Cocoa is the new buzzword for farmers in Coimbatore district. Grown in the shade of coconut, cocoa gives a profit of around Rs. 15,000 per acre per year. It takes about three years to obtain the first harvest, and production peaks after seven years. It has a productive lifespan of 25 years. This well irrigated district, known for paddy, sugarcane and groundnut, is gradually shifting to cocoa.
“Rice is a suicidal crop,” says V. J. Prasad of Pollachi Taluk..Mr. Prasad began farming on his family’s 75 acres in Sethumadai, after voluntary retirement 15 years back. He tried every method to make paddy cultivation feasible but in vain. “The inputs are too costly. But the main problem here is the labour shortage,” he says.
With the youth choosing to work in textile mills in Coimbatore and Tirupur districts, farmers say, most of the workforce is above 45 years of age. “Their work hours have come down from seven to four a day. It is hard to find labour, even for high wages,” says farmer K. Sethuraman, who cultivates three acres in Ramanamudalipudur Thottam, near Anamalai.
Women are paid Rs. 80 and men, Rs. 150 for a day’s work here. Women now opt for work under the National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (NREGS), which fetches Rs.100 a day.
Heaps of coconuts gather cobwebs on his land, for want of labourers to extract the copra. “No one will steal them. The price is too low,” he says. A coconut fetches the grower a maximum of Rs. 4 in these parts.
Sethuraman, Prasad and other farmers now raise cocoa intercropped with coconut. Cocoa is neither capital nor labour intensive and the returns are as high as Rs. 110 per kg of dried beans. Upto 250 plants can be raised per acre to get almost 1.5 kg of dried beans per plant.
In June 2007, Tamil Nadu’s Horticulture Department signed a memorandum of understanding with Cadbury, one of the largest confectionery makers. As part of the deal, Cadbury’s nursery near Anamalai gives saplings to farmers for which the state foots the bill. The farmer is also assured of a minimum price of Rs. 60 for a kg of dried beans produced. The government gives them organic fertilizer and organic pesticide for free, and arranges technical assistance and institutional credit, through Cadbury.
The total government subsidy is more than Rs. 4,500 per acre, for the first three years of cultivation.
Farmers say that Cadbury's technical assistance they get is irregular, neem cakes are ineffective and credit is a nightmare. “We have to get the clearance from the tehsildar for pledging our patta (legal document of the ownership of the land) to get a loan from cooperative banks at 12 per cent interest. Why should we pledge our lands for a small loan,” asks Mr. Prasad.
Private lenders charge a monthly interest of two to three per cent, which compounds to 27 to 43 per cent per annum. Most farmers here though have invested their own money. They make a profit of only six to eight per cent of their investment, if they multi-crop. “We can get that much by just leaving the money in the bank,” adds Prasad. “We only keep our land for pride,” says Sethuraman.
Cultivation costs of cocoa range from Rs. 10,000 to Rs. 15,000 an acre, depending on labour charges and irrigation. “This is a plantation crop and we can’t shift overnight if the prices fall,” says K. Krishnaraj who has 18 acres of cocoa at Ambarampalayam.
And that is the biggest risk. Between 1981 and 1982, cocoa cultivation peaked in Kerala and Karnataka. Farmers were assured of high prices and procurement. But in the late 80s, demand suddenly fell and chocolate manufacturers failed to honour their promise, just as the plants began to yield.
Unlike food crops, affected farmers can’t eat cocoa to survive.
According to P. Thirugnanasambantham, Coimbatore district secretary of the All India Kisan Sabha, the MoU’s assured price only holds good if there is any procurement of cocoa. “The government must provide labour to agriculture through the NREGA. Without subsidising labour, agriculture can’t survive,” he adds. Shunning food crops for cash crops is a serious threat to food security, he explains.
Farmers say that the government asks them to mechanise. But complete mechanisation is impossible and unviable for small farms. “Cadbury is only concentrating on big farms now,” says Mr. Prasad.
