The story of Vanilla in Kerala: Shifting from sector-forgetting
to sector-learning

The Indian state of Kerala has a history of producing spices and other niche market commodities. Over the years a number of commodities have rapidly emerged as important crops, with farmers rapidly expanding production, only to see an equally rapid decline when market and trade conditions change. The apparently spontaneous emergence of these niche sectors is intriguing in itself. However a more perplexing question is how these sectors can become more resilient to the shocks that are inherent in the markets for niche commodities. This is important for two reasons. First, the Kerala agricultural sector will increasingly be connected to international niche commodity markets. If it is to cope, survive and prosper it will have to build up the capabilities to innovate and compete in this dynamic environment. And secondly, building up these capabilities is critical in fulfilling developmental goals as these sectors benefit many small scale farmers and are an important source of employment for the poor. Vanilla is an example of precisely this scenario.

The crop was promoted in the early 1990's by the Indian spice board with assistance from a spice export corporate – AV Thomas. The crop spread rapidly. This spread was propelled mainly by farmer-to-farmer mechanisms, as farmers shared information on production techniques, and by farmers growing vanilla to sell as planting material to other farmers. Subsequently information sharing mechanisms were strengthened through the creation of farmers associations. During this period the market for Indian vanilla slowly developed. Its reputation for quality was recognized and the number of local organizations trading the crop expanded steadily. Then in 2002 and 2003, due to unique market conditions the price of vanilla increased by 400%. Because farmers had built up a production base and expertise over the decade they were able to respond rapidly to this situation producing large quantities of the crop.

Since then, however, the price has declined to previous levels. There is much uncertainty locally about the actual price in the world market, which is exacerbated by the uneasy relationship between the spice board, traders and the main corporate players on the one hand and farmers on the other. At the centre of this uncertainty is a series of arguments about costs of production, marketing margins and differences between international and Indian prices. As a result, farmers will not sell at the prices that the spice board appear to be endorsing.

Under this scenario, socio-economic research could help to bring clarity and help the sector move on. However as one key play tellingly retorted, “who can believe any of this research done by academics in the University?” Sadly the future of the sector looks bleaks with no resolution of these problems and different positions becoming more entrenched and embittered. This is an issue not just of integrating the right sorts of knowledge but of building the relationships that underpin the use of this knowledge. Ultimately this concerns trust.

How to move forward

This study attributes the spontaneous and rapid growth of the vanilla sector to patterns of information sharing – mainly between farmers, but also with other actors. Reinforcing this was the tradition of mutual support amongst the farming community and its tendency to ignore the restrictions of social/ communal /caste and economic hierarchies that normally restrict information sharing in the Indian agrarian sector. In addition, there were organizational innovations in the form of farmer associations that supported this. A tradition of these types of organization in the rubber sector laid the groundwork for following this approach in the vanilla sector. External interventions should thus build on these processes, recognizing that these organizations have a role in forming an interface between farmer knowledge systems and those of other agencies including research. Strengthening the ability of these organizations to participate in this interface would be a useful investment.

The long term future of the sector lies in building the capability to produce high quality vanilla and projecting this image internationally. This case seems to suggest that to succeed in this will require the coordinated efforts of all the players in the Indian vanilla production, trade and policy system. While the sector is going to have to continuously innovate, this will only be achieved when all sources of knowledge (research, market information, farmer and processor knowledge) are well integrated. A large element of this process of knowledge integration will be the efforts required to develop the types of relationships needed to foster the sort of trust that leads to knowledge sharing and knowledge co-production and use. At present the lack of trust between key players in the sector could in all likelihood lead to a complete collapse with farmers pulling out of vanilla production.

The corollary to this being that part of this process of integrating different sources of knowledge will be a process of continuous technical and institutional learning and upgrading. This will include learning by doing, by reflecting, by researching. This learning will be key to developing the capability of the sector. It will require explicit interventions to reflect on progress and approaches and to define midcourse corrections. This learning needs to be viewed not just in terms of building the capability of the vanilla sector, but in terms of the ability of the Kerala agricultural sector to cope and prosper in the volatile international markets to which its range of niche commodities is intimately linked. This type of sector learning needs to be given much greater attention in long term development plans.

Dr. Andy Hall coordinates several projects at UNU-INTECH in the area of agricultural innovation and rural development. More information.