Hi,
In the camp I attended a gentleman was visiting US to be with his son(Narasimhan Ramakrishnan - "Nara" -who helped set up our tent http://www.parks.ca.gov/default.asp?page_id=607 ) and his family. That gentleman happened to be a retired professor (1998) National from Agricultural Inst., Pusa, Delhi -India's premier agricultural univ. http://www.icar.org.in/ Since I was a newcomer to that group of campers - also I got talking to him and discussed the issue of farmers' suicides (and mentioned Assamnet's interest therein) -even though we have enough grain . He mentioned that India's Green Revolution in the 60-70s was due to a bold decision to implement a new (NOT genetically modified -GM) variety of wheat from Mexico which raised output four times -removing India's shortage of foodgrains.
He said that 3 guys whose name had initials "S" (all South Indians ) are credited for that. http://edugreen.teri.res.in/explore/bio/green.htm
He mentioned that in AP the farmers' crops are failing mainly becos that region has a large number of pests -and there is improper way of dealing with them-unlike desrts of Rajasthan which have only occasional locust hordes originating in Saudi Arabia nd are dealt with by joint efforts of many countries with help from FAO etc. He mentioned that darmers who grow cotton -are the ones who are hard hit and are commiting suicides. I wonder why they do not swithc to wheat or rice etc -like in deserts of Rajasthan and Gujarat. They take huge loans on high interest rates (up to 25% or more - rivaling credit card MNC comapnies's rates for credit card debt ) from local money lenders. Further, they do not use the
required dosage of pesticides -- and that these pesticides are not good enough since the the pests quickly develop resistance to them. Even the GM seeds are not useful since they are resistant to only one pest -- but there are so many other pests - that these GM seeds are eaten up by others. Further, GM seeds have unknown side effects --since they take up genes from some other germs/bacteria/pests and introduce them in the GM seeds --God knows what effect it would have on those who eat this GM food or wear clothes made from such cotton!! -he said.
(Farmer is heart broken --but stil lazy and ignorant??)
In his opinion the biological ways for controlling pests are the best --but given the current level of mismanagement
--it is unlikely that it will work. This strategy involves breeding other insects who eat these pests (but do not harm the crops or humans, livestock etc) in large numbers, transporting them in large batches to these farms and releasing them. However, transportation of these pest-killers is tricky since they need to have right food and temperature environs. In a region where tomatos have to thrown away just becos there is no means of processing them -- there is very less likelihood that this biological technique of pest-killing will work out. Why work so hard to breed insects(dirty, filthy creatures) treat them like royalty and act like their beast of burden to trasnport them from hi-tech agri-breeding grounds -by ox-carts, tractors etc -in chilled vans etc -over ditched covered dirt tracks -and hand them over to igniorant, illiterate farmers who have even greater contempt for insects (Holy Cow!!) --and would most likely put them to death
--rather than envision them to be saviors of their crops.
The farmers, msotly Hindus would worship the snake or cow but not any insect who might kill their pests --maybe they need to revise their religious beliefs and identify their new saviors. Should they?
Umesh
Umesh Sharma
5121 Lackawanna ST
College Park, MD 20740
1-202-215-4328 [Cell Phone]
Ed.M. - International Education Policy
Harvard Graduate School of Education,
Harvard University,
Class of 2005
weblog: http://jaipurschool.bihu.in/
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