Regarding how the cotton market is controlled by the US subsidies look at these stats: http://www.organicconsumers.org/clothes/224subsidies.cfm

As someone said in a different context that ‘you have to be an economist or an idiot to believe it’.

1. The point on food prices and revolts is really being blown out of proportion. He’s right when he says that an agency like IMF doesn’t necessarily have to spend big dollars to know something they already do from experience. Not everyone has that kind of experience I might add and thus, an iteration from Sainath is of no harm.

2. Prices are determined by Supply and Demand. Text book knowledge would lead one to this conclusion but the practical world is not ideal and works in an environment of subsidies, PDS’ etc and thus, even if prices are lowered, a farmer may make a profit.

3. The mention of the word causation is incorrect. The instance reflects comparison and does not in any way refer or imply causation.

4. The sentence on farmer suicides mentions the phrase “increasing trend..”. This has been ignored by the author. Although I do agree that more data could’ve been provided by Sainath to substantiate his point. I feel the phrase ‘increasing trend’ convey his points to an extent and at the same time avoids muddling an aam aadmi with too many datapoints.

Only thing they miss and they would not bother about that is Ground Reality. And it’s people like P.Sainath who miss the woods for trees! One who cannot comprehend his speeches would do well to read his works and also re-watch his videos and get a comprehensive idea of what he is saying. He has the broader picture in mind for he not only knows what’s happening in the buildings of IMF but also in the huts of the poor farmers that are affected by the diktats of the IMF.

Remember, in every stage of civilization there were always apologetic and those rationale-providers for oppression. Some times it’s religion and some times it’s the interest of the Business and now it’s the defense of the market. History judges them!

Neither. All the farmers who killed themselves are those who grew CASH crops for EXPORT. The prices of their crops came crashing down in the international market. The input costs of farming had gone up which prompted them to borrow sums from money lenders and when the couldnt get appropriate prices to sell, they killed themselves in despair.

Having a different point of view is fine. But did you even read his articles before being so arrogantly condescending?

You raise a question about ”who is forcing farmers to shift to cash crop farming” – this is something of a blind spot in his work. I’ve written to him about this actually, and his response was that

”People can be made to shift by a) making foodgrain production extremely unremunerative b) farmer desperation to make some money c) using credit as an instrument of coercion d) incentives in various forms to take the much higher risks involved in cash crops.” – This I admit is not an entirely satisfying response, hopefully in the future he will elaborate on this a little more in of his articles or talks.

In the meantime however, I think you’ve misunderstood some of the arguments he makes (please note that I’m not going only by this one talk alone, but I’m referring to his work collectively).

Firstly the 250,000 farmers killing themselves is not because of food prices at all. The majority of the farmer suicides occur with cash crop farmers, not food crop farmers. They commit suicide because demand for cash crops is linked to volatile international markets, Because input costs for cash crops are very high. Because credit is very difficult for these cash crop farmers to come by, leaving them in spiralling debt, and also because the value addition in cash crops comes from the processing that occurs, for which the farmer usually receives nothing. (There is a contradiction here of course, if credit is difficult to come by then WHY are farmers shifting to cash crops? Like I said this is a blind spot, maybe he will address it in the future). In the meantime it is worth noting that Indian policy has been geared towards convincing farmers to make the shift, based on reccomendations on World bank – IMF prescriptions.

As to the broader point about whether 250,000 is actually that big a figure relative to the country’s enormous population, maybe not. But does that mean the problem is any less exigent for the farmers facing this crisis?

Secondly, you accuse Sainath of not understanding the ”basics”, butI think the problem is you are taking a far too ”basic” approach to the problem. From what I understand (and again I’m not completely confident about specific details), but broadly The supply shortages, are largely artificial (being brought about by things like commodities trading etc), with an intent to push prices up. These artificial prices do not in anyway benefit the farmer, but as farmers are also the greatest purchasers of food in fact places greater strain on them (as it does on other poor and vulnerable sections of society). The ”basic” demand and supply laws that you chastise Sainath for not being familiar with, apply to a hypothetical world, that is far more perfect than the world we currently live in.

Finally, why does he criticize India buying land in Ethiopia? I think that has more to do with pointing out the ridiculous nature of the situation, where India, inspite of having vast tracts of cultivable land, in its zeal for cash crop farming is now being forced to acquire land for food crop farming elsewhere, than actually saying India should not buy that land.

I hope this makes some sense.

Excellent piece! But, as DJ says, lets not be very harsh on Sainath.

Its a much more larger malaise, which needs to be countered and shown its place properly, least it will afflict us like a disease!

i work as a civil servant and i do not agree with Sainath.

Co-sign.

Co-sign.

It’s unfortunate that these people get opportunities to speak against those countries in their land, that’s the price free society has to pay. Eagerly waiting for the next parts..these articles reminded me of famous Kannada writer Dr S L Bhyrappa’s articles in Kannada Prabha on Nehru & Indira’s Socialist India (it’s not just about that phase and India, but about Socialism, Marxism, leftist thought process & hypocrisies in general). His observations and analysis of leftist nations and their policies,economies, people were profound and thought provoking.

In India suicide ratio is around 12 per 1 Lakh of people. Give than majority of our population is in agriculture it is very natural that we will see very large number of these suicides among farmers. Well, this does not mean we should stop doing whatever we can to stop them.

This automatic categorization boils my blood too. We have vast amount of land and we have stopped farming for multiple reasons. Labor is very expensive thanks to NREGS and other doles. Since the land if far from home we cant really protect our crops from thieves. This is in Goa where the state is small population is large and just selling the land and keeping the money in Fixed deposit will yield much higher return per square meter than trying to cultivate it.

As farmers we are absolutely not interested in farming and I have managed to get myself enough education where I can migrate to some better place and earn lot more than my parents did.

However each time there is attempt to get a good and large project in my village all the toms and jacks oppose it saying it is a conspiracy to move out the farmers and poor working class.

Instead, I wish you would see him as one example of a common malaise which I call the Thomas Friedman syndrome. Especially in this age of 24 hour news channels and internet, experts are made out of journalists just because they have access to some data, or have been reporting on something for years. While I respect their reporting and diligence, one should not expect that they would also follow with good over-arching opinions. It is very common for them to miss the forest for the trees. There are countless such examples everywhere. For example; many, many reporters on the financial crisis fall into this category, thereby misleading the entire populace. Thomas Friedman is probably the best example of this, at the moment.

A good manager/economist should utilize the talents and data of the Thomas Friedmans of the world to draw their own conclusions.

P.Sainath also had the misfortune of studying at JNU, so perhaps, that has something to do with it as well. A common problem among all DU/JNU graduates seems to be their uncanny ability of missing the forest for the trees. The BS graphic applies by default to every DU graduate I have seen in the media. I suggest that DU/JNU be added to the list of terrorist organizations, for the harm they cause to society with their sub-standard education.

This obseravtion (from the link above) seems to be hasty but not without reasons.

This link below substantiates your viewpoints.

What Makes Countries Rich or Poor? Book review by Jared Diamond.

Why Nations Fail: The Origins of Power, Prosperity, and Poverty
by Daron Acemoglu and James A. Robinson

http://www.nybooks.com/articles/archives/2012/jun/07/what-makes-countries-rich-or-poor/?pagination=false