SHRINKING WORLD, EXPANDING CRISIS : WTO, Globalisation and the Agrarian Crisis in Wayanad, Kerala

Abstract: The agricultural sector world wide has undergone a drastic change through the integration of the local markets to the global ones with the advent of the World Trade Organisation (WTO), the main propagator of international trade. The third world in general has stood to suffer with this emergence of neo-liberal market fundamentalism, the consequence of which has been a major crisis in the farm sector worldwide. The purpose of this case study on the agricultural sector in Wayanad was to analyse the features of the prevailing crisis and its influences politically, economically, socially and environmentally. This crisis has manifested itself in increasing poverty, falling prices of primary products, mounting debts and also in suicide of farmers. Though the cause of the crisis is apparently found in the changing trade scenario worldwide, its features and the reasons for its escalation has been related with a variety of factors, some inherent in the functioning of the country and the others as influences from outside.