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

Life and Death of Empires

Empires are all the same by nature. Whether it was a Monarchy of England, Democratic USA, Fascist Germany or Socialist Russia. All empires have a pretty much similar Imperial agenda. It doesn't matter whether you have a Christian or Muslim king on the throne. Likewise it doesn't depend on the colours of its flag or the skin of its ruler. Whether you have a smart-Black or dumb-White President,  they all have a job card waiting for them, well before they finish the last sentence of their swearing in ceremony.

All of them eventually get trapped in their job description. Sometimes they have the option to get out of this trap if they leave their Imperial agenda unfinished,  which basically means that they can leave only when they seize to be an Empire.

How far you can go depends on your intellect and conviction. Man with little intellect can stop and think but a man of conviction have to keep on marching.

One of the toughest thing for an Emperor (President) is to give up his imperial ambitions. This applies as much to Alexander the Great as it does to Nobel peace laureate Obama. It continue to expand until it starts contracting and drop dead. Rarely they bring the troops home without getting their imperial pride completely shattered.

Lucky ones, such as China and Japan get defeated earlier on in their outward journey due to economic or military reasons. Unlucky ones like Germany, Soviet Russia and the US of America win few wars and move on to the next round of suicidal mission.

Their military machine becomes so heavy and thick, like the walls of their embassies, that it becomes impossible to transport it back to the motherland. Their wars become unsustainable especially when their rivals are light weight and light budget, such as communist Guerrillas of Vietnam and Taliban of Afghanistan.

Another characteristic about modern stupid Empires is that they portrait as Peace Keepers or Democracy Builders who are only there to help the people they occupy. They don't demand any tribute for their country, just few favourable oil and defense contracts for their favoured corporations.

Sometime you don't care what your army will bring back home, you just wish you can bring your army back. When it is too late, it is known as Imperial path at a point of no return.

The State; an Evil and Unnecessary Institution

The State and its Taxes; an Evil and Unnecessary Institution of Economic and Political Slavery

“One can’t avoid Taxes and Death”, that’s what we are taught, by the State of course. Let us agree with Death part of the statement and examine the Taxes whilst we are still alive. Death was here long before some one was taxed for the first time. Taxes only came to existence few thousand years ago, primarily in the form of human slavery. Its journey from slavery to modern income tax encompasses few hundred types such as property tax, goods and service tax, salt tax, health tax etc. They all are curse on us and they take away part of our life under the threat of coercion. That’s why the State as its driving force is a predominately an anti-social institution.

The common man, under the influence of mass education and mass media cannot imagine living without taxes and governments but when a man of integrity receives a tax bill, or a law is passed restricting use of his native language or his religious beliefs, a part of him is murdered. He doesn’t want to say yes and he can’t say no. When someone, a group or class rules over others, including him, he feels it like a condition of slavery.

Human material needs can only be met by two distinct ways. One is through economic means like a farmer growing a crop or a factory worker producing some goods. Secondly through political (parasitic) means, taxing the producers by using the state power to do so. The political one is by far an easy and more desirable option for many of us.

When we study the origin of any state, we find the evidence of conquest from the defeated owners of the former State and seizure from current economic producers under the pretext of taxes. Every country has a limited quantity of human social power. Any power and wealth that we see in the hands of the State was basically taken away from its citizens sometime in the past. One can trace down every single penny in the State’s coffers to a working human being.

Winner’s reward can have many forms. In the times of Genghis Khan it could be women, cattle or horses; In the times of Alexander the Great it was gold and silver coins but these days, in the times of Bush and Obama, it is mainly energy resources such as Oil and Gas. Sometime it is simply a contract of future sales under the terms and condition of the winning side. A State cannot exist without economic exploitation of some sort. Anyone who controls a state, even for a short while, can and does uses it for the benefit of himself, his family, his supporting group or the class it represents and Nothing Else.

Total power in the hands of any society and its Sate is pretty much constant. What one has the other side is deprived of it. The other characteristic of a State is that it has to keep increasing its power all the time to remain in power. In that process, it accumulates disproportionally high power and not enough social power to hold its weight. At that point, it also becomes extremely complex in its composition, and then it has to collapse.

Institution of State was never designed for the benefit of all It is simply there to protect the winner from the loser group or class. Abolish or curtail any future threat to its authority from internal and external powers. Minister of Interior, Home Minister, Foreign Minister and Secretary of State are not just fancy designations. They have a specific role to play. They are slaves of the State too. Most of the job is already cut out for them when they take charge. That’s why millions of people feel disheartened when they don’t find any substantial change in a country’s foreign and internal policies with the change of governments within the same State. That’s why commander-in-chief Obama could not even order the closure of Guantanamo Bay prison, let alone shutting down over one hundred army bases around the globe. Not until the Empire State seizes to be an Empire State.

All States, like all businesses collapse one day when cost of maintaining them exceeds the return on their investment. Never think that a State can defend you from any foreign aggression, it can merely force its citizens to defend it. A State uses its full force of guns and boots to keep its monopolistic control over its market territory, its participants and keep away other competing foreign state monopolies. It can only exist as a monopoly and no other way. That’s why when a territory of any state wants its independence to break away, it is classified as a separatist movement and crushed with full State force.

One can bring a government to justice but State is always above law, until it is gone. So you have to either capture it for your class benefit or dismantle it for the benefit of all. Think twice when you pay your next tax bill or vote for electing someone to rule over you. Each tax dollar and each vote transfer a part of your power to the State. At the same time discard this suggestion as rubbish if you happen to be in the ruling elite political group of your State.

http://daradhillon.blogspot.com

daradhillon@hotmail.com

Dictatorship, Democracy; What next?

Lately it seems that the whole world wants to vote for someone, especially if they have not voted before. The Democracy is the most popular form of governance, in the opinion of human population living at present.

Like all other natural phenomenon, laws of natural selection and evolution are very much applicable to the State and various forms of its Governments. These states and governments were only born when the conditions were favourable for their birth. With the same token, they will all die when time is ripe for their departure. It seems that the time for monarchy, dictatorship, military and authoritarian regimes is reaching their logical end point. The populace of these virtually obsolete states have evolved at a faster pace then the controlling state itself so these states must switch to some other form or vanish. The democratic governments around the world have passed the test so far and will be eligible to go to next round.

Kingdoms lasted for few centuries, dictators for few decades but how long these democracies will survive the test of the time?  Who knows? Survivors are entitled to rejoice but they should prepare for their own turn, like all others that have been their predecessors.

The Democratic regimes, although holding the top ranking at the moment, were not always the preferred mode of government. It is probably the most suited for the current level of evolution of the majority of people. With mass education and relatively free access to world media, the citizens are becoming well informed and Democracy has evolved as an appropriate response to that. It is the most advanced and stealth way of robbing a considerable share of its citizens’ labour with the least amount of resistance and pain. Very much like operating under general anaesthesia, controlled and well regulated.

These smart states can hire soldiers, scientists, police, judiciary, media and even artists to work towards their politico-economic goals. An agricultural scientist thinks she can improve the standard of living of millions of farmers, whilst an army colonel wonders what will happen to his fatherland without his battalion. By getting the ‘privilege’ to vote and elect their rulers every few years, electorate develop the illusion of being part of the state machine. At the same time ruling elite of the society is happy to have their slice of the pie.

If one believes in Democracy and still protests against the government elected by the majority, there must be a flaw in the equation. Either he voted for the wrong party by mistake or he doesn’t believe in the rule of majority government?

It is quite easy to depose a dictator or a king. The target is obvious and there are clear demarcation between the protestor and the target. Who do you topple when it is your own people’s elected government on the other side; you know the one which is of the people, by the people, for the people?

daradhillon@hotmail.com

Debt, Inflation and Democracy

The parliamentary democratic elections are predominately a contest of promises. Promises to give more than what is actually on hand. The only situation where this deception can work slickly is when the tax collected from a minority of producers is sufficient to spread across majority of eligible voters. Parliamentary leaders are essentially professional risk assessors and fund managers; calculating and speculating the marginalised voters’ response to their election promises. The only difference from private sector is that state funds are collected with force and management fee is quite exuberant.

Human societies, like other creations of nature, are evolving all the time; from simple to more complex ones. Then a time comes when they become too complex and can not withstand their own burden. They break down to simpler forms, if they are lucky. Alternatively they vanish and give chance for others to attempt. Our parliamentary democratic system is no exception.

This Socio-Political-Economic model of industrialised economies is not dead yet. It is merely approaching its advanced stage and getting exhausted. Very much like the American Empire at the present, but has not attained the status of old British or Greek Empires.

This system of governance; which is over a century old in many countries, relies on heavy taxes, numerous ‘social welfare’ schemes and economic subsidies. This extremely powerful and successful political system is like an old warrior, with plenty of victory medals on its chest is not willing to go down without a fight.

During the last two centuries, due to an explosion in the human population and availability of newfound natural resources especially cheap oil and coal, creating surplus production, almost any system could have managed to stay afloat.

A point comes in the life cycle of each such economy, when the expenditure grows faster than the revenue. Then popular governments are unable to meet their election promises such as providing cheap food, electricity, public health and mass education. Giving more and taking less can work for a while, sometimes even for 100-200 years, but not for ever.

All such governments, without exception, start borrowing to spend and increase private and public debt until there is no one left to lend to them. By that time the total debt is beyond their capacity to repay honestly. Instead of defaulting and accepting their failure, they resort to printing paper notes with photos of dead leaders or presidents.

It is not a clerical mistake or calculation error by the central bankers that money supply is ever increasing in all countries since its creation.  Neither is it a coincidence that all the major world trade partners are running their printing presses round the clock and debasing their own currencies. It is quite sensible for the current rulers to pass on the debt to the future ones if they can get away with it.

Printing money is not painless but there is no other easy way out. This excessive money supply creates inflation and eventually hyperinflation. The public gets upset when they realise their standard of living is dropping. Their real wages are going down whilst cost of living, especially the food prices go up.

Occasionally these baffled citizens are forced to march on the streets demanding the replacement of the government that they themselves elected to the high office. It is almost like admitting that they made a mistake in the last election or they do not believe in next elections. They want their elected governments to bring the food prices down as if the governments can pass a law to print more food.

The angry voters are not prepared to listen to the truth. Not knowing the rationale behind this scenario, they want to hear answers that sound good to them. They listen to the candidate who promises to change the current system and remove the undesirable facts such as poverty, unemployment etc. Sometimes biggest liar gets the job.

The voters may not get what they want but usually get what they deserve. Either they get an army dictator or a new democratic government headed by someone who promises something more wonderful thus avoiding their collision with reality. The new incumbent promises to meet their list of demands.

On the other hand, voters have no desire to know who will pay for all these freebies and where the money will come from. If voters want less than what they pay to the government, why do they need someone to govern them?

If someone highlights the mathematical impossibility in spending more than their tax revenue, one is eliminated from the list of elected parliamentarians. It is democracy after all.  Democratically contesting political parties, and to some extent elected government is only answerable to the current pool of voters. To keep the present voters happy and under control, quite often, these governments have to borrow from future generations by selling national assets, both above and underground.

There are some other symptoms of this decaying model of governance. You might already be noticing the degeneration of human rights, increase in police and military presence and diminishing freedom of media in various parts of the world. These symptoms suddenly get lot worse when these ‘popular governments’ don’t have means to support their popular boondoggles.

Sometimes, these do-gooder politicians are so religiously convinced about their duty to improve the lives of their citizens as well as those of other sovereign countries, that they send their armies to spread their message of democracy. Taking risk to financially go broke and even borrows from their non democratic enemies. Their public and private debt increases beyond their ability to pay it back.

Can these governments cut back from the present level of expenditure? How would their voting citizens receive this? Would the tax paying citizens prefer to evade taxes and help themselves? Will there be a peaceful transition or bloody revolution? Who knows!