Sreedevi Laksmikutty explains the crisis of hunger among Indian farmers, and the formation of AID Agriculture Cell.
The adoption of 'Green Revolution' in the 60s and 70s, followed a decade later by liberalized international trade treaties facilitating import of cheap food grains into India, changed the agricultural paradigm in large parts of India.
This sounded the death knell for farmers who had moved from subsistence to cash crop dependant agriculture, resulting in farmer indebtedness and consequently leading to farmer suicides. The suicides have crossed an appalling 100,000 and continue unabated. Indians now account for 300 million of the 800 million hungry in the world.
Clearly, producing more food is not enough; broad based access to land and other resources is a pre-requisite to ensure food security for our people.
However, the control over food and agriculture is moving away from the people and government into the hands of corporations like Monsanto, ADM etc which is a further threat to our food security and farm livelihoods.
To watch an interview with Dr Sudhir Goel, who heads the special relief efforts for farmers in Amravati, please visit http://aidindia.org/main/content/view/492/199 .
Some AID volunteers have come together to form the AID Agricultural Cell to delve deeper into such issues. For more information and updates on the cell, please contact l.sreedevi@gmail.com. |
