Agro-Economic Ramblings

Small farmers survive on acre-sized plots
 and landless labourers work on rich farmers’ lots.
 They plough and they dig, work hard and save
 while scientists learned rant and rave
 that such methods are backward, and hi-tech can do
 with chemical fertilisers and pesticides too,
 what traditional farming cannot—and they’re right!
 â€™Cause methods traditional don’t kill the earth or fight
 the forces of Nature. Rather, they re-generate
 soil health, and farmyard manure helps re-instate
 soil bacteria, earthworms and natural things;
 and the bounty of Mother Nature that brings
 Oxygen by photosynthesis
 that’s absent in economists’ analysis.

It’s organic food that saves the earth.
 It saves water and health, and leaves no dearth
 of compost from farmyard residue
 (which Grandpa, a farmer, already knew).
 But modern methods chemicals need
 and scientists create some “high-yield†breed
 that raise water demand and input cost;
 comes some pest, and the crop is lost!
 For seed the company charges more
 and IPR for seeds makes farmers sore
 since they’ve got to buy seed every year;
 saving seed from crops they clearly fear
 criminal action by seed company’s men
 since India joined WTO. And when
 they borrow money to buy the seed
 it’s at the cost of their family’s need.

We need to grow food and need food to grow
 from childhood to teenage to adult. And so
 let farmers grow food crops and cash crops abjure
 (though their cash income will be little, for sure).
 Let economists find food in “the market†to feed
 themselves; since they don’t care for farmers and pay little heed
 to the travails of farmers and the rural poor,
 who, thanks to “the market†, have to endure
 the indignity of debt when cash crops they grow,
 and when the crop fails have nothing to show.
 If he’d grown food for himself (simple ragi and such)
 he’d have fed his family and avoided so much
 domestic problems, with but little cash,
 avoiding suicide and such matters rash.

When he grows cotton, tobacco, cane, et al.
 that need hard cash for inputs and shall
 cause him to go to moneylender for loans.
 (The same Shylock who buys his produce and moans
 that he’s taking a risk by lending hard cash).
 He’d be indebted for life; and if he’s a bit rash
 indebtedness and shame in his efforts to hide
 he’d straight’way go and commit suicide.
 â€œWhy, he should go to banks for money,†say some.
 But he’s got little collateral and no real income;
 and the Bank Manager says, “No, no loans for you.
 For you can’t pay back principal with interest too.â€

All farmers need cash for “Man lives not
 by bread alone†, so he’s in a spot.
 The Sugar Baron says, “Look here, my good man.
 I’ll loan money for cane-growing, and I’m sure you can
make a go of it, for I’ll buy cane from you.
 And you’ll have money to pay back, and some left over too.â€
 Thus are farmers lured to grow sugarcane
 and are offered a price; but it’s ever in vain,
 â€™cause the cane’s delivered but the payment’s delayed
 by weeks, even months; and the farmer is greyed
 waiting for cash for feeding his brood;
 rainless are skies, and gloomy’s his mood.
 No credit from banks (he’s already in debt);
 cooking vessels at home are all that is left
 as collateral for loan from usurious rogue.
 Failed crop? Why, suicide is in vogue!

Economist and politician make studies detailed
 of farmers’ suicides when cash crops have failed.
 But wisdom from Harvard or e’en LSE
 Can’t fathom suicides ’cause they only can see
 markets and prices and GDP growth
 Or SENSEX figures. And I’ll say this on oath:
 They don’t give a damn for the small farmer in debt,
 they don’t give a damn for poor people; and yet
 they provide tax rebates for the rich
 and the wealthy, the likeness of which
 may be seen on Page Three or in magazines glossy
 that list billionaires who aren’t very fussy
ʉ۪cept when they buy a car for a crore a-piece
 or choose a nice gift for nephew or niece.

But let’s revert to the under-fed poor
 who’ve grown weaker meanwhile, you can be sure.
 â€œStarvation deaths in Orissa’s K-B-K,â€
 says the media; but believe it or not, the CM says, “Nay!
 They’ve died ’cause they ate inedible things.â€
 Could they not get chicken legs or wings?
 Or the nice rice that’s stored in FCI godowns
 supplied when CM smiles (but he usually frowns).
 The post-mortem says kidney failure or such;
 there’s not more to say. The miserable wretch
 surely did not of starvation die.
 (The government doc would ne’er tell a lie.)
 Some organ must fail for a body to pass;
 but it’s not starvation—no way! And doc’s at a loss
 for words. But CM manages the political spot
 with consummate skill, and says what is not.
 So CM’s lesson for docs present and future
 when they’ve done post-mortem (and close up and suture),
 is to say which organ failed and never mind why.
 While survivors starve, and wail as they cry,
 â€œGive us this day, Lord, our daily bread,
 or three kilograms of chaval per head.â€

For a moment suppose all farmers grow food
 only for themselves. Now cash crops are good
 for the national market ’cause produce is sold
 in far away places (and let me be bold
 to say it mostly benefits the middleman rich),
 and the farmer gets a pittance by the spending of which
 he buys food for his wife and children to feed
 while the middleman gets fat with congenital greed.
 But say he only grows food for himself and his kids
 and not a grain more than to fulfil their needs.
 Say all farmers do this, and to hell with the cash …
 no loans, no suicides, no cremation, no ash.
 Urbanites, rich and middle class
 down on their knees will beg farmers, “Alas!
 We know not to grow food but know only to eat
 we promise in future to fairly you treat.
 But do give us now our daily bread!â€
 And matters economic will come to a head!

The Harvard and LSE economist brains
 don’t understand that industrial gains
 are predicated on agriculture and food
 production. And I-T’s no good
 when it comes to feeding the face
 even if GDP’s growing apace.
 For you can’t eat software or silicon chips;
 something edible’s to pass one’s teeth and one’s lips.
 Tata, Birla, Ambani, et al.
 can’t last very long without food, e’en their pal
 Mittal needs feeding with food that is grown
 on land that is tilled and land that is sown
 by farmers, simple folk, with an acre or two
 who eat simple food (dal-roti will do).
 Let farmers eat first and the surplus they’ll sell
 for support price in the market, and well,
 p’rhaps make a small gain, not huge profit, you see.
 And the economy’ll perk up (I do hope you agree).

Now prices are rising, near touching the sky;
 housewives are stressed-up, wondering why
 money doesn’t go far for housekeeping and foods
 while prices fall monthly for electronic goods.
 The explanation: “It’s the market, you fool!â€
 Consumerism for the middle class, while they drool
 over holiday offers in Switzerland or Spain.
 Why be in Mumbai in the monsoon rain
 when manholes overflow with sewage and muck,
 with roads jammed with cars and buses and trucks
 stranded in water ’cause Mithi’s filled up
 by real estate dons and goondas who sup
 with top politicians, and share the loot?
 (For the poor in the slums they don’t give a damn’ hoot).

Slum people are mostly the rural displaced
 who can’t live in villages when daily they’re faced
 with caste discrimination and such social ills
 and so move to the cities the slums to fill.
 Some believe the streets of metros are paved
 with gold; and hear stories of others who saved
 money and spoke of glittering lights
 (but spoke not of police, mafia ‘n’ street fights).
 Still others are displaced by projects and such
 for planners in Delhi ne’er cared too much.
 Since Independence in nineteen fortyseven
 when Tagore’s dream of freedom’s heaven
 was shattered by bureaucrats, sahibs brown
 who smiled on the rich, and on the poor did frown.
 Five crore people were by projects displaced
 and they wound up in metros whose footpaths they graced
 with their shanties and bodies all day and all night,
 where they cook and they shit and they mate and they fight.

But who cares for slum-dwellers ’til its time to get votes,
 when its time to buy Office with liquor and notes.
 The goonda boss who lives in the slum
 Fixes electoral rolls with his lumpen scum.
 And says, “You’ll bloody well vote for whom I say ‘Yes’.â€
 Else I’ll beat you or rape you or kill you unless
 You do as I tell you and do’t with a smile.
 The neta’s elected, and after a while
 he’s forgotten the people whom he promised the earth.
 And they live on in slums where of all things there’s dearth.

So of all this fine verse what’s the bottom line ?
 While India may “grow†or India may “shineâ€
 It’s Bharat that’s groaning and dying and poor
 While the middle class pursues ends for lucre.
 The rich don’t give a damn for all else but pelf
 And indulge their relatives, friends and self
 with ostentatious, obscene spending and such,
 oblivious of penury, debt and much
 suffering amongst the invisible poor
 who beg on the streets or knock at their door.

All that matters today is GDP growth
 Of ten percent or more (here I mutter an oath).
 Forbes List of two thousand seven, it states
 That thirty-six billionaires are Indians. And dates
 Are announced for SEZs huge
 on farmers’ lands—they’ll then take refuge
 in city slums where they’re subject to crime
 and dirty politics, and hunger and grime.
 Will they see such governance with kindness and smiles?
 Or will they resist and use all their wiles
 to hit back somehow at the powers that be
 that’ve caused injustice and suffering, and yet see
 that being poor’s a crime while black money grows?
 And the minister’s shameless spending shows
 how little he cares for the wretched and poor
 from whom he has wrung his wealth for sure.
 Some are resigned to their fate and some
 Will fight it out whatever may come.
 And then there are those who to violence will turn
ʉ۪til the rich and the powerful do presently learn
 that they need the poor-the poor don’t need them.
 The time’s now right to say, “Amen†.

Major General S.G. Vombatkere joined the Indian Army in 1961 and was commissioned into the Corps of Engineers (Madras Engineer Group). He has seen active combat service in the Sialkot sector during the Indo-Pak conflict of 1965. He has long experience of military service in Ladakh and has earned a place in the Guinness Book of Records for the design and construction of a motorable bridge at the highest altitude (5,603m) in the world near Khardungla in Ladakh, in August 1983. The President of India awarded him the Visishta Seva Medal (VSM) in 1993 for distinguished services rendered. He has held various command, staff and instructional appointments in both combat and technical units and formations. He holds a Ph.D in Structural Engineering from the IIT, Madras. Since his retirement in 1996 he is settled in Mysore where he is engaged in voluntary work in the social, civic and environmental fields. He is also teaching a course on Science, Technology and Sustainable Development for University of Iowa, USA, for the semester in South Asia at Dhvanyaloka Centre for Indian Studies at Mysore.