Yes, for most farmers!
Most things have to remain unsaid in our democracy!
So, even criticism has to remain subdued!
Climate change summit outcome and the future of agriculture
One good thing is that the PM and Sonia Gandhi don’t speak on food prices!
Their pet hobbies are the aam aadmi and the NREGA, both are now in disarray.
Aam aadmi is disillusioned with the erratic prices of essential commodities, from rice, to sugar to pulses to potatoes. The daily lives and the struggles to cope with it is all that matters for an average citizen, not the high level and abstract debate over what happened at the Copenhagen Climate debate. But then you can run away from the big picture in order to make sense of what is happening at this point of time in our lives and in our generation.
Agriculture today is proving tough for management by the current Cabinet for the simple reason that most of the Cabinet Ministers don’t have any roots in the soil. See a quick count and you will see most of them, as the MPs in general, are from the urban affluent class, most of the well-born and well-endowed, they won the elections by spending huge sums, most of the money coming from the business classes, most of the big corporates are spending money to win favour with the winning parties.
There are great deals of things that remain unsaid in our democratic elections. Otherwise, how do you account for the large number of wealthy men who got elected, most of them, as was seen in AP, contractors class and the ones with criminal records and the others are all dynastic heirs.
So, the democratic politics too is becoming a sort of anti rural and anti-farmers oriented.
None of the seniors in the ruling as well as in other parties are farmers or dependent on their rural vote base.
Vote-buying is now a fine art.
Either the incumbent Chief Minister hasn’t furnished his election expenses account or the supposedly defeated Cabinet minister is likely to lose his seat before completing his five year terms.
There is a grave distortion of the ground level realities.
Who has the time to speak for the farmer’s suicides and the child labour, girl child more to the point, which is being exploited in the corron fields?
So, the rural countryside is neglected in terms of the political power equations.
So, India will continue, it seems, to import food and feed the people, no doubt.
India might lose its food secure nation status and we have to live with this reality, it seems. We only have to look for Japan and Thailand to understand how agriculture is intertwined with their culture, their social beliefs and their traditional way of life.
Can India regain such a traditional faith in a rural stronghold and a farm-based rural life system? One has only to yearn for such an articulation.
It is through modern and scientific outlook and articulation and based on hard-headed real life situations we have to integrate the largely diverging trends today.
The urbanisation and the rural strong holds.
Agriculture and villages will live on and hold forth all along.
Rural hinterland and the rural landscape will only decide the character and strength of the Indian people.
So, we have to have strong faith and a sturdy outlook to give Indian agriculture and the voiceless millions a particular reason for a strong case for their existence.
So, even the just concluded international Copenhagen climate change control conference saw many positive outcomes.
The Financial Times, London reported the outcome as much about tough negotiations as about our moral commitment. China and USA saw some commonality. That was the best hope. Even noted individuals like the governor of California (Arnold Schwarzenegger pledged tougher regimes and alternative energy sources. California and Shanghai are two cities that are aggressively pursuing solar energy applications. So, there is a lesson for India where we have to move ahead in our own ways and commitments. Not governments alone. Everyone is us have a commitment. That was the best outcome and best hope for future.
One was the US pledge to contribute billions to mitigate the evil of carbon emissions by developed countries.
The UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCC) is a step for ward. The “80% by 2050” formula was a good one and though Obama, the crucial man and the crucial country was USA, the great economy and China, the gross emitter was earnest.
China, with all its pollution records, is still the one country that has reported 51 per cent growth in renewable energy output over three years. What is India’s record?
China has planted 20 m hectares of forests between 2003 and 2008.What is India’s record.
What every country like China and also India resisted was the commitment and monitoring by the USA. This the all 200 delegates seemed resisted.
China has committed a reduction between 40% and 45% by 2020 in the level of carbon intensity. And India too seemed to commit to some such reasonable reduction but in the din it was what China said and what USA said that was reported and that mattered.
But agriculture would be greatly impacted by the climate change and carbon emissions. This we have to take note. Deforestation is another major threat.
To keep global warming to 2C is an n absolute minimum and this is what the nations have understood at the end of the tough negotiations.
It is a good conference as it created and brought pressures and created an awareness that would only go to make things conducive for a more greener world.
As for the food security, food self-sufficiency, India needs to draw up a different strategy.
It is for the men and women in charge to come out withy a trustworthy strategy. Not to compromise with Indias perceived dignity in the eyes of the world.
Give farmers a sense of belonging and they matter in the national scheme of things.
Give the rural India a vision. Leadership is not just managing the day to day affairs.
Let us hope our ministers become more sensitive and act according to their conscience. Not offices as one more perks in their long careers!
Image Source : worldchanging.com