can i have information on globalisation of indian agriculture?

Answer 1

"Seeds of Suicide" is a study of the impact of trade liberalisation on Indian agriculture and Indian farmers. It is an account of the social and ecological costs of globalisation.

More than 100 cotton farmers have committed suicide in Andhra Pradesh (A.P.). Farmers' suicides are however not only restricted to Andhra Pradesh. Across the country farmers are taking the desperate step of ending their life because of the new pressures building up on them as a result of globalisation and spread of capital intensive agriculture. The promise of huge profits linked with clever strategies evolved by the seeds and chemical industries include the lure of huge profits and easy credit for purchase of costly inputs. However the reality of globalisation is different from the corporate propaganda and from the promises of trade liberalisation and agriculture offered by the World Bank, the WTO and experts and economists sitting in our various ministries.

The epidemic of farmers' suicide is the real barometer of the stress under which Indian Agriculture and Indian farmers have been put by globalization of Agriculture. Indebtedness and crop failure are the main reasons that the farmers are committed suicide to the length and breath of rural India. Indebtedness and crop failure are also inevitable outcomes of the corporate model of industrial agriculture being introduced in India through globalisation. Agriculture driven by MNC's is capital intensive and creates heavy debt for purchase of costly internal inputs such as seeds and agri-chemicals. It is also ecologically vulnerable since it is based on monoculture of introduced varieties and on non-sustainable practices of chemically intensive farming.

The Andhra Pradesh tragedy highlights these high social and ecological costs of the globalisation of non-sustainable agriculture which are not restricted to the cotton growing areas of this state but have been experienced in all commercially grown and chemically farmed crop in all regions. While the benefits of globalisation go to the seeds and chemical corporation through expanding markets, the cost and risks are exclusively born by the small farmers and landless peasants.

The two most significant ways through which the risks of crop failures have been increased by globalisation are the introduction of ecological vulnerable hybrid seeds and the increased dependence on agri-chemical input such as pesticide, which are associated with the use of hybrids.

The privatisation of the seed sector under trade liberalisation has led to a shift in cropping patterns from polyculture to monoculture and a shift from open pollinated varieties to hybrids. In the district of Warangal in Andhra Pradesh, this shift has been very rapid, converting Warangal from a mixed farming system based on millets, pulses and oilseeds to a monoculture of hybrid cotton.

The focus of the cotton failure has been on the excessive use of pesticides or of spurious pesticides. However, pesticide use intimately linked to hybrid seeds. Pesticides become necessary when crop varieties and cropping patterns are vulnerable to pest attack. Hybrid seeds offer a promise of higher yields, but they also have higher risks of crop failure since they are more prone to pest and disease attack as illustrated by the Andhra Pradesh experience. Monocultures further increase the vulnerability to pest attacks since the same crop of the same variety planted over large areas year after year encourages pest build-ups.

The problem of pests is therefore a problem created by erosion of diversity in crops and cropping patterns. The most sustainable solution for pest control is rejuvenating biodiversity in agriculture. Non-sustainable pest control strategies offer chemical or genetic fixes while reducing diversity, which is the biggest insurance against pest damage.

As the cotton disaster shows the globalisation of agriculture is threatening both the environment and the survival of farmers. Biodiversity is being destroyed, the use of agri-chemicals is increasing, ecological vulnerability is increasing and farmer debts are sky rocketing leading to suicides in extreme cases.

We have undertaken this study both to take stock of the impact of the seven years of trade liberalisation and to create policies for a more sustainable future. We hope that farmers and policy makers will draw the right lessons from the cotton tragedy in Andhra Pradesh and focus on building ecologically lasting solutions instead of chasing the "magic bullets" of technological fixes, which kill farmers more effectively than they kill pests.

Answer 2

Indian agencies have grown to Multi-nationals. Take-overs of steel plant life by utilising Mr. LV Mittal group, Tetly by utilising Tata group, prescription drugs by utilising Dr. Reddy's etc. etc. are with the aid of Globalisation. yet many small scale Industries have close down because of the competition. the two stable and undesirable. nevertheless time is there to decide the effect.

Answer 3

Maybe you CAN, though only you can answer that. The question really is, MAY you have the info.