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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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Autores principales: Rege, Anushka, Lee, Janice Ser Huay
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Public Library of Science 2022
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9165800/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/35657959
http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0269092
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author Rege, Anushka
Lee, Janice Ser Huay
author_facet Rege, Anushka
Lee, Janice Ser Huay
author_sort Rege, Anushka
collection PubMed
description 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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spelling pubmed-91658002022-06-05 State-led agricultural subsidies drive monoculture cultivar cashew expansion in northern Western Ghats, India Rege, Anushka Lee, Janice Ser Huay PLoS One Research Article 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. Public Library of Science 2022-06-03 /pmc/articles/PMC9165800/ /pubmed/35657959 http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0269092 Text en © 2022 Rege, Lee https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) , which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
spellingShingle Research Article
Rege, Anushka
Lee, Janice Ser Huay
State-led agricultural subsidies drive monoculture cultivar cashew expansion in northern Western Ghats, India
title 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_short 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
topic Research Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9165800/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/35657959
http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0269092
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