I visited my Aunty who recently constructed a home in Erode. The vegetables in her garden were very good and that's when I was told that the house is on a 'nel vilaiyum boomi'. Recently my cousin brother divided his agriculture land into many plots and sold them away. Even in the current world situation, we know very well that we do not have enough fertile land to produce food for the growing population. What with all these lands turning to residential areas!
I cannot blame my aunty or my cousin for doing this. My cousin said that he cannot profit from agriculture, since there is no support from government. Also, he mentioned how the yield has come down drastically in the last 2 decades, due to the use of fertilizers. Even though they have enough water to cultivate the land, they are unable to see any money, so he was left with no option but to sell it.
If this continues, where will the whole world go for food? Will we have enough land to feed the future?
Also check this...
http://deepakktsnapshot.blogspot.com/2008/04/global-famine-warning.html
2 comments:
It is actually funny in a very sad way.
We are all living like food comes out of nowhere!
On a side note, in "The Last Hours of Ancient Sunlight", Thom Hartmann explains how the quantity of food used up goes higher as we consume up the food chain. For example, if X ounces of grains give 1000 calories of energy, to get the same amount of calories from beef, the cow would have eaten 100X ounces of grains (just an illustration). So he suggested that turning vegetarians would suddenly open up all these extra food (99X ounces per cow) to people in need for a long time to come.
The trend has also been such that, as we hit a crisis, an innovation opens up to find a new way of doing something. But it appears that all this will happen only after a lot of suffering for several people.
Let us see.
Hi
In countries like India, Bangaladesh, Pakistan, etc., I think it is not the issue of shortage of land. The issue really lies in how efficiently we use the land and water.
Since the above said countries are hugely populated, the agri lands are distributed unevenly and there is no proper form of cultivation in a Huge landscape with channelised water supply system.
Whenever areas near any villages in these countries are urbanised or industrialised, small and medium farmers opt for selling their lands rather than continue their cultivation.
On the other hand, the agro product at the consumer point is heavily priced or rationed due to improper distribution system.
Neither the farmer get good price for his efforts nor the net consumer get the benefit of less price. It's only the middlemen who make all money.Probably the entry of retailing industry could bring a halt to this menace.
In India, when the govt is happy to say they waive Farm loan of Rs.60000 Cr, they are not ready to start implementing a long term solution like Interlinking of Rivers in a phased manner. Do the govt really think abt solving Farmers problem or they want to get the quick benefit of votes by addressing waiver plans like this?
Another menace in India(And many of Developing nations) is polluting the river water in the name of Urbanisation. When we people care about saving our property and handing over safely to our next generation, do we really care about saving our natural wealth and hand over to the next generation?
We are happy to see sky scrapers and huge constructions across India. For these constructions where from we get the sand?
It is only from the river bed of nearby villages. Sand is a natural filter for water pollution. We do not care about corroding our great rivers.Ofcourse we worship Ganges and Cauvery as Godesses.Do we give the real respect to these Godess?
If this situation continues there will definitly be a natural imbalance in many part of world within few years.
We need to seriously think and act on this.
Thx
Saravanan
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