Lets start with us. We all have a tendency to blame others. We bitch but rarely do anything to make it better.We have come to expect value for our money. This in itself is not a bad thing. But it has extended to everything including food.
In response to our need, farmers have to come up with vegetables which are uniform in taste, color and size. If we ask our grandparents in India, they will see that its impossible. But its because they let the plant do the job of producing food only assisting it. There were no cash crops then. All crops were grown to sustain life. They were subject to the vagaries of nature. Well, humans endowed with superior intelligence and all decided to change all that.
It started with increasing the food production. Synthentic Fertilizers were used to double/triple the food production. With that came synthetic pesticide. Wait a sec. Can a farmer make synthetic fertilizer and pesticide? Here come in multinational companies, savior of farmers worldwide. To help our farmers who were burdened with additional costs, our government decided to subsidize the cost of these chemicals. Instead paying $$ to the farmers, the government paid the money to the MNCs directly. A clever trap by MNCs to short sighted governments. If farmers knew the true cost, they will look to cheaper alternatives and thats not good for the MNCs. It was easy to justify it as it was pro-farmer and vis vis pro-poor. As the entire country switched to these products, the subsidy bill ballooned to $20 billion. Government attempts to reduce it are hindered as farmers fight the battle for the MNCs. Urea has degraded the soil so much that all increase in production has been nullified as we produce only 3.4 tons of rice per hectare compared to China's 6.5.Dr.M.S.Swaminathan, father of Green Revolution was directly responsible for it. Even though it was done with the best intention, no one went further to study the consequences of such an action. He has to till this day not apologized for that. Where in the world is accountability?
The DMK government came to power solely on the promise of cheap white rice, long considered the food of the rich people. People dont realize that its just empty carbs replacing their high fiber brown rice, corn, barley. The result is diabetes is not confined to rich people anymore but can the poor afford the treatment?
