Fair Trade Alliance Kerala

Fair Trade Alliance Kerala (FTAK) came in to being at a time when farming as an activity and the peasantry as a social segment were being relegated to the margins of society. Agrarian Kerala was then reeling under the double impact of the steep fall in commodity prices and crop failures. Agrarian debt mounted and farmers were resorting to desperate measures, unable to cope.

A motley group of farmers, most of them representing mass peasant organisations that were fighting agrarian indebtedness and the devastating impact of the neo liberal policies on the peasantry came together on December 17, 2005 at the Elements Organic store in Kozhikode and formed themselves in to Fair Trade Alliance Kerala.

The organisation promotes the adoption of various organic and environment friendly farming standards and other relevant social, environmental or sustainability standards that can enhance the intrinsic quality of its product offering to the market, while improving the environmental sustainability of the homestead farming ecosystem and household economy. The 3 pillars of its interventions in the farming sector are bio diversity, food security and gender justice.