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To: clochard who wrote (58658)	4/19/2006 12:48:24 AM
From: ild	Respond to of 110194

<<<US, the food basket of the world>>> I recalls in 2005 US started importing more food than exporting.

To: clochard who wrote (58658)	4/19/2006 6:38:39 AM
From: shades	Respond to of 110194

Indian agriculture is cheaper oheraldo.in Malsinghwala is one of a spate of villages across India that have suddenly been put up for sale. Similar reports are coming from across India. What began as an isolated and an extreme case of rural distress is now slowly and steadily spreading its tentacles throughout the country. In December 2005, Dorli in Wardha district of Maharashtra in central India became the first village outside the frontline agricultural state of Punjab - the harbinger of Green Revolution in India - to make itself available for sale. With signboards pasted all around, and the slogan “ Dorli village is for sale” painted on the cattle back and trees, what appeared to be a bizarre tale is now becoming a sad but widespread reality. Dorli village comprises 270 residents, 500 livestock, and nearly 600 acres of agricultural land. Every villager, including children, has an outstanding debt of Rs 30,000. A few weeks later, hundreds of residents of Chingapur village in Yeotmal region of Maharashtra, invited the President of India, Dr Abdul Kalam, and the Prime Minister, Mr Manmohan Singh, to preside over a ‘human market’ for the sale of kidneys. Unable to repay the mounting debts, the villagers had decided to go in for mass sale of kidneys. The situation in the neighbouring villages is no better. “It is debt,” says Gurjit Singh, a huge Sikh farmer who stands in the hot sun. “We cannot pay our debts. If someone else can come here and make the land pay, we’re prepared to work for them.” The farmers of Malsinghwala own their own land. But they are so heavily in debt they would prefer to give that up and work as common labourers. Mahatma Gandhi’s dream of a strong, independent Indian society based on its villages is dying under the sizzling Punjab sun. *important point there - in Roman times FREE citizens threw themselves into slavery under large landowners because of debt, being a slave was a better life than being a free citizen. - my grandpa lost his farm because of too much debt It is happening even as India is going through an extraordinary economic boom that is transforming it from a third- world country to a global economic power. The economy is growing at more than 8 per cent a year, and the cities are growing from week to week. The US is courting India as a strategic ally, and foreign companies are jostling each other to get a share of the huge potential market here. Sadly that while Indian corporates are making waves overseas and with the stock market is booming in the villages, there is no sign of India’s economic miracle yet. The people are still mired in grinding poverty. In Jalgaon farmers are facing ruin because of the bird flu. In Nagpur farmer are committing suicide. There was a major scandal in India two years ago after hundreds of farmers, unable to pay their debts, committed suicide in Andhra Pradesh. For a country that once rose on the green revolution today the reverse is holding true. As India is emerging as an economic force, the villages on which Gandhi dreamt of basing an independent India are struggling and dying. It is the cities that are driving the economic boom, and every year hundreds of thousands of Indians leave the villages and migrate to the already bursting cities looking for a better life. Insiders say Indian agriculture is performing far below its potential because it is steeped in outdated methods and practices. As much as 35 per cent of Indian produce is spoilt in transportation, for instance.Changing the way the market works inside India is only the beginning. Analysts say agricultural exports should be doing better as well in a country that produces mangoes, rice, tea and spices that are considered among the best in the world. If the big companies do move into agriculture, it could be good news for the villagers. But it could also change Indian rural life forever, in a way that will take India even further from Gandhi’s ideal, and into the tough commercial realities of modern capitalism. While the rural misery continues to multiply, what is more depressing is that the government is clueless of the reasons that aggravate agrarian crisis. Nor is there any effort from agricultural scientists, economists, and social scientists to come out with proposals to put an end to this shameful blot on the country’s image. The reason is obvious. No one has the political courage to point a finger at the fundamental reason behind the collapse of the Green Revolution. It not only acerbated the crisis leading to an environmental catastrophe but also destroyed millions of rural livelihoods. The alarm bells had been ringing for quite some time now. For nearly a decade, agricultural production had almost stagnated, than began the downslide. All this happened at a time when high-chemical input based technology had already mined the soils and ultimately led to the lands gasping for breath, with the water-guzzling crops sucking the groundwater aquifer dry, and with the failure of the markets to rescue the farmers from a collapse of the farming systems. By ignoring the critical connection between agricultural production and access to food — with the focus shifting to agro- processing linked to foreign investment and exports — it was bound to happen. While the input costs kept on increasing over the years, encouraging farmers to back up with more loans, the farm prices remained steady. The entire input-output ratio gradually went upside down, with a large number of farmers sliding into debt that kept on mounting with each year. A recent UNCTAD report that showed agricultural produce continues to be sold at 1985 prices. In other words, the price farmers were getting today is in reality the same at which they were selling their produce 20 years back. And unless something changes more villages will be put up for sale.