Inflammatory language blocks discourse
An edited version of my previous column (see below) was recently published in the Los Angeles Times. Despite this, I have not yet "gone Hollywood."

I received a reply email from a LA Times reader who, in my view, missed the point of my piece. His email to me is at bottom; my response is here.

Response
My purpose in writing this brief column was not to argue about immigration policy. There are plenty of voices on both sides doing that. Rather, I wanted to make it clear that the tone of the discourse matters, that when liberals use phrases like “concentration camp,” they inflame already heated partisans, and further polarize our society. The same can be said of conservatives who label immigrants “illegal,” a phrase contained in your letter. Conservatives use “illegal” pejoratively, to smear new arrivals with a broad brush that implies criminality.

Both liberals and conservatives hide behind the technical definitions of these terms. Yes, technically, some immigrants have broken the law, and the detention centers may be concentration camps. But we know the baggage that this language carries—the dog whistles that appeal to partisans on both sides of the political spectrum.

Until we can rid our society of inflammatory language on both sides, how can we even begin a substantive discussion about reforming our broken immigration system?

Sincerely, etc.

Email:

Subject: Re:Opinion - No "concentration". LATimes Jun 17, 2019

Dear Mr. Youngblood,

Notwithstanding you may be an erudite person, you still struggle to grasp the meaning the words "Legal and illegal" .

When I immigrated to USA (many moons ago) I had to wait three months for my passport and four months for my visa. I was vetted by the American Consulate on three different occasions. When I landed at JFK (NYC), I was "interrogated", again, by the immigration officer for 30 minutes. I had to carry my card describing the assigned military status (in the Country) in case of National call. 

Now we have 1000s of Illegal immigrants, crashing through our boundaries and they are living in a "sanctuary" State. A baby that is born (illegal parents) here, receives free medical accommodations at the County hospital and per diem to the parents.

I was hit twice by one of my new "compatriots" that had no car insurance and no license.

My business took me around the World, and on many occasions I was vetted by the local Police even though I had a valid passport and visa (E.g., Israel, Argentina, Paraguay...etc).

It does not matter wether you are a liberal, a leftist or an anarchist; in my eyes your "liberalism" is a tantamount of subversion. I am quite sure that some of your relatives when they first arrived here, went through "physical hell" and embarrassment when they had to go through immigration one by one in State Island. It was deplorable, Yet, they did not strike, destroy properties or raise our flag upside down. They worked an average of 10 to 14 hours daily, worse than slavery, and yet they tried to learn English and show a devotion the the Country that gave them a place to live.

If you reply, please, "educate me" about where I am wrong. Back to my Grandfather, again, he used say, "it is never late to get an education"

Cordially,

(Name withheld)
California

P.S. Forgot to mention that when I travelled,  I had to menage to communicate with their language. There were no push one or push two. Its unjustifiable or permissible that the majority of the so called "immigrants" do not attempt to speak English. It would like me, entering your residence and dictate to you how to live in your house. What would be your reaction? A benevolent and pious welcome? I sincerely doubt. You would call the Police immediately and have me arrested for "trespassing"!

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Cities drought-proofed, farms and farmers left to die.

Water trains can provide relief to residents in Chennai. But what about 600 million people reeling under drought in rest of the country? 

As millions of Chennai residents are faced with a severe water crisis, Tamil Nadu is requesting Kerala to supply two million litres of drinking water every day. Chief Minister E K Palaniswami said his government has also decided to ferry by train 10 million litres of drinking water daily from Vellore to Chennai for the next six months. While extraordinary steps are being taken the meet the water exigency in the metropolis, in neighbouring Karnataka, a few kilometres outside Bangalore city, life comes virtually to a standstill. With 88.6 per cent of Karnataka -- 156 of the 176 -- hit by a raging drought, it will take several years for the rural economy to bounce back if the rain gods do not play truant in future.

Karnataka’s Economic Survey 2018-19 has painted a distressing scenario. It has projected a negative growth rate of minus 4.8 per cent in agriculture. With a shortfall of 22 per cent pre-monsoon rains between March to the end of May, and a total deficit of 41 per cent in southwest monsoon rains till June 19 across the country, agriculture in the southern peninsula – Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Kerala, Andhra Pradesh, Telengana and Goa – has been badly hit because the rainfall deficit encountered in these areas is a lot higher at 56 per cent. A joint survey to access the loss suffered in the rabi season is underway in most places. Delayed and scanty rains expectation in the weeks to come may add on to the prevailing rural distress.

While Bangalore is among the four metropolis -- the other three being, Chennai, Hyderabad ad Delhi -- that will run out of ground water by 2020, as per a NITI Aayog report, the city requires 1,400 million litres per day with reports penning the current availability at an average of 65 litres per capita per day. Strangely, while the rest of the state has been reeling under a series of drought – at least for 12 years in the past 18 years at a stretch, Bangalore city remains insulated. This is despite 79 per cent of its water bodies drying up in the past four decades. Hyderabad too doesn’t give an iota of the terrible water crisis prevailing on either side of the city in Telengana and Andhra Pradesh – a clear reflection of the drought-proofing accomplished over the years in urban areas.

In Maharashtra, where 72 per cent of the state is engulfed in a severe drought, some consider it to be the worst since 1972, the total crop loss in rabi production has been pegged at 63 per cent as compared to a year before. The output of cereals has fallen by 68 per cent, pulses by 51per cent, oilseeds 70 per cent, wheat 61per cent, and maize by 75 per cent. As per Economic Survey 2018-19, agricultural output in Maharashtra had declined by minus 8 per cent. Such is the magnitude of the water crisis that more than 50,000 farmers in Ahmednagar district alone have abandoned their homes and migrated to live in the 500 makeshift cattle camps that have been set up. When there is no water for daily use, and crop fields had turned barren what else could have been expected from the villagers, who find it safe to move into the cattle camps. There are at least 10 lakh cattle in the 1,500 cattle camps that have been set up across the state.

Numerous reports have highlighted the grave water crisis that prevails in Maharashtra where water guzzling sugarcane crop alone consumes as much as 76 per cent of the available ground water. And yet I haven’t seen any effort to encourage farmers to shift from sugarcane to other less water consuming crops. Ironically, not more than 6 per cent of Maharashtra’s cultivable land is occupied by sugarcane. This is primarily because of the politically powerful sugar lobby, which is not willing to make a change in business proposition. 

Since While 60 per cent of the orange orchards have also reportedly dried up in Marathwada region, the prediction of a shortfall in monsoon rains expected in the central regions of the country adds up to the prevailing rural misery. No wonder, Maharashtra has officially recorded 12, 021 farmer suicides in the past four years. Yet, farmers have not given up on hope, returning to their villages to plough their land and be prepared in time for the rains to arrive. Cotton sowing in the famous black cotton soils should finish by the first week of July, any further delay in sowing would be detrimental.

With 43.4 per cent of the country reeling under a drought affecting 600 million people, the continuing drought in several parts of the country – Jharkhand for instance had faced seven consecutive years of drought till 2017 – the prevailing rural misery and continuing distress over the years cannot be even imagined. But with the cities being increasingly insulated from the drought that prevails in the countryside, the dominant narrative very conveniently shifts to the decline in rural consumption as if it is a measure of rural deprivation. That the tractor sales have fallen by 31 per cent in the southern states is being seen as economic fallout of the continuing drought. Similarly, the slump in sales of cars and automobiles occupies larger space in the media.

The human cost of the resulting rural tragedy has never been estimated. Perhaps an indication was provided by the Economic Survey 2016 when it worked out the average farm income in 17 states of India, roughly half the country, at Rs 20,000 a year. In other words, on an average a farm family was somehow surviving in half the country on less than Rs 1,700 per month. That is why farmers in Maharashtra have been quoted as saying in the media: “People have stopped expecting a decent life.” #

Cities drought-proofed, farms and farmers left to die. Deccan Herald. June 23, 2019
https://www.deccanherald.com/specials/sunday-spotlight/cities-drought-proofed-farms-and-farmers-left-to-die-742224.html?fbclid=IwAR331h_G7JFjV1lw8qDojH7b7nzws_9dAQmP4rmbdJ7HvUzsmTAmFx7pqo0 

READ MORE - Cities drought-proofed, farms and farmers left to die.

How to make agriculture economically viable

Speaking from the ramparts of Red Fort on August 15, 1955, Jawaharlal Nehru had said: “It is very humiliating for any country to import food. So everything else can wait but not agriculture.” As India readies to celebrate 75 years of Independence in 2022, agriculture remains the Achilles heel of an economy poised to be the third largest in the years to come. Considering that nearly 49% of the workforce is engaged in agriculture, and knowing well that real farm incomes have almost stagnated or declined for the past two decades, addressing the acute agrarian distress that prevails remains the biggest challenge. 

The Niti Aayog’s own estimates show the growth in real farm incomes at around near-zero in the past two years, and prior to that between 2011-12 and 2015-16, real farm incomes had risen by less than half a percent every year. Economic Survey 2016 had earlier worked out the average income of a farming family in 17 states of India to be a meagre Rs 20,000 a year, which means farming families in roughly half the country were surviving on less than Rs 1,700 per month. An ICRIER-OECD study has shown conclusively that farmers suffered a cumulative loss of Rs 45-lakh crore in the 17-year period between 2000-01 and 2016-17. This was on account of farmers being denied a rightful price for their produce. As if this is not enough, recent studies show farm incomes plummeting to the lowest level in 15 years, and huge job losses for the rural farm and non-farm workers as well. 

Farmers have toiled hard to produce bumper harvests. And yet, with each passing year, the plight of a farming family has only worsened. Agriculture in reality has been a victim of macroeconomic policies which aim at keeping food inflation low, provide cheaper raw material for the industry, and meet the obligations of international trade. While the terms of trade were against agriculture, public sector investment between 2011-12 and 2016-17 declined to 0.4% of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP). Private sector investment too dipped to 1.8% in the same period. With public and private sector investment on the decline, coming down to a low of 2.2% of the GDP in 2016-17, the neglect of agriculture was all too apparent. 

Agriculture has been crying for reforms. But because the policy emphasis has remained on moving people out of agriculture to the urban centres, which are in need of cheap labour, farmers have in reality been penalised to grow food. Prices have been deliberately kept low to keep consumers and industry satisfied. This has to change. Policy makers must treat agriculture as an economic activity, which alone has the capacity to reboot the economy. An indication to this is provided in the Bharatiya Janata Party manifesto which promises to invest Rs 25 lakh crore in agriculture in the next five years, and provide a higher minimum support price (MSP) to farmers. Coupled with the launch of Prime Minister Kisan Samman Nidhi Yojna (PM-Kisan) in Feb 2019, which provides all landowning farmers with a direct income support of Rs 6,000 a year, the intent to revive agriculture is in sight. Further, addressing the Niti Aayog the Prime Minister announced the setting up of a high-level task force for undertaking structural reforms in agriculture.

Telangana launched its innovative Rythu Bandhu scheme, providing Rs 8,000 per acre per year, in 2018. Odisha launched its Krushak Assistance for Livelihood and Income Augmentation (KALIA) variant in Dec 2018. Since then several states — West Bengal, Jharkhand, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka and Haryana — have started paying farmers directly, some incorporating the allocation available under PM-Kisan. In other words, governments are realising the need to provide direct income support to farmers. The essential foundational reforms should include setting up a National Commission for Farmers Income and Welfare, with the mandate to assure a monthly income of Rs 18000 per family by way of a top up approach. This will create a huge demand, thereby reinvigorating the industry and triggering a high economic growth. At the same time, initiating an Ease of Doing Farming programme will go a long way in removing the hurdles and bottlenecks farmers encounter during cultivation, harvesting and marketing operations.

Expanding the network of Agricultural Produce Market Committee regulated markets, from the existing 7,600 to a probable target of 42,000 mandis, should be accorded top priority. In addition, strengthening Farmer Producer Organisations (FPOs) and encouraging startups in agriculture to draw out entrepreneurship should make agriculture an attractive proposition. In China, seven million educated youth, including holders of postgraduate degrees, were sent to rural areas in 2018, and reports say 60% have stayed back. To bridge the rural-urban divide, China plans to send millions of educated volunteers to the villages every year and is encouraging young migrants in cities to return. To spur rural development, India, too, needs to draw a lesson to make agriculture economically viable, environmentally sustainable and attractive. It is surely possible provided we change our mindset and let 2022 be the milestone to restore the pride in agriculture, make farm distress history, and turn farming into a vibrant economic enterprise. #

To spur rural development, India must make agriculture economically viable. The Hindustan Times. June 22, 2019. https://www.hindustantimes.com/analysis/to-spur-rural-development-india-must-make-agriculture-economically-viable/story-XXK8pGACkUftlI1A259lON.html

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India is drying up, fast

With only a few elders left, all other have migrated from this drought-hit village in Anantpur.

“Congratulations to all ... we have achieved 50 degree temperature this year. Let’s cut more trees to achieve 60 degrees the next year,” a sarcasm-speaking tweet the other day had come as a jolt. It was however hard to tell whether the quiet sarcasm had gone over majority of reader’s head who are following the Twitter or had made more and more people to sit up and think.

Whatever had been the impact, the fact remains that while 2018 was the fourth hottest year on record in the past 140 years since the world began to keep a track on temperatures, NASA expects 2019 to be still hotter. The heat is therefore on. In India, a 22 per cent deficit has been recorded in pre-monsoon showers in the months of March, April and May – the second lowest in past 65 years – and with monsoons delayed by a fortnight or so, daily temperatures have been sizzling. Churu in Rajasthan has already crossed 50 degrees Celsius thrice this season, and even Delhi burnt with an all-time high of 48 degrees.

With nearly 43 per cent of the country engulfed in a drought, an estimated 600 million people are reeling under its fury. With temperatures soaring, water sources going dry, parched lands staring as far as one can see, “hundreds of villages have been evacuated as historic drought forces families to abandon their homes in search of water,” reports The Guardian. In Ahmednagar district in Maharashtra, such is the wrath of a continuing drought that more than 50,000 farmers have shifted to 500 camps meant for cattle. There are 1,501 cattle camps in Maharashtra, where 72 per cent of the area is faced with a drought. Reports say village after village around the capital city of Mumbai has been deserted. More than 88 per cent of Karnataka is somehow surviving under a severe drought. With 156 of the 176 talukas declared drought hit, Karnataka has faced 12 years of drought in past 18 years.

Karnataka’s economic survey for the year 2018-19 projects a negative growth rate of minus 4.8 per cent in agriculture.  Therefore, while drought has taken a heavy toll of standing agricultural crops, and also crippled the farming-led economic activity not only in Karnataka but in nearly half the country, adequate attention is finally getting to the declining ground water levels. With the conundrums of water conflicts between states, between communities within a state, and as well as individuals  standing in queues increasing over the years, policy makers are now realising the importance of water conservation. Already an alarm has been raised with a recent report by Niti Aayog warning that 21 cities – including the four metropolises -- Bangalore, Chennai, Hyderabad and Delhi -- will run out of ground water by 2020, just a year-and-half away. Since ground water provides for 40 per cent of the water needs, about 600 million people across the country are expected to be hit.

But the problem of ground water depletion is not only confined to the cities. In fact, it is because of the unbridled exploitation of ground water that even a short dry spell turns into a more destructive drought. At most places across the country the rate of depletion exceeds 0.5 metres a year and often touches 1 metre. Add to it the reduced availability of water from shrinking rivers; the resulting water crisis has reached worrying levels. Reports say the water availability from the mighty Narmada River for instance has declined over the past decade, from 30.84 million-acre feet in 2007-18 to 14.80 million-acre ft in 2017-18. Ministry of Water Resources estimates water levels in 91 reservoirs falling to 18 per cent of their capacity. Moreover, water from numerous dams is being diverted from agriculture to meet the needs of the urban areas, including providing for drinking water. This has added on to farmer protests leading to rural-urban conflicts.  

Somehow down the line, over the years, the emphasis had shifted from water conservation, water harvesting and groundwater recharge. Revival of traditional water bodies, which could have played a major role in drought-proofing, received lip service. Restoration of ponds and measures for recharging groundwater remained incomplete, abandoned or preceded at a slow pace. There still exists close to 200,000 traditional water bodies, ponds and tanks across the country, which needs to be revived. In Punjab, where 110 of the 138 blocks are in the ‘dark zone’ which means over-exploited, revival of the 15,000 ponds and traditional water bodies could not only help in recharging ground water but also in providing irrigation. So far only 54 such village ponds have been rejuvenated. Strangely, even in Rajasthan, instead of reviving the excellent water conservation structures perfected over the ages, the emphasis is on drip irrigation. Not even a drop of rain water was allowed to go waste in these baoris (step wells). In Karnataka, an estimated 39,000 traditional ponds and tanks existed. While nearly three quarters of them have dried up, encroached upon or turned into sewerage dumps, there is still a sizeable number that can be revived. Meanwhile, Karnataka has launched a jalamruthascheme under which the traditional water bodies would be rejuvenated. A good initiative, but the pace of resurrecting traditional water bodies needs to be hastened.

Traditional water harvesting structures have more or less disappeared. Although Karnataka is trying to preserve the traditional water harvesting structure – kalyanis, Odisha has the kutta and mundatraditional water harvesting systems, some still in operation, but the traditional wisdom association with the traditional water harvesting system has been more or less lost. Several years back, travelling to Texas A&M University in America, I was surprised when they showed me the traditional water harvesting structures of Tamil Nadu being followed. I am not sure whether the Tamil Nadu government knows about its own traditional water harvesting system. Centre for Science & Environment had sometimes back published a book Dying Wisdom listing all the traditional water harvesting systems. There is a dire need to rediscover the dying wisdom.

In the age of borewells, the emphasis has to revert back to traditional water harvesting. Else the borewells too will go dry sooner or later. Recharging the depleting ground water in a sustainable manner is what is urgently required. But this cannot be in isolation while ‘business as usual’ continues. Destroying forests, water bodies, catchment areas in the name of development must cease. Otherwise, with temperatures sizzling to an unmanageable high, crossing the Rubicon may turn out to be catastrophic. #  

India is drying up, fast. The Tribune. June 18, 2019
https://www.tribuneindia.com/news/comment/india-is-drying-up-fast/789376.html?fbclid=IwAR2UI9oLMD9p4W9g8uND3ZYwCMoA9_l9droODhQGlLuLUnV2aWg8Mw1BCWU 

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"Concentration camp" rhetoric inflames, polarizes
Sometimes as journalists, we are so desperate to call attention to an important story that we resort to inappropriately inflammatory language. This is the case with a well-meaning but ill-conceived op-ed piece in the Los Angeles Times, “Call immigrant detention centers what they really are: concentration camps” (June 9).  

The purpose of Jonathan Katz’s column, to shine light on the darkness that is the Trump administration’s immigration policies and practices, was admirable. There should be, as Katz notes, “mass outrage” at a system that separates children from their parents and “brutally” holds detainees in isolation cells.

Katz is correct that sparking “mass outrage” takes work. The question becomes how to best engage the public on this vital issue. This is where Katz’ approach fails. Instead of engaging a large portion of the public, he further alienates those in the center and on the right with his over-the-top, “concentration camp” hyperbole.

Nazi concentration camp (from US Holocaust  Museum)

The column’s critical and historical analysis of the types (“levels”) of concentration camps is correct, but misses the point. Although the term “concentration camp” does technically describe Trump’s immigration detention facilities, the smoke created by the term obscures what’s going on inside these facilities. There is a technical distinction between concentration and death camps, but this distinction is pragmatically irrelevant—in the public’s view, they are one in the same. Regardless of which type of concentration camp is being discussed, the vast majority of readers will reflexively equate “concentration camp” with ghastly images of Nazi death camps.

To take Katz’ comparison to its logical conclusion, if immigrant detention centers are modern day Nazi death camps, then the Republicans who support these centers must be Nazis, and their leader a 21^stcentury Adolph Hitler.        

Katz writes that calling immigrant detention centers “concentration camps” will increase the likelihood that this issue will get the attention it deserves. Yet, as is usually the case with hyperbole, even if it’s well-meaning, the opposite is true. Overblown rhetoric like “concentration camp” serves only to polarize and to inflame passions on both sides. Using “concentration camp” will add gasoline to liberals’ anti-Trump flames; will force conservatives to rally around Trump, who may have his faults but is not Hitler; and will force those in the shrinking political center to choose a side. 

As for much-needed consensus and compromise on immigration, language like this makes it all but impossible. How can liberals compromise with Nazis? And how can conservatives compromise with those who think they are Nazis? 

Katz is correct when he writes, “With constant, unrelenting attention, it is possible we might alleviate the plight of the people inside (immigrant detention centers), and stop the crisis from getting worse.” Stopping the crisis and reaching a compromise on immigration is certainly desirable, but won’t happen if inflammatory terms like “concentration camp” are allowed to leak into the vernacular. Let’s stick with “immigrant detention centers” and follow Katz’ advice to give this story the “unrelenting attention” it deserves.

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Drought getting more pronounced in India, while cities in drought affected regions remain like an oasis.

The struggle for getting water

pic courtesy Livemint

As drought looms large in many parts of the country, more than 50,000 farmers from Ahmednagar district in Maharashtra have moved to nearly 500 makeshift cattle camps that the district administrated has built across eight talukas. “This has been our home since March this year. Problems galore at these cattle camps but we have little choice,” Dagru, a farmer told the media. They cook their meals at the camp and during the day go out looking for job.

At present, there are 1,501 cattle camps across Maharashtra.

As parts of Maharashtra faces its worst drought since 1972, another news report warns of fodder supplies running out for an estimated 10 lakh cattle housed in these camps. While the state government is thinking of setting up more cattle camps, this time for sheep and goats as well, I shudder to think how the farming families are surviving in these cattle camps. And yet I marvel the sensitivity and compassion some well know economic writers have demonstrated by saying there is no visible farm crisis !

Maharashtra Chief Minister Devender Fadnavis has allocated Rs 1,300-crore for these cattle camps. With the prices of cattle feed soaring, the government has raised the daily allowance for cattle contractors to Rs 100 per cattle per day and Rs 50 for each calf. The cattle are milked twice daily, but over the weeks the milk yield is coming down. Obviously, with the fodder supplies getting scarce in a worsening drought situation is beginning to take its toll. Water is supplied regularly by tankers.

Writing in The Wire, journalist Sukanya Shantha brings out the pain and agony that hapless families, including women who carry their children along, are undergoing: “What can we do, anyway? We would also like for our children to continue going to school but there is no one to feed them in the village right now,” Lalitabai Jhimmal was quoted. Her three children, in Classes VII, V and III, have been squatting at the camp along with her, intermittently attending their school. “There is no water in the village. Here, at least, we have water to drink,” says the eldest one.

With the houses locked, many nearby villages have become empty as the villagers have moved along with their cattle to the cattle camps. This is despite the fact Maharashtra had vowed to become drought free by 2019.  Instead, with 72 per cent Maharashtra hit by drought, and approximately 43.4 per cent of the country reeling under drought, an estimated 600 million people have been hit hard by an acute water crisis in the country. As crop land become parched, most of the land lying fallow, crops wither and fail, the soaring temperature has made life difficult in the drought-affected villages.

But the biggest tragedy is the appalling disconnect that such a devastating drought has with the city dwellers. People living in Ahmednagar in Maharashtra, which has 500 cattle camps in the district, are by and large oblivious of the severity of the drought only a few kilometres outside the city premises. Life goes on as usual, as if everything is normal in the rest of the district. Not only in Ahmednagar, every time I go to Bangalore I have never even remotely felt that people in the city even realise that Karnataka too has been reeling under a severe drought. In 2017, a severe drought prevailed, and as many as 139 of the 176 taluks were declared drought hit. And this year too, nearly 82 per cent of Karnataka is reeling under a drought. But go to Bangalore, you will not even get a hint of a terrible human suffering that continues to be inflicted year after year. Karnataka has suffered drought for 12 out of the past 18 years. But life in Bangalore has never been affected.

Such is the disconnect that life in any mega city does not even give an inkling of a severe drought prevailing just 10 kms away. I find it too strange. After all, have you ever pondered why is it that while drought hits the region as a whole it is only people living in the villages who bear the brunt? Why is that drought rarely, if at all, strikes the cities and towns? For instance, I travel to Bangalore very often, at least four times a year, and never have I returned with a feel of an acute water-stress that the people are faced with.

But how long will the cities continue to be like an oasis in an otherwise dry and parched landscape? That’s a big question. But a recent report by Niti Aayog warns that 21 cities – including the four metropolis Bangalore, Chennai, Hyderabad and Delhi -- will run out of ground water by 2020, just a year away. Since ground water provides for 40 per cent of the water needs, about 100 million people are expected to be hit. I am not sure whether water availability will be down to a trickle in these cities, but for sure the emphasis will shift to farmers advising them not to waste water.

Farmers have always been a soft target. I wouldn’t be surprised if the entire blame shifts to farmers. In Punjab, free power and water guzzling crop like paddy have always been the target. They are now being advised to go in for drip irrigation for which the government is being asked to provide 80 per cent subsidy. But a fact no one wants to acknowledge is that the consumption of water in the cities is no less a culprit. At a price of about 4 paise a kg, water supply is almost free for the urban consumers. While the farmers are being asked to go in for drip irrigation to reduce water wastage when was the last time you heard urban consumers being asked to do away with showers in their bathroom?

Every time someone uses the shower for about ten minutes roughly 264 litres of water goes down the drain. A typical bathtub, of the size 30 inches wide and 60 inches long, can contain 300 litres of water. If a luxury hotel has on an average 100 rooms, imagine 30,000 litres of water being drained simply for bathing every day. This is not fair. We can’t force the poor farmers alone to make sacrifices while we allow the rich to bathe in luxury.

READ MORE - Drought getting more pronounced in India, while cities in drought affected regions remain like an oasis.

PJ project (Part 1) wraps in Northern Ireland
(Derry/Dungiven/Belfast, Northern Ireland)- A few random thoughts and observations as we wrap up part 1 of our peace journalism project in Northern Ireland. The project is sponsored by the US Embassy-London.

PJ problematic in NI
At my two concluding lectures last week at Queen’s University Belfast and Ulster University in

Ulster Univ, Derry

Derry, attendees correctly pointed out the many obstacles to peace journalism starting with the name. The word peace, I was told, is loaded with baggage here, much of it negative. One journalist suggested calling PJ socially responsible journalism. I said they could call it bangers and mash if they like and that the principles and concepts are more important than the label. Regarding those principles, journalists at my lectures and workshops seemed to generally agree about their utility.

Journalists at Queen's Univ, Belfast

Underscoring this, another participant said that PJ is not that radical and it “nothing different than what we already aspire to.” That’s encouraging.

Survivor’s voices
I was privileged to attend a conference at Queen’s titled, “From Victims to Survivors: Voices from Below.” The keynote speaker, Pumla Gobodo-Madikizela from South Africa, spoke about Reparative Humanism. She said conflicted societies can move forward using a process of repair that is ongoing, open, and enriches all, in contrast to merely establishing forgiveness as an end point. This certainly seems true here as the struggle for positive peace continues 21 years after the Good Friday agreement.

Dr. John Brewer (center) at "From Victims to Survivors" at Queen's Univ.

Also, Dr. .John Brewer from Queen’s gave a thought-provoking presentation that illuminated his contention that conflict victims are moral beacons of peace for society. He must have met Jo Berry and Richard Moore (see previous post), who exemplify this principle. Dr. Brewer also discussed peacebuilding as a process involving the restoration of sociability.

Looking ahead
I’ll return to Northern Ireland in October for part 2 of our project sponsored by the US Embassy in London. In the fall, we’ll be meeting with students and journalists throughout Northern Ireland as we seek to expand the discussion about peace journalism/bangers and mash. I’m already looking forward to the challenge.

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Incorporating the US/EU farm design will not reform Indian agriculture

Taking people out of agriculture to become dehari-mazdoor in cities is not the way forward.

Punjab, the food bowl, has broken all previous records in wheat productivity. From 50.64 quintals per hectare achieved last year, the average wheat yield has risen to 51.71 quintals per hectare. With such high crop productivity and with 98 per cent cultivable area under assured irrigation, Punjab farming should be an epitome of rural prosperity. But wait a minute, there is hardly a day when newspapers don’t carry reports of farmers committing suicide. With 10,000 farmer suicides reported in past 10 years, Punjab has in fact turned into a hotbed of farm suicides.

Now let us look at America. In 2018, the average farm incomes had nosedived, with the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) estimating the ‘median’ farm income to be in the negative. Yes, you heard it right. The ‘median’ net farm income stood at minus $ 1,553 (or minus Rs 107,739). In other words, the average farm household in the US was living in debt, with the debt margin increasing substantially for half the households existing below the ‘median’. What made it still worse was that 2018 was not an exceptional year, the downward trend in farm incomes had continued for six years in a row. No wonder, the National Farmers Union and Farm Women United in the US have time and again expressed concern at the growing stress, and increasing depression among farm workers. 

Let’s come back to Punjab. A recent study entitled ‘Levels of Living: Farmers and Agricultural Labourers’ by the Punjabi University has shown that 85.9 per cent of agricultural dependant households are living in debt. The average debt that a farming household carries is Rs 5.52 lakh. The burden of debt is more for the farm workers, wherein the average debt per household is roughly Rs 68,330. In simple words, the high productivity achieved was not translating into higher incomes. Like in the US, the burden of debt increases for the household with smaller farm size. The burden for small farmers being so severe that even the promised farm loan waiver of Rs 2-lakh is unable to provide succour. Otherwise, I see no reason why the spate of farm suicides in Punjab should not come down by a significant margin.

The question that arises, and is invariably ignored, is to ascertain why farm indebtedness should be mounting in a frontline agricultural state which has very high yields of wheat, rice and maize, amongst the highest in the world. Why is it that despite putting in hard labour, keeping crop pests at bay, keeping an overnight vigil from stray animals, protecting the standing crop from weather anomalies, and producing an abundant and top-quality harvest fails to get farmers the rightful price? Why is it that despite the crop yields improving year after year, more and more youngsters are not only quitting farming but are also leaving the country? In 2018, an estimated 1.5 lakh students had gone abroad for studies, and it is well-known that a majority will not return. Looking at the growing trend, a number of institutes in Punjab have started offering free IELT courses to their students.

This surely is an outcome of the continuing neglect of farming. For several decades, agriculture distress has been growing not only in the more progressive Punjab and Haryana, but also across the country’s rural landscape, and clearly much more severely. With farming turning uneconomical and a losing proposition, what do we expect the younger people in rural areas to do? And if all that the policy makers are suggesting as the possible way out is to borrow the failed prescriptions from America or for that matter the European Union, the rural youth feels stranded and lost. If the US agriculture is in itself faced with a terrible farm crisis, leading to negative farm incomes, and with EU agriculture somehow gasping on massive federal subsidies, I see no reason why the policy prescription to revitalise Indian agriculture cannot be more grounded, based on naturally available strengths.

Among the tasks cut out for the new government, agrarian distress and unemployment definitely takes precedence. But if the thrust of the policy imperatives being suggested is to bring in more market reforms, primarily ensuring that the sales of tractors, automobiles and FMCG products picks up in the rural areas, farm distress will only aggravate further. Some mainline economists and the dominant industrial lobby groups are demanding land acquisitions to be made easier, dismantling of the APMC regulating mandis and phasing out Minimum Support Price (MSP) in the next three years, among other things. In fact, much of the emphasis is on incorporating the US farm economy design, which relies on private markets and strengthening corporate control of agriculture.

If these policies had worked, I see no reason why US family farms would be in crisis. Why should the number of dairy farms in the US for instance come down from 70,000 in 2007 to 40,000 in 2017? Just to add, why should dairy farmers be committing suicide at an alarming rate? This is happening at a time when the world’s biggest commodity trading centre, the Chicago Mercantile Exchange is located in the US, and the world’s biggest organised retail chain the US-based WalMart has completed more than half a century. But neither commodity trading nor the entry of private markets could rescue agriculture. Some studies point out that in the 1930s, a US farmer would save 70 cents for every dollar of produce sold. After the entry of organised retail chains, the net income of farmers has now dropped to 4 cents per dollar. If the BigAg prescription had worked, the US agriculture wouldn’t have been crying for a still bigger social security net.

Considering that small farmers in India are the backbone of a healthy food system, sustaining millions of livelihoods, and provides a trigger for a vibrant rural economy, I sincerely hope the new government does not get attracted by a borrowed economic design that has outlived its utility. As India gets ready to mark the 150^thbirth anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi, the new government will do well to draw a roadmap for reviving agriculture based on the Gandhian principles. Taking people out of agriculture to become dehari mazdoor in cities is not the way forward. What India needs is a production system by the masses, and not for the masses. Making agriculture economically viable and environmentally sustainable is what the Mahatma had dreamt. 

Let farm reforms take root. The Tribune. June 1, 2019
https://www.tribuneindia.com/news/comment/let-farm-reforms-take-root/781377.html?fbclid=IwAR2FkXcBWMhDOdJVtXzqcjo3qTJezAzr1ZfL_hFOBtqnQwfFbZC1907QXdc  

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