Labour scarcity due to the Covid-19 induced lockdown and reverse migration of workers have adversely impacted the biodiversity of the Western Ghats, according to a study.

“The current situation makes it harder for coffee planters to hire labour, and for the workers to get to the plantations without significant hurdles,” Ashwini Chhatre, co-author of the study and Associate Professor of Public Policy at the Indian School of Business (ISB) said in a release.

“In addition to the blow to livelihoods and costs to the larger economy, our analysis shows that the cascade of effects will eventually impinge upon the birds and the bees,” he added.

The study titled ‘Coffee, Trees, and Labor: Political Economy of Biodiversity in Commodity Agroforests’ has been published in the Annals of the American Association of Geographers.

A team of scientists from the Indian School of Business (ISB), Centre for Wildlife Studies (India), and Nelson Institute for Environmental Studies, University of Wisconsin-Madison (USA) surveyed coffee plantations in India’s Western Ghats to examine farm-scale conditions that support biodiversity.

Labour intensive

The study revealed that larger farm size, increase in canopy density, and the cultivation of Coffea arabica varieties, are factors associated with high tree species diversity necessary for sustaining wildlife habitat.

There has been a fragility of these agro-ecosystems as these structural conditions are more labour-intensive. In coffee plantations, tree maintenance demands a large amount of seasonal labour force.

This is compounded further because labour costs make up 65 per cent of input costs. With declining supply and increasing costs of labour, preferred management options tend towards reducing tree canopy and tree diversity, especially among small landholders, the sudy said.

Costs, urbanisation

“Biodiversity is the latest casualty of the pandemic induced lockdowns that triggered mass reverse migration,” Chhatre said.

Under conditions of increasing labour scarcity, rapidly rising labour costs, and ongoing urbanisation in Karnataka and coffee-producing regions globally, the ability to sustain high-biodiversity commodity production systems is seriously challenged.

According to Paul Robbins of the University of Wisconsin and the lead author of this study, as farm labour becomes scarcer and more expensive in India, there is a need to work creatively with farmers to find ways for them to make wildlife-friendly decisions in turbulent markets.

Impact on wildlife

The fate of rare birds and countless other wild taxa will hinge on things such as automation, subsidies, and labour migration as much as it does on protected areas, control of poaching, and other conventional conservation concerns”.

There are several important implications from this study. Due to insufficient labour and rise in market volatility, small landholders in the Western Ghats are choosing production and management practices that lead to maintaining fewer tree varieties.

Pesticides usage

It also results in higher usage of pesticides and substitution of Arabica with Robusta coffee plantations. Many are converting farms from Arabica to Robusta as the price difference between the two varieties is almost reaching parity.

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