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Agribusiness and society

 By Kees Jansen, Sietze Vellema

 

How far agribusiness corporations are responding to the opportunities and pressures resulting from emerging environmental awareness, to play their part in the "greening" of agriculture and food. In particular, in what ways are these corporations changing their R&D and business practices in order to develop new environmentally oriented products, services and methods of production? And what can they change of their own volition, and where is external direction a necessary condition of environmentally friendly innovation? These questions are explored through a series of highly original investigations of particular biotech and other agribusiness companies--including Monsanto, Ciba Geigy, Dole, and Chiquita--and their behavior in particular parts of the world, including California, Europe, Australia, Brazil, and Central America.

 

You can read the book online.

 

A large number of growers from Punjab (In Pakistan)are also reported to have suffered from this disease: “Bipolaris sorokiniana” also known as Helminthosporium Leaf Blight (HLB). It spreads in warm and humid wheatgrowing areas, characterised by an average temperature above 17 0C in the coolest month. HLB is a seed and soil and air borne disease.The current occurrence seems to be air-borne with origin of spread presumably being coastal areas of India and Bangladesh.
Spot blotch: a new wheat crop disease by Manzoor Hussain, Dawn Economic & Business Review, 01 May 2009
Why have the farmers in India and other countries committed suicide in large numbers recently? The quick answers; indebtedness, pests, cost ineffectiveness, fall in public investment, technological fatigue, policy fatigues and so on. These superficial diagnosis would only hinder the attempts to unearth the real reason. Farmers faced many of these problems all through history.
\'Success\' of Agricultural Science: The Reason for Farmers\' Suicide!
by John M. Itty, People's Reporter, 25 August, 2007
A wide range of policies—and the second ‘Green Revolution’—that the government is introducing in conjunction with Indian corporate houses, American agribusinesses and food multinationals, will have a catastrophic impact on Indian farmers, on sustainability and on food security. The effects are already evident in states like Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh
Pitfalls of the second green revolution
by Devinder Sharma, Infochange India, 01 October, 2006
Vidarbha is staring at the worst ever drought this year, with an unprecedented crop failure and steep decline in Rabi crop acreage due to depleted water table. Adding to the woes of farmers is the global economic meltdown and uncertainty in local markets over the prices of commodities, like cotton and soybean.“We’ve suffered bumper losses this year,” says Mohan Mamidwar, a farmer and political activist in Pandharkwda, Yavatmal. “Everything has been put on the hold for now,” he says, “including marriages or plans to buy new farming equipment.”The 50-year-old is reluctant to even talk about the crop situation, as it “opens up the wounds”. Kharif crop has failed, Rabi crop is set to be doomed, inflation has wreaked havoc in villages, farm wages have risen, and intensive use of chemicals coupled with adverse agro-climatic conditions has belted the soil health.
Vidarbha staring at worst drought
by Jaideep Hardikar, DNA, 16 December, 2008
ONCE the harbinger of the Green- Revolution in the country, the prototypical firmer of Punjab is no longer prosperous. The golden fields no longer inspire Baisakhi celebrations as more than 60 per cent of the state\'s cultivators are in debt. In what was previously considered the nation\'s grain bowl, the per farmer debt has reached Rs 45,000 ~ the highest in the land — and there is hardly any institutional lending system. Private money-lenders take a 36 per cent interest.
Green revolution\'s wounded warriors
by Tanveer Thakur, Grassroots, 01 May, 2006
World hunger is not new. Before the current price increase, 850 million people - 13% of the world\'s population - were chronically hungry. The number of under-fed people has steadily climbed over the past decade. Now, the World Food Programme estimates that the crisis has driven another 100 million people into hunger, including even urban middle class people in Indonesia and Mexico.
Causes and Strategies on World Hunger Green Revolution versus Sustainable Agriculture
by Katarina Wahlberg, Global Policy Forum, 03 May, 2008
The Green Revolution in Punjab
Indicative costs and benefits
COSTS
Decline in pulse production from 370,000
to 150,000 metric tons between 1965
and 1980.
Decline in oilseed production from 214,000
to 176,000 metric tons between 1965
and 1980.
Destruction of genetic diversity with
introduction of rice and wheat monocultures.
40 new insect pests and 12 new diseases
in rice monocultures.
Soils diseased with salinity, soil,
toxicity, micro-nutrient deficiency.
260,000 hectares waterlogged.
Punjab floods in 1988 linked to Dhakra
dam. 65% of 12,000 villages submerged,
3.4 million people affected, 1,500 people killed.
Loss to state, Rs 10 billion. 50,000 hectares of
land destroyed through sand deposits exceeding
60 cm in some places.

BENEFITS

1. Increase in rice production from 292,000
to 3.2 million metric tons between 1965
and 1980.
2. Increase in wheat production from 1.9 million
to 7.7 million metric tons between 1965 and
1980.

Modern agriculture, which was foisted on the Third World as the panacea for poverty and hunger, has
increasingly reaped more problems and disasters. Africa's food crisis and the failure of the hybrid seeds introduced by the Green Revolution in India are some of the results.


MODERN AGRICULTURE CAUSING FOOD PROBLEMS IN THIRD WORLD
by Vandana Shiva, Third World Network FEATURES, 01 January, 1970