In either case, the company rep has become the de-facto extension agent. In my research, with one exception, the farmers had all been producing organically, or at least without the use of synthetic pesticides, prior to their entry into the corporate world. Immediate changes in production include heavy use of inorganic fertilizers and introduction of insecticides, generally purchased by the farmers on credit from the very companies for which the farmers are growing. Tropical and semi-tropical soils react very strongly to synthetics. Within a short time, even as little as a decade, soil tilth diminishes dramatically in quality.
Insect pests intensify under the barrage of poisons.
Though some income is now earned from agriculture, for the vast majority of Indian farmers, the land is primarily feeding their families. As the agroecosystem sickens, so too the family's livelihood grows increasingly jeopardized. For the farmers I interviewed, profits are generally good in the beginning, and the damage is not so great that it cannot be disregarded. However, as time goes by, productivity continually decreases and cash inflows slow. At the same time agrochemical expenditures stay the same or sometimes increase in a vain attempt to recreate the yields of the past.