Quartz: America’s shale gas boom brought Rajasthan farmers a fortune, but now it is being taken away
When shale gas companies in the United States hiked their production six-fold in the last six years, it brought untold prosperity to farmers living 21,000 km away in Rajasthan, the Indian desert state with poor economic and social indicators.
The source of that new prosperity was a processed powder called guar gum, which is used in fracking, a method of extracting shale gas that involves pumping pressurised gas into the ground. Guar gum is derived from a crop called guar. India is the world’s largest producer of guar.
India is, thus, also the world leader in guar gum. Derivatives of guar gum are used in several industries, including textiles, pharmaceuticals, food processing and oil extraction. But it was because of shale gas that India’s exports of guar gum shot up from Rs 121 crore ($20.2 million) in 2003-04 to Rs 21,287 crore ($3.5 billion at exchange rate of Rs60 to a dollar) in 2012-13, even occupying the top spot in India’s agri-export basket in fiscal 2013.