Agricultural Science, Green Revolution and Farmer Suicides

It seems that many farmers are reaching the dead end of No-Through road of Green Revolution.

Farmers' suicide is a subject too painful to discuss with the grieving families but it demands a public debate discussion about its possible causes and solutions. Wherever the Green Revolution was unleashed in developing countries few decades ago, marginal farmers are paying the ultimate price for its 'success' now. Are farmers the main culprit and deserve this harsh penalty or there are others factors that might have contributed to their demise.

To understand the complete picture, firstly we need to establish and define the major players of this game and their respective roles in it. 

Farmers of modern agricultural model are not farmers in true sense. They can be classified as miners because they are mining their soil and water. They can also be classified as petty-industrialists relying on cheap fossil fuels as their energy source along with other petro-chemical poisons and fertilisers as their farm inputs. Modern farmers can also be classified as 'Suicide-Bombers', going by the number of cancerous disease related deaths they bear in the process of perusing chemical farming.

Food production and politics of any country cannot be looked in isolation.  Whoever controls the political power (State) of any country, also controls the food production and distribution. Using subsidies, licenses and minimum support prices, not only they indirectly control which crop is grown from which seed, which chemical is sprayed to kill the weeds but where the farmers sell their produce and at what price. State also controls the research cum educational institutions like Agricultural Universities thus controlling what is taught to the next generation of scientists and what is recommend to the present generation of farmers.

The whole exercise of Green Revolution was like copying the idiots in the 'advanced economies'. Farming community was locked up in the cage of industrialised civilisation. They were like prisoners who were free to choose between doom and extinction. Agricultural scientists, in conjunction with the government department of Agriculture and with the help of foreign 'aid', taught them in such a way that they unlearned their traditional knowledge accumulated over hundreds of generation and started to behave like conquerors of the nature. We were not just another species on this planet but master of all others who are only there to serve our material needs. We did not believe anymore that Sun, air, rain and forests are there for all the inhabitants, not just for the sake of Homo sapiens.

We forgot to notice that billions of plant seeds were somehow germinating and reproducing for millions of years even before the first tractor was rolled into a field. It didn't occur to us that if you do not harden the soil running heavy farm machinery on it, you don't need to plough it to soften it up.

By developing some chemical poisons that can kill the insects and plants who compete with humans food production goals, these scientists start to believe that humans are not just one of the millions of other species but are somewhat different and special with super natural powers.

It seems that no one can misunderstand the crisis of scientific agriculture more than the highly trained agricultural scientist himself. One can imagine the condition of a mature man who was adopted by a fanatic religious group in his early childhood. What are the odds that he can break away from his masters and join another religion? An advanced degree of modern agricultural science is no different. These scientists are far too committed in their beliefs and far too dependent on the financial rewards for sticking to their guns that it doesn't make sense for them to change the course.

The grip of modern educational institutions is so tight that only a few can escape without severe constraints in their ability to think independently once they are fed through this mass production shaft. First of all a new scientist cannot graduate/post-graduate from a university unless he submits a thesis in line with the prevalent line of thinking of that institution. His score, scholarship, degree and finally job prospects depends on it.

Those who excel in such studies and do further research enhancing these scientific intervention techniques, secure high decision making executive positions in various government agencies and departments. At the top level a nexus is thus build between those officials, their political masters and multi national corporations that eventually benefit from the sale of their seeds, fertilizers, chemicals and farm machinery. Even if an agricultural engineer or a farm scientist reaches to the conclusion that his interference into eternal laws of nature is unwarranted and destructive, he cannot advocate the uselessness of his profession without losing his livelihood.

The followers of the sect of scientific agriculture are certainly capable of making the natural balance undone for a while but Mother Nature is not mother Teresa. Sooner or later Nature will use its veto power and force the equilibrium. We cannot sustain for long whilst exceeding the carrying capacity of our local environment, first and foremost its land and water. 

May be its not the fault of farmers or scientists after all. It was not long ago we all were hunter-gatherers and in the face of daily needs and threats our genes are still programmed to worry about the short-term survival in the immediate environment and not think beyond that.

It’s painful for the farmers to admit that their governments and universities, all of who promoted mechanised, energy intensive and chemical based farming practices, has fooled them. This 'Green Revolutionary' model of farming not only ruined their land and water but also forced them to go in a deep hole of debt, making it virtually impossible to get out without committing suicide.

Current political turmoil in Africa, Middle East is in fact an expression of a food crisis. Any modern scientific model of farming, whether operating under a Socialist or Capitalist economic system is in danger of collapse without unlimited supply of limited cheap fossil fuels.

Efficiency of modern scientific techniques such as tractors, pesticide power sprayers and tube-wells all help us to make our journey to the finish line faster, more efficient. 


It is not easy for an inmate to plot the prison break, not first without realising that he has been imprisoned. Only then he can think of the possible escape routes. Scientific farming is like fighting a War against Nature, no chance of winning. Sooner we admit our defeat and return to age-old traditional natural farming, better are the chances of averting more suicides in the farming families.


daradhillon@hotmail.com