The headlines have been there!! World heading for food crisis!! Food prices spiraling!! Short-fall in food grains production! In fact – a latest headline – poses the question – Is the agriculture minister of India spending more time for cricket than for the impending Wheat crisis?
The message is clear – World heading for food crisis. There have been constant references to the Great Bengal Famine that wiped out a million plus population during the early 19th Century. As a response to the famine the Green revolution took place. In a nutshell – green revolution meant increased use of chemical fertilizers – better variants (highly productive and insect resistant crops) – dependent on irrigation and facilitating multiple crop cycles in a year!!
India has been the most successful of all the countries that invented and experimented with Green revolution. What was once stated – that Indian population would go down – fighting hunger – has been erased and today India is a food exporting country. Same is the case with many Asian countries!!
But soon – the benefits of Green Revolution started to fade out. As the crops became more irrigation dependent – there has been severe pressure on the water resources. And also the rain-man started to play his share of havoc. The yield started dropping dramatically. Today – to get the same amount of yield – a lot of additional resources – fertilizers, water, etc – are needed. While the population of the developed countries started to move away from the conventional food – the worlds most populous countries – India and China – continue to cultivate and hunt for additional food resources in order to keep their population less hungry. The same is the case with all the developing economies. THE WORLD IS HEADING FOR AGRI CRISIS!!
But all is not bleak – if India opens its eyes then there is a huge potential waiting to be tapped. India is primarily an agrarian economy. In spite of massive strides in manufacturing and technology – more than half of Indian population are agriculture dependent. This means – if the world food crisis is addressed properly – by the visionaries of India – and proper procedures are put in place – then there is a possibility that India can soon produce – millionaire farmers. And much more important development of this initiative would be – a respectable life for an “always” poor and debt ridden Indian farmer.
The so called methodology of making millionaire farmers is not as easy as said. A number of issues have to be addressed and creative solutions put in place. The following highlight a few of them
· Revive the PDS (Public distribution system) and there by ensure that the average Indian is not deprived of food that’s stacked up in the godowns
· Move back from chemical fertilizers to organic fertilizers. Unlike the popular belief – that organic fertilizers don’t provide yields as much as the synthetic and chemical fertilizers - the experiments with organic fertilizers have given similar results – without effecting the other inputs required for agriculture
· Expand the green revolution – which was limited only to food crops – to other crops. There is a large potential for extending the green revolution to vegetables and fruits – the second source of income for farmers and supplements to the main food for the people at large
· Increase the logistic support – transport, storage, delivery – such that the right kind of food reaches the right kind of people
· A active participation of the public – private sector for developing and percolating – new variants of crops – that demand lesser inputs and yield higher outputs
· Most importantly – as far as Indian consumer is concerned – reduce the food miles and encourage the increase of food miles in case of non-Indian consumers. Food miles are the no of miles a particular crop is transported to reach the end consumer. So effectively it means – if the Indian population consumes food produced in the nearby fields – there by cutting down heavy investments on transportation of food to far end markets – the average farmer would spend less on transport. This would directly have a bearing on his profitability
· Do away with marginal holdings of the poor farmer – form a kind of cooperative – similar to ANAND – and thereby drive economies of scale. The cooperative – while retaining the individual ownership of the farmer’s farm – facilitates economies of scale by driving similar cropping over large tracts of land.
· And lastly – with extreme caution – experiment with transgenic variants of crops. The extreme caution signal comes based on the fact that the poor and marginalized farmer is ready to experiment with anything that can give him some money and in that order he might overlook the dangers of genetically modified variants of crops.
And as for me – I have worked towards simplifying my food patterns and contribute to reduction in food miles. After all – I need to do much more to achieve a SIMPLE LIFE OF SUJAY
Cheers and GOD bless all!!
