India's Farming 'Revolution' Heading For Collapse

[plinko]

Re: India's Farming 'Revolution' Heading For Collapse

Saw this recently:

1,500 farmers commit suicide in India

http://www.presstv.ir/detail.aspx?id...onid=351020403

Update: removed quoted article after seeing don's related post

[don]

Re: India's Farming 'Revolution' Heading For Collapse

The internal contradiction basic to commodity agriculture is harvest abundance = plunging prices. Since basic food stuffs are vital to society, government involvement in agriculture is of great importance in mitigating this contradiction to the society's overall well being. It's the form that involvement takes that's the real question.

[vanvaley1]

Re: India's Farming 'Revolution' Heading For Collapse

Let me see if I can dig around the Internet and find the video that better presents this position than I can. I believe you are right in suggesting that Monsanto is one of the companies that has defined it's goal as being a major player in the world and wanting to expand its control over the agribusiness markets.

Care to be a bit more specific as to which companies you are referring to? [Other than Monsanto, of course.]

I wasn't aware there was yet another global conspiracy, this time to control the food supply. The question that comes to mind is why would a company "intent on controlling all the world's food supply" provide any modern seeds, technology and farming practices that seem to have expanded said food supply in recent decades? Wouldn't it be a lot easier for them if there was a lot less food around that they needed to gather up in order to "control" it?

Just askin'

By the way, for all the criticism that is being levelled at India over unsustainable agricultural practices in this article I would make one observation: Unsustainable practices are by no means unique either to the agriculture sector of economies, nor to Indian agriculture alone. Government policies around the world directed mostly at subsidizing the internal production of food to achieve the political goal of "self sufficiency" in critical foodstuffs, have had a far greater effect distorting that economic sector, and promoting unsustainable behaviours, than anything any single seed or technology provider has ever been able to do. You would not know it by reading this article but some good has come from the so-called green revolution in India...to tap the deep aquifers for irrigation required the pursuit of rural electrification. And with electricity came standard-of-living benefits throughout Punjab that go well beyond agriculture.

Besides, when was the last time you can recall a famine in India?

[GRG55]

Re: India's Farming 'Revolution' Heading For Collapse

The internal contradiction basic to commodity agriculture is harvest abundance = plunging prices. Since basic food stuffs are vital to society, government involvement in agriculture is of great importance in mitigating this contradiction to the society's overall well being. It's the form that involvement takes that's the real question.

Yup, that's that argument the government bureaucrats and politicians always bring up to justify the subsidies, marketing boards, agricultural quotas, and all manner of other programs that seem so essential to modern life...:rolleyes:

[don]

Re: India's Farming 'Revolution' Heading For Collapse

Yup, that's that argument the government bureaucrats and politicians always bring up to justify the subsidies, marketing boards, agricultural quotas, and all manner of other programs that seem so essential to modern life...:rolleyes:

This farmer's dilemma is found in all the classical economists, addressed in various ways by the capitalist states and by the socialist ones during their run. How do you see that historical 'problem' ?