Miscellaneous-the first of many more
Three months, exactly after which I came back to my homeplace...Big deal again:)..
It doesn't get nostalgic for me, but still the feeling back of coming back to home makes you feel happy.
On my way back iam presently going through this region called as Telangana the dry area of my state. It has many fields, but the interesting part is many of the fields are cotton fields.
Iam within 100 kms from Hyderabad, the capital city of my state and one of the most happening cities in India, but the villages still donot seem to have any effect of the development happening around the cities.
it is close to 6:30 am now and even the dry parts of the region look pleasant and liveable. 2-3 more hours will bring the scorching sun to its peak and the pleasant environment will turn into a very hot, dry place with no water and power. The farmers are supplied power during the wee hours of morning and for couple of hours in the evening.
I guess those few hours are enough for those farmers, nevertheless it would mean that during the other hours they have to work on non agricultural activities to get their stomach full. What will happen to all these farmers if these cash crops fail or worse, what will happen if the prices of cotton crash down that the farmer can barely get back his returns. yesterday, I was reading an article in which it is mentioned that the following crops give these returns for every rupee expended:
Rice - 0.47
Wheat - 0.5
Cotton - 0.7
SUgarcane - 0.87
With these being the returns, the poor farmer would be inclined towards the cash crops at any given day. But, cotton and sugarcane are not going to suffice the hunger of the population. Hence money has to be poured into agriculture every time, and subsidies have to be continued.
India which is an agriculture based country, still has meagre food exports, whereas USA has clocked agricultural exports of worth $103 billion in FY 2007 close to 4 fold growth in the past 4 years alone. I guess with the developing countries cutting down their import duties, and the western ones continuing their huge subsidies for farmers, one can expect more exports from these countries and therby crushing the back bond of many developing ones.
THe article itself may sound to have had no specific basis, but it is the flow of thoughts during my travel back home, which I did not want to miss and hence the article:)
It doesn't get nostalgic for me, but still the feeling back of coming back to home makes you feel happy.
On my way back iam presently going through this region called as Telangana the dry area of my state. It has many fields, but the interesting part is many of the fields are cotton fields.
Iam within 100 kms from Hyderabad, the capital city of my state and one of the most happening cities in India, but the villages still donot seem to have any effect of the development happening around the cities.
it is close to 6:30 am now and even the dry parts of the region look pleasant and liveable. 2-3 more hours will bring the scorching sun to its peak and the pleasant environment will turn into a very hot, dry place with no water and power. The farmers are supplied power during the wee hours of morning and for couple of hours in the evening.
I guess those few hours are enough for those farmers, nevertheless it would mean that during the other hours they have to work on non agricultural activities to get their stomach full. What will happen to all these farmers if these cash crops fail or worse, what will happen if the prices of cotton crash down that the farmer can barely get back his returns. yesterday, I was reading an article in which it is mentioned that the following crops give these returns for every rupee expended:
Rice - 0.47
Wheat - 0.5
Cotton - 0.7
SUgarcane - 0.87
With these being the returns, the poor farmer would be inclined towards the cash crops at any given day. But, cotton and sugarcane are not going to suffice the hunger of the population. Hence money has to be poured into agriculture every time, and subsidies have to be continued.
India which is an agriculture based country, still has meagre food exports, whereas USA has clocked agricultural exports of worth $103 billion in FY 2007 close to 4 fold growth in the past 4 years alone. I guess with the developing countries cutting down their import duties, and the western ones continuing their huge subsidies for farmers, one can expect more exports from these countries and therby crushing the back bond of many developing ones.
THe article itself may sound to have had no specific basis, but it is the flow of thoughts during my travel back home, which I did not want to miss and hence the article:)
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