my first experience with agri - cereal prices to soar!
The markets can remain irrational longer than i can solvent - to repeat an anon. quote repeated by ashu dutt, an anchor for NDTV Profit.
so, i thought i would be better off tilling some farmland - slightly below two acres- which my father owns. and what i saw pretty much stunned me and goaded me to write an elegy on indian agri if things go the same way.
The land is located in a supposedly very fertile area near a small city.
I took a turn off the road. the bike could proceed no further. i began to walk on the fields towards my land. i saw a abandoned well, a motor room and some power line poles. the land is dry with some weeds and paddy shoots griwing on it. i walk further on the bunds and reach my land. next to it, is a patch of yellow brinjal plants, left to ripe on the fields for some reason.
Some conclusion from my first visit:
1. subsidised/free power to farmers is an issue that needs to looked at closely. the city dewellers and free market economists, who want farmers to pay the actual ecomonic costs, shold realise that it could make farming unviable for many. the well, with water at 20 feet, was abonded by a person who couldn't pay the electricity bills, and hence stopped cultivation. the local government till recently had a policy of free power, which it has now reversed.
2. agriculuture, in the current form in which it is practised, does not seem to a profitable activity.
one person told me it is better to find some work in the city rather than pick up dung.
3. There is a tremendous pressure on farm land from encroaching cities. houses have sprung up a close as one kn away and somebody is selling plots 500 meters away from my plot.
4. i expect, that in India like in China, cereal prices could shoot up by 50% in the near term say 5 years, as quality agricultural lands becomes sparse and labour far more expensive. This can only be mitigated if agri. productivity is significantly raised.
so, i thought i would be better off tilling some farmland - slightly below two acres- which my father owns. and what i saw pretty much stunned me and goaded me to write an elegy on indian agri if things go the same way.
The land is located in a supposedly very fertile area near a small city.
I took a turn off the road. the bike could proceed no further. i began to walk on the fields towards my land. i saw a abandoned well, a motor room and some power line poles. the land is dry with some weeds and paddy shoots griwing on it. i walk further on the bunds and reach my land. next to it, is a patch of yellow brinjal plants, left to ripe on the fields for some reason.
Some conclusion from my first visit:
1. subsidised/free power to farmers is an issue that needs to looked at closely. the city dewellers and free market economists, who want farmers to pay the actual ecomonic costs, shold realise that it could make farming unviable for many. the well, with water at 20 feet, was abonded by a person who couldn't pay the electricity bills, and hence stopped cultivation. the local government till recently had a policy of free power, which it has now reversed.
2. agriculuture, in the current form in which it is practised, does not seem to a profitable activity.
one person told me it is better to find some work in the city rather than pick up dung.
3. There is a tremendous pressure on farm land from encroaching cities. houses have sprung up a close as one kn away and somebody is selling plots 500 meters away from my plot.
4. i expect, that in India like in China, cereal prices could shoot up by 50% in the near term say 5 years, as quality agricultural lands becomes sparse and labour far more expensive. This can only be mitigated if agri. productivity is significantly raised.
posted by tvm at 5:10 PM
1 Comments:
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