increased rapidly from 526,250 ha in 1980 to ~5.9 million ha in 2018. India is the world's second largest cashew producer, with cashew farms often occurring adjacent to remnant forests. To mitigate deforestation for cashew expansion, it is necessary to understand present-day land use policies and management practices that drive this expansion. Through semi-structured interviews (n = 65) and a literature review on agricultural policies in India, we evaluated the role of state-led land use policies in cashew expansion and characterised present-day cashew farming systems in the Sawantwadi-Dodamarg landscape in India. Agricultural subsidies introduced from 1980s to 1990s encouraged cultivar cashew expansion and influenced land use conversion from rice and privately owned forest to cashew. Farmers preferred cultivar cashew as they produced higher yields faster, although they required more agrochemical inputs and were susceptible to pests and wildlife depredation. About 80% of farmers had planted cashew farms by clearing forests in the past 30 years and expressed interest to continue the same. Farmers avoided applying for government-sponsored compensation for crop losses due to wildlife depredation and chose instead to expand cultivar cashew into forested areas. Our study deepens the understanding of how government-led agricultural subsidies drive farmers' uptake of cashew cultivars, farmers' cashew management practices, and how these factors drive deforestation in this landscape at the state and farm level. We recommend further research with equitable stakeholder participation in cashew farming systems to devise sound planning for forest conservation and sustainability standards for the cashew industry. |
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Asian School of the Environment |
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Asian School of the Environment Rege, Anushka Lee, Janice Ser Huay |
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Article |
author |
Rege, Anushka Lee, Janice Ser Huay |
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Rege, Anushka |
title |
State-led agricultural subsidies drive monoculture cultivar cashew expansion in northern Western Ghats, India |
title_short |
State-led agricultural subsidies drive monoculture cultivar cashew expansion in northern Western Ghats, India |
title_full |
State-led agricultural subsidies drive monoculture cultivar cashew expansion in northern Western Ghats, India |
title_fullStr |
State-led agricultural subsidies drive monoculture cultivar cashew expansion in northern Western Ghats, India |
title_full_unstemmed |
State-led agricultural subsidies drive monoculture cultivar cashew expansion in northern Western Ghats, India |
title_sort |
state-led agricultural subsidies drive monoculture cultivar cashew expansion in northern western ghats, india |
publishDate |
2022 |
url |
https://hdl.handle.net/10356/160511 |
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1745574646077456384 |