The Dying Fields
October 1st, 2007
As we discussed at our first pre-departure session, we hope to do an eight day China, eight day India trip this year (TENTATIVE).
To that end, checkout PBS’ recent segment on India, “The Dying Fields.”
I enjoyed it, very much. and learned a thing or two. Scroll down and click on Parts 1, 2, 3, 4, and the final Interview, and then come back here and comment.
What did you learn that you did not know before?
Professor Carr March 13, 2008 addendum: A March 3, 2008 Wall Street Journal article on this topic, India Targets New Budget to Help Indebted Farmers.
Entry Filed under: 2009 Student Blogs, India, Misc.
13 Comments Add your own
1. Chris Carr | October 17th, 2007 at 10:17 am
Re: the interest rate issue, here is a historical fact to be aware of that occurred in the US before many of you were born.
I grew up in a farming/ranching family in the Midwest. I can remember in the 1970s when banks in the Midwest would loan money to farmers and ranchers without batting an eye, but the interest rate in said load docs were often in the 18% to 19% range.
Of course, most folks found they could never repay a loan with such terms; then the bank came in an foreclosed, sat on the property for a year or two, then resold it at a nice profit.
A number of farmers/ranchers sued the banks under a ‘lender liability’ legal theory — i.e., ‘yes, you gave us money, but knew we could never repay it back, as part of a strategy to foreclose, then resell our property at a profit.’
As you can imagine, juries did not accept this bank strategy and said banks were tagged with jury verdicts that were high and hurt.
Moral of the story: don’t assume only India charges usurious/excessive interest that some deem unfair. Happens here all the time. Credit cards, anyone?
2. Eric White | February 11th, 2009 at 5:31 pm
Good thing we have a strong market based economy here in the US that will never allow us to get into a situation like India is in. right? Well… not so much.
Why is the price of cotton worldwide so artificially low? The video halfway suggests it is because the huge amount of subsidies in the ‘market’ economy of *gasp* the US. Well apparently it seems the US cannot compete in a market economy. According to an article at FAO Newsroom “Cotton subsidies in rich countries mean lower prices worldwide”, found here:
http://www.fao.org/newsroom/EN/focus/2005/89746/article_89759en.html
production costs for cotton in the US is much higher than in other countries, specifically three times higher than that of West Africa. So there you have it, I answered my own question as to why the US supplies subsidies, because without them, the US cotton market would not exist. Again… so much for our beloved market based economy.
3. Logan J Travis | March 15th, 2009 at 6:45 pm
I know the assignment only asks us to watch parts 1 through 4, but I really recommend part 5. It covers the activists meeting with the President (he is apparently little more than a figure head) who promises to do little more than discuss the issue. It also explains a “major” effort by the government to aid farmers by sanctioning community marriages including small cash gifts to new couples. It appears to easily succumb to corruption including one instance when 140 of 700 couples were found to be previously married, some with as many as four children.
I’ve always found suicide a delicate yet intriguing topic simply because I cannot imagine the incentives it must take to take one’s own life. It may sound strange to speak of “incentives” and “suicide” in the same sentence. Yet, I consider the removal of pain and suffering about as potent as incentives come.
There are other motivations also, those more appalling. First amongst those is money. In part 5 the documentary continues the story Urkada Akharam (I apologize for the spelling), the same widow in the opening segment who begins the 2 mile walk to the bank. The film mentions her “good standing” with the bank due the repayment of her husband’s loan - the same debt that drove him to kill himself. Where did she get the money? From a government subsidy for widows. In killing himself, Urkada’s husband secured a government check freeing his family from debt only to see them walk right back into it.
Others before me have said the Indian government has not done enough to stop these suicides. It seems the situation is far worse; their efforts may actually promote them.
4. Matt Eves | March 20th, 2009 at 3:40 pm
One of the links in this blog zeroed in on responsibility for the high suicide rate among poor rural cotton farmers in India. In an interview of Indian activist Vandana Shiva (nuclear scientist who became an anti-globalization activist 20 years ago), by Fred de Sam Lazaro (NewsHour correspondent), de Sam Lazaro cites that the government used to guarantee Indian farmers minimum prices, but has now backed away because of new market policies. Further, there is a new problem for farmers besides the 2 usual foes of monsoons and markets, it is Monsanto. Activist Shiva states “every seed that is in the market in cotton today is linked to one company or the other, licensed and controlled by Monsanto.”
If you go to Monsanto’s website there is an entirely different picture. I can’t believe the images and information I am receiving re; “The Dying Fields” vs. Monsanto’s polished website presentation titled “Biotech Cotton Improving Lives of Farmers, Villages in India” Website-Monsanto
It is terrifying that land confiscation, genetically altered seeds, and corrupt loan sharks are everywhere in evidence in these areas of India, causing countless suicides and the destruction of centuries old ways of life, but Monsanto just keeps moving along with the fairy tale.
5. Alex Thornton | December 10th, 2009 at 11:37 pm
As Logan suggested, part 5 is very good.
The government in India created communal weddings to save them the “crushing expense” of a wedding. The couples were given about 300 dollars to offset the cost of the bride’s dowry.
These communal weddings are rife with couples already married, trying to get more money. Of 154 (not the 700 Logan wrote down) couples investigated, 140 were found to already be married. Assuming the investigated couples were chosen at random, this suggests that over 90% of the weddings were fraudulent. This is a great lesson in the economics of incentives.
Clearly wasteful spending by the government needs to be addressed in India.
6. William Ary | January 3rd, 2010 at 12:43 pm
I see this situation as a foul up of incentives. The cotton farmers are receiving incentive to take out loans on cotton seeds which they may not need in order to have profitable harvests, this leads to debt and dishonor in the community which drives them to suicide and is destroying their society. The solution is to remove all of the incentives for things other than a profitable cotton crop, which was the only incentive that drove the farmers’ ancestors.
Let the market for cotton sort out this issue. I think that subsidizing BT cotton or marriages will inevitably worsen the situation because it does not treat the problem directly. It only treats the economic symptoms. Ultimately, the farmers will either learn to buy only what they need and avoid becoming slaves to loan sharks or they will leave the business and do something that is more profitable. That is simple economics and it avoids incentivizing behaviors that don’t directly help the cotton farmers compete
7. Lindsay Leaver | January 7th, 2010 at 7:54 pm
This is a huge mess. A massive, huge, giant mess. The debt forgiveness is a start, but it doesn’t seem to be a solution to the problem, just a temporary relief. It seems to me that after their loans are forgiven, they will have to take loans again to buy the seeds, and the problem will repeat. The same seeds, lack of irrigation, and low cotton prices will still be present, thus perpetuating the problem.
Matt touched on Monsanto and I agree completely. The root problem in the video, to me - an organic and sustainable farming fan - is that Monsanto’s evilness has spread further than I knew. I am aware of their terror reign here in the United States, but I didn’t realize it had spread to a rural Indian village (although considering India is the 3rd largest cotton producer in the world, it makes sense). Monsanto is selling seeds that the Indian farmers don’t have the irrigation to grow properly. They are making false promises of fruitful farming when they know full well that their BT seeds won’t work on a majority of these farms.
Get rid of Monsanto, let the farmers produce their seeds like they used to before it cost them anything. Loans from the mafia-style lenders won’t need to be taken and they can start making money again instead of always paying themselves out of debt.
8. Kirk Story | February 23rd, 2010 at 12:11 am
“The Dying Fields” is an extremely disturbing documentary about the high suicide rate amongst India’s rural farmers. I’m struck by the similarities shared with India’s rural farmers and the share croppers of the south in the decades following the civil war. Both are exploited by debt to lenders and land owners. Most infuriating, yet unsurprising, is the presence of Monsanto Corporation. Monsanto, in my mind, is one of the most irresponsible corporations threatening both the environment and humanity.
Since the “Dying Fields” production, it appears Indian farmers are fighting back. In blunt language, the Karnataka State Farmers Association of India recently declared, “We send today, a very clear message to all those who have invested in Monsanto in India and abroad; take your money out now, before we reduce it to ashes.”
This statement is derived from the below described event found at http://www.lightparty.com/Health/IndiaCheers.html
“At 1.30 in the afternoon on 28th November 1998, in Sindhanoor, in the Indi an state of Karnataka, the leader of the Karnataka State Farmers Association (KRRS), a movement which claims a membership of ten million, arrived at one of India’s first Monsanto test sites. The owner of the field, Basanna Hunsole, came out to greet him. With the help of Basanna’s neighbors, a number of KRRS members, other local grassroots organizations representing ‘untouchables’ and landless farmers, they proceeded to tear up every one of the genetically modified cotton plants growing there. They stacked them in a heap in the middle of the field, and set them on fire. In minutes, Monsanto’s test crop was reduced to ashes.
This was the first strike in a grassroots campaign that is spreading rapidly across India: ‘Operation Cremate Monsanto’. Professor Nanjundaswamy, a committed Gandhian and leader of the KRRS, issued a statement to the press as the field burned. ‘We denounce the ignorance, incompetence and irresponsibility of the Union government to gamble with the future of Indian agriculture,” said the Professor. He went on to demand that all tests of genetically modified crops in India be stopped, that the country’s Patent Act be amended to stop the patenting of basic crop varieties, and that Monsanto be banned from the country. Otherwise, he said, Indian farmers would continue to take the situation into their own hands.’”
9. Frederick Peemoeller | March 12th, 2010 at 3:24 pm
Monsanto is a company that American investors loved two years ago. Its agricultural business was skyrocketing and profits were coming in hand over fist. It seemed like every investor wanted to have this company in their portfolio, and it could do no wrong. In the midst of this, I couldn’t believe to hear that this was going on in India. There seemed to be little backlash from its investor because of their actions, and it shows the concerns of its investors are more towards earnings than social well being.
10. Jeff | March 18th, 2010 at 4:08 pm
It’s disturbing to see people committing suicide because they can’t pay back loan-shark loans. I’m sure they didn’t think about the consequences of defaulting when they took out the loans in the first place. I’m also sure that there was some element of crime when the money lenders are local store owners. They should be arrested if what they’re doing is against the law.
What’s more disturbing to me, that wasn’t really covered in any depth, was greater crime against humanity in that that the hybrid cotton doesn’t produce seeds that can be used for the next season.
This forces an endless cycle of going into debt to buy the seeds, harvesting the crop, paying off the loan and maybe keeping a little, than starting all over again. If the weather isn’t good and there’s a drought, the farmer has no recourse. They’ll have to double their crop the next year to cover their failed crop.
The government of india should try to prevent the use of sterile genetically modified plants that aren’t self-replicating.
Our government should be doing the same.
11. Vitus Holzner | March 18th, 2010 at 4:21 pm
Well I don’t want to be cynic but I think it is another example of how the US (and other western countries for that matter) only loves the free market if it’s their favour. Will, you are making a good point here. Let the free market settle it. So let’s stop subsidising US agricultural products. Well I guess everyone knows that this is never going to happen. The United States and Europe flood the world market with cheap, heavily subsidised ag-products. I just recently read an article how the EU dumps milk on the African market, essentially ruining the local agricultural infrastructure in these countries. This is exactly the same what happens with cotton farmers in India.
With regards to Monsanto I think by now its common knowledge how ethical this organization is. What takes place in India now happened just a few years earlier in Indonesia. Monsanto pushed its genetically modified cotton on the market and ruined hundreds of farmers exactly the same way the Indian farmers get screwed now
Resources:
http://www.mindfully.org/GE/2005/Monsanto-Bribes-Indonesia1sep05.htm
http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=11079
12. Michael Harroch | March 18th, 2010 at 4:34 pm
This was a very interesting documentary to me. I have oftentimes heard Monsanto’s name in discussions relating to corporate ethics. It seems that they are usually portrayed as the quintessential “evil corporation’ which completely disregards any environmental and social consequences derived from their activities. I now understand why.
The Karnataka State Farmers Association’s campaign to stop genetically modified crop testing reminds me of similar events that occurred in France in the late 90s. A similar movement lead by farmer and self-proclaimed political figure Jose Bove destroyed such facilities. He was finally arrested after vandalizing a McDonald’s restaurant.
13. Matthew Perez | March 19th, 2010 at 1:59 am
Harroch is correct in stating that Monsanto’s issues in corporate ethics are not solely an issue of India. In an ethics class I took as an undergraduate, I learned that of a situation they were involved in within Canada. There bioengineered crops were essentially dispersing beyond the confines of their facilities and onto nearby farms. Unlike in India, though, the local farmer actually liked the new crop better. It was resistant to Round-Up, a weed killing agent that can also kill the crop it is trying to protect. Although I do not remember how Monsanto found out about what the farmer was doing, the company ended up suing him for using their plant. Even though it was Monsanto’s fault for the crop spreading, the farmer was still required to pay for the right to grow crops that had spread to his land. The spread of their crop is probably why they purchased the Terminator seed technology (sterile seeds). Based on what I have seen, I can understand the company’s desire to hold onto proprietary technology but the company should also try to maintain some semblance of compassion for their customers.
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