Adoption of Modern Agricultural Technology by the Koya People, an Ethnic Minority in India

Abstract

Ethnic minorities in India mostly live by agriculture in hilly forested areas. Despite the various efforts 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 different 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 different 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.