Comment by agricultural activist:
"There was a time when our leaders gave us slogans like 'jai jawaan; jai kisaan' (long live the soldier; long live the farmer)... later, with the whole emphasis on technology and nuclear weapons, they got 'jai vigyaan' (long live science) added to the slogan. Nowadays, the attitude seems to be "jai jawaan; jai vigyaan; bhaaD mein gaya kisaan" (long live the soldier; long live science; to hell with the farmer!!)"
Just a comment.
Probably just a reactionary 'quote', spoken in anger. It's coming from a place of frustration and fear, I'm guessing. But it frightens me a little to think that there's anger coming from the place where my food comes from.
And anger there is. A mounting anger.
There are reasons for this anger. There must be. 7000 people (and those are old figures, from older estimates) don't just up and kill themselves. Not without reason...
And how long before large-scale suicide turns into large-scale violence? How much time do we have, I'm wondering.
From a pure economic angle, agriculture is expected to have negative growth again this year (of abt - 1.1%, if you think that this number is small the actual official estimate of decline this year of rice, cereals, pulses and oil seeds ranges between -7.5% to -19% with only corps like cotton (+16%)and winter crops with propping the performance up a bit). The agricultural sector contributes to a whopping 22% of the GDP! Hence it only makes sense for the government to support this industry if it were to look at 6-8% GDP growth rate.
ReplyDeleteThe heart of India, quite strongly is still in its villages. With a smart economic team at the centre, I only hope that this factor is realised sooner than later.
(Great to see a post again after a few days!)
At least you have 'agricultural activists' here a farmer kills himself and no one gives a damn. 10 farmers kill themselves in the space of a week and no one gives a damn.
ReplyDeleteNo one even counts, except the moneylender, who counts to see how much he has to write off now that the man's dead. Or maybe he can use his goons to threaten the wife and get at least some of the money back...
i know, i know... (though where exactly did you get your stats, r.? i have figures but they differ, so I'd like to compare and check for accuracy.)
ReplyDeleteand morq, hadn't heard of farmer suicides in sri lanka... when? since when? how many? and don't the papers report it?
and if they dont, then the farmers will probably haev to set a few police stations on fire... that'll have the reporters running to the village, eh? that's what our farmers did...
These are basically official projections, the report I refer to is our economist's report which is pretty accurate, which is for public consumption. So if you need it let me know
ReplyDeleteyeah... were begging for a bloody revolution arent we :(
ReplyDeleteYes, R, I'd like that report. could you email it to me? please?
ReplyDeleteOpinionsUnlimited@gmail.com , send me your email address and will forward this by monday.
ReplyDeleteCheers...
Oh..Found your email addy. Will have this sent on monday..
ReplyDeleteCheers
water doesn't just appear magically. perhaps the activists themselves can educate us on how to get water, for example, without building dams.
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