Why India needs transgenic crops

Ulhas Joglekar uvj at vsnl.com
Tue Jul 30 11:46:42 PDT 2002


Vikash Yadav wrote:
> And yes, it is true that India produces a surplus. Even Borlaug's letter
> concedes that India's buffer grain stocks are overflowing. Why is that
> such an astonishing fact for you? The fact that so much of India's
> population is still hungry only strengthens Conrad's argument that there
> is a distribution problem.

Even Borlaug accepts that there is distribution problem. Amartya Sen, Jean Dreze have done enough work on the questions of hunger, malnutrition etc. India certainly needs to eliminate chronic hunger and malnutrition. Indian CPs have argued for massive food for work programme for quite some time. But it has not happened on a scale, it ought to happen. So there is nothing new about this 'distribution' problem. There is a recent monograph by Madhura Swaminathan, Weakening Welfare: The Public Distribution of Food in India, LeftWord Books, New Delhi. Indian newspapers have extensively discussed these problems over the years. I have posted Dr. M.S. Swaminathan article Indian Agriculture: Growth and Sustainability published in Frontline on the both lbo-talk and Marxism List. I posted the following link to lbo-talk on 18 January, 2002: http://www.hinduonnet.com/fline/fl1416/14160460.htm Please take a look and let me know if it doesn't deal with questions that are being debated here.

The debate is about Vandana Shiva's prescription. As far as I know, Indian CPs have not shown great interest in her work. CPs could be wrong about it, but then defense Shiva's thought is not regarded as a test of one's leftwing credentials in India.

Ulhas



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