Misplaced Emphasis

To Bt Or Not To Bt?

noreply@blogger.com (Srijit Mishra) — Tue, 10 Jan 2012 02:50:00 +0000

To Bt Or Not To Bt? Risk and Uncertainty Considerations in Technology Assessment is the title of a new working paper from IGIDR by Sarthak Gaurav and myself (Srijit Mishra). I give below the abstract and some extracts from the Introduction and Conclusion, but without the references.

Abstract

The acreage under the transgenic Bt (Bacillus thuringiensis) cotton seeds in India has risen significantly since its legalization in the year 2002. Discussions on the advantages from the technology have focused on increments in productivity and income, without much analysis on risk. We point out that claims on productivity gains seem to be misplaced, as appropriate counterfactuals do not exist for the same hybrids. In this article we analyse production costs and crop incomes in drought years to test a simplistic theory of risk based on first principles. We employ a mixed-methods framework to draw inferences by combining data from two cross-sectional surveys in Gujarat (Saurashtra and Southern-Plains) and Maharashtra (Western Vidarbha) for the period 2009-10 and compare it with unit-level data for the corresponding regions from a nationally representative sample for the period 2002-03. Empirical evidence, though limited, brings out the problem of how a high cost technology could be associated with higher risks and may be dominated by traditional alternatives under certain conditions. Ethnographic accounts from the field provide qualitative support to our understanding of potential risks and uncertainties associated with the new technology.

Introduction

It is observed that in less than a decade since its legal introduction in 2002, there has been a remarkable diffusion of Bt cotton technology in India, with the genetically modified seeds being used to cultivate nearly 90 per cent of the total area under cotton in 2010. During this period, the yields and overall production has increased on an average, and India, which is the second largest producer of cotton in the world, became a net exporter of cotton from being a net importer. Should we accept these trends as evident of a successful adoption of the technology? Or, is there something more than what meets the eye – like the dominance of the QWERTY technology for keyboard layouts? In other words, can the increasing acreage under Bt cotton be solely attributed to inherent benefits of the transgenic seed technology or there are at work other mechanisms that demand explanation? More importantly, are we missing out on critical dimensions of assessing the technology amidst the ‘deceptive rhetoric, spin, and soundbite science portraying the wonders or horrors of the new technology’ propounded by the competing discourses of the pro and anti Bt camps?

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For a scientific evaluation of the hypothesized superiority of Bt cotton seeds in the causal sense, the use of these seeds should be the differentiating factor in attainment of higher yields and profitability in cotton production, ceteris paribus. Also, it should be borne in mind that in the absence of appropriate counterfactuals and adequate controls, any evidence that rejects the null hypothesis of Bt seeds not being superior to their non Bt counterparts, does not necessarily imply the superiority of Bt seeds, and vice versa. In the case of Bt cotton, the co-existence of scores of varieties with Bt genes and non Bt hybrids complicates the separability of the effects of the Bt strain. Unfortunately, the Bt cotton discourse has failed to acknowledge this fundamental logic while attempting to establish the positive or negative impacts.

In this article, we argue that an improved understanding of risk and uncertainty is central to the assessment of Bt cotton technology by analyzing outcomes in two drought periods, across two cross-sections. First, we use unit-level data from the Situation Assessment Survey of Farmers from the 59th round of the National Sample Survey (NSS), for the period 2002-03 across specific regions of Gujarat (Saurashtra and Southern Plains) and Maharashtra (Western Vidarbha).   Then we employ data from our surveys and ethnographic inquiries in the similar agro-ecological zones in the two states for the period 2009-10. Furthermore, the Gujarat sample provides interesting comparisons across Bt and non Bt growers and ethnographic findings from the field in Wardha district of Vidarbha allow us to draw critical inferences on the Bt technology.

By taking up the analysis in two drought periods – one at a time when the legal (official) commercial transgenic varieties were introduced, and the other at a time when the technological diffusion can be assumed to have played out well, the findings of this article attempt to sensitize Bt cotton analysis to issues of risk and technological uncertainty. We believe, this article has two important contributions to improving our understanding of the Bt cotton debate. First, we argue for the need to consider the fundamental aspect of risk in the evaluation of the impact of Bt seeds. This assumes significance at a time of crisis in the Indian agriculture and spate of farmers’ suicides among predominantly cotton growers.

Second, our study is a contribution in mixed-methods research paradigm. In this context, we introduce a methodological innovation that combines quantitative and qualitative findings from the field with secondary data from a nationally representative sample that provides a rough baseline approximation in the context of Bt cotton evaluation for the two major cotton growing regions of the country, namely, Saurashtra and Southern Plains in Gujarat and Western Vidarbha in Maharashtra. It is quite likely that some farmers in the nationally representative sample would have already used illegal Bt seeds Nevertheless, the analysis can be safely assumed to be representative of non Bt usage scenario and hence a valid benchmark for conditions of cotton production in the relevant regions. For the current purpose we compare and contrast results from the NSS survey for the crop season of 2002-03 with that of some location specific and somewhat independent surveys in the above-mentioned two cotton growing regions during 2009-10.

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Conclusion
In this article we argue that the perceived benefits and costs of introduction of the genetically modified seed technology, needs to be re-evaluated from the perspective that by being a substantial addition to cost in the farmers input vector, it also has risk considerations that need to be analyzed. Its dynamic interaction with a host of other factors like changing pest ecology, price risks, multi crop systems and market dynamics needs attention.

Using data from the Situation Assessment Survey of Farmers of the NSS 59th round, for a drought period 2002-03, we derive baseline scenarios for regions in Gujarat and Maharashtra. Data from the field and ethnographic evidence in similar regions provide changes in conditions of cotton production in the drought year 2009-10. First, we show that Bt technology is first order stochastically dominated by non Bt technology for our sample of cotton growers in Gujarat and the Bt technology adds substantial input costs to the production system.

Second, findings from the village level study in Maharashtra provide evidence of technology uncertainty, rampant deskilling and sub-optimal production decision making by farmers with limited information. Widespread institutional failures in the market for seeds emerge as a major concern in the farmers’ adjustment process and demands immediate attention.

Last but not the least, we provide the first evidence on the riskiness of Bt cotton technology by employing a simple risk framework (Mishra 2008) which takes the ratio of costs with that of net returns from cultivation of a specific crop. In this theoretical framework Bt technology can be both risk increasing or risk decreasing given the actual conditions under which the production occurs, but empirical evidence presented in this analysis indicate that Bt cotton has been risk increasing.

Even though our datasets are limited in terms of external validity and we employed a mixed-methods framework to address our core research question, we get substantive qualitative and quantitative confirmation on the Bt technology being associated with increasing risk in a drought year. This perspective is critical for the technology evaluation because the farmers stand to lose more in bad crop years than they would have in the case of traditional varieties. Moreover, if the net gains from Bt (at higher expected yields) are offset by the high intensity losses (frequent or otherwise), the yield advantage promised by Bt seeds should be taken with a pinch of salt because the absolute returns are so low that an increase in returns in such years would not lead to an increase in savings that can be used to compensate in a bad year. The riskiness of this technology becomes even more important from the fact that around 65 per cent of India’s cotton is produced in rainfed conditions and 35 per cent is irrigated.

We would like to emphasize that this article is not an addition to the existing literature on the productivity or socio-economic impact of Bt cotton technology, rather it is an attempt to introduce a new perspective in evaluating the technology by analyzing farm level data from a nationally representative sample and field level data from an ongoing panel data based study in one of the most challenging socio-economic and institutional contexts where the merit of the technology could be put to test. The contribution of our paper is that it introduces an alternative perspective on how the inherent riskiness of a so-called innovation like Bt cotton should be identified, irrespective of its potential benefits or observed merits across different parts of the country and among different groups of farmers. We demonstrate how a neglect of the simple economics of crop production and the associated risk factors can play out against the farmers who make a conscious decision to adopt a particular technology given multiple constraints, with the hope that it will pay off well.

There are certain methodological issues in Bt cotton evaluation that have not been dealt with in this paper but could be taken up as future research. Bt hybrids outperforming the earlier non Bt varieties should not be taken as a positive increment in yield on account of Bt alone, and the separability of effects of the hybrid impacts from Bt traits in a seed should be strived at. Variability of yield and other dimensions like price risks need to be assessed rigorously. Moreover, Bt technology could also induce moral hazard in farming practices as the farmer would expect the superior technology to be causing higher yields. An analysis of the dynamic performance of the technology over an appropriate period of time across different agroclimatic conditions could throw more light and also help us study the associated effects on the ecology and environment. Despite these limitations, our analysis does suggest that the proposition – to Bt or not to Bt; demands more non reductionist analyses that take cognizance of the localized variations and institutional realities.

Those interested, may read the full paper, To Bt Or Not To Bt? Risk and Uncertainty Considerations in Technology Assessment.

Options and Priorities for Agriculture in India on the Eve of the Twelfth Five-Year Plan

noreply@blogger.com (Srijit Mishra) — Thu, 01 Dec 2011 06:38:00 +0000

Introduction

The Indira Gandhi Institute of Development Research (IGIDR), Mumbai and the Institute for Human Development (IHD), New Delhi with the support from the Planning Commission, Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and The World Bank conducted a two day workshop on 'Policy Options and Investment Priorities for Accelerating Agricultural Productivity and Development in India' at the India International Centre, New Delhi during 10-11 November 2011. Besides the inaugural session (where Dr Abhijit Sen, Member, Planning Commission delivered the keynote address), there were six technical sessions, viz., agriculture in the global perspective, agricultural growth, agricultural investments, technology, marketing and structural transformations, and three panel discussions on perspectives from the states, government perspectives and the way forward. Based on these deliberations, some policy aspects are raised on the eve of the twelfth five-year plan.

Issues and concerns

While agricultural productivity and development is an important question, there could be different perspectives such as increasing foodgrains production, providing livelihood security for more than half the population dependent on agriculture or efficiency in resource use of not only land but also water and other inputs. All these have their own rationale, but they can conflict with each other and that is the challenge for planning. In addition, questions of food inflation in recent times and the ongoing debate on food and nutrition security as also crop diversification, efficiency of small holdings and soil fatigue are also relevant concerns.

Learning from others

Drawing on the comparative study with a focus on Brazil, China and Indonesia, the lessons for India is to focus on research in facilitating appropriate technology, sprucing up the research and extension systems, emphasis on diversification and investment in infrastructure. At a global level, increasing hunger, adverse impacts on production on account of climate change and shift in acreage to biofuels among others are matters that are also pertinent for India.

Growth in agriculture: variation across states

After a period of deceleration from mid-90s, there has been a revival in agricultural growth in the eleventh plan, but this revival is being backed by a technology that is increasing the cost rather than reducing it, which jeopardises the livelihood sustainability of the mass of people dependent on agriculture. There are differences in priorities and policies across states and agro-climatic regions and the planning at the centre should take this into note. In particular, the rainfed regions and districts with lower productivity need special attention. The Rashtriya Krishi Vikas Yojana (RKVY) should be bottom-up in spirit and not just in letter, that is, start planning from the village level by involving the local communities based on their requirements.

Investments in agriculture: public and private

Public investments should sustain the momentum on irrigation, research & development, and rural roads; focus on rainfed and eastern region; and find ways to make fixed capital efficient among others. The policy environment to facilitate private corporate investment should also look into appropriate regulatory and institutional issues. Farmer household level private investment is complementary to public investment, but for this to happen, appropriate credit facilitation should be provided by the formal banking institutions keeping the marginal and small farmer in mind. Further, research should be encouraged with farm level data. The unit level data maintained by the Department of Economics and Statistics (DES) and used by Commission for Agricultural Costs and Prices (CACP) should be made available to researchers so as to help in the policy deliberations and planning process.

Technology: a critical link

New technological developments are required to improve production and this necessitates change in agricultural education, facilitating research that has to be integrated with on-field training and extension education, draws on farmers' innovations and incorporates the ecological concerns among others. For all these, appropriate additional investment is required in research and development. There should be ample scope to integrate Agriculture Technology Management Agency (ATMA) to the needs of the states with a focus on providing appropriate services, as required by the farmers. Efforts should be made to reduce yield gaps from research station potential to on-farm demonstration to actual farm outputs. Independent of the input-intensive cultivation, the alternative paradigm of rainfed cultivation with a focus on soil organic matter, supplementary irrigation, seed bank, millet production along with small ruminants and fisheries among others may be promoted on a pilot basis under the twelfth five-year plan in some selected blocks of backward rainfed districts. This also requires building up of farmer-friendly institutions to facilitate their livelihood security.

Market: beyond efficiencies

In recent years, Agriculture Produce Market Committee (APMC) laws have been enacted or are in the process of being enacted in most states, but some of the variation across states need to be bridged with subsequent amendments and the enacted laws need to be properly implemented and where there are no laws, appropriate regulatory structures need to be put in place. There is a case to empower marginal and small farmers by expanding their choice set so that they benefit from market transactions and this may be possible through pro-poor value chains, and appropriate contracts that are situation-specific to guard them against price and income shocks. Risk mitigation at the household level has to be based on diversification and low external input technologies. There is a need for appropriate insurance instruments – crop insurance at the farm level and weather-based insurance to factor in different stages of crops life cycle and input requirements.

Village studies: multiple perspectives required

The changing technological and market scenario as also socio-economic intervention is also bringing about a lot of changes in rural India. Revival of village studies from multiple perspectives would help complement our understanding from large scale surveys and macro data. Such studies need to be encouraged.

The way forward

On the eve of the twelfth five-year plan, the challenges for agriculture are multiple – climate change, foodgrains production, technology fatigue, resource use efficiency, food inflation, and livelihood security for those dependent on agriculture among others. It requires coming together of many domains and perspectives, as has been shown in this workshop wherein one received support from the government and multilateral organizations involving researchers from Indian as well as International institutes with an attempt to initiate a conversation between agricultural scientists and economists.

Alternative technologies emphasizing on sustainable and conservation practices with a focus on rainfed regions need to be explored. This has to be complemented with appropriate institutions: (1) those that organize farmers from the village level to aggregate their input and market requirements, (2) those that help to leverage scientific developments and the claimed potential with on-field outcomes at the farmer level through appropriate research and extension structure that are bi-directional in nature and also take into consideration the local situation – both agro-climatic as also socio-economic, and (3) those that facilitate collection and analysis of quality data at the micro (farm or household level including village studies), meso (regional or state-specific studies) and macro (aggregate economy level studies) level. There is also a case to bring together the concerns of agricultural development with that of rural development.

The task ahead is daunting. To quote Robert Frost, “…And miles to go before (we) sleep, And miles to go before (we) sleep.”

(This has been prepared by Srijit Mishra in consultation with S Mahendra Dev and with inputs from Ritika Palit, Sanjay Prasad, Upasana Sharma and D Suganthi.)

Some of my other recent related posts are:

Size-class and returns to cultivation in India

Food, hunger and ethics

Report on strengthening the role of agriculture for nutrition secure India

Poverty estimates in India

Size-class and returns to cultivation in India

noreply@blogger.com (Srijit Mishra) — Fri, 21 Oct 2011 07:47:00 +0000

'Size-class and returns to cultivation in India: a cold case reopened' is the title of a recent working paper from IGIDR that Sarthak Gaurav and I have co-authored. This revives the age-old debate on farm size and productivity that started in the early sixities by Amartya Sen.. Some excerpts from the abstract, introduction and conclusions of the working paper are given below.

Abstract

This paper investigates the relationship between returns to cultivation per hectare and sizeclass of land cultivated in India, using unit level data from the 59th round National Sample Survey, 2003. The analysis is done separately for ‘kharif’ and ‘rabi’ − for total value of cultivation from all crops at the all India level. The empirical evidence rejects the null hypothesis of no relationship and points to the existence of an inverse association. We argue that the efficiency of the small-holders has to be taken with a pinch of salt because their low absolute returns brings into focus the question of their livelihood sustainability which is further aggravated on account of higher unit costs. Being the first exercise in a series of proposed explorations into disaggregated analyses across states, and for specific crops, it opens up the classic debate on farm size and productivity in the 21st century.

Introdcution

In recent years, Indian agriculture has been reeling under a crisis and one of the concomitant outcomes is poor returns to cultivation which has rendered farming as an unsustainable livelihood option – particularly for the marginal and small holders.2 This also raises the long debated question of inverse relationship between size-class and productivity, that is, whether marginal and small farmers are relatively efficient vis-à-vis larger size-class farmers? The current paper explores this aspect of Indian agriculture using unit level data from the Situation Assessment Survey of Farmers, administered in the 59th round of the National Sample Survey (NSS).This survey was conducted during 2003 and collected information for the agricultural year 2002-03.This is the latest (and the largest) nationally representative dataset for analyzing the state of farming in India. By conducting the analysis at the unit level, to the best of our knowledge, we provide the first baseline fo r the 21st century. An attempt has been made to assesses the relationship between size-class and returns to cultivation; and in doing so, it expects to contribute and open-up the long drawn out, and till recently dormant debate.

...

Conclusions

An analysis of size-class and returns to cultivation using nationally representative data from the Situation Assessment Survey of Farmers (SAS) of the 59th Round of the National Sample Survey, for the period 2002-03 opens up the classic debate on the efficiency of the small holder. Our empirical results, computed separately for kharif and rabi, at an aggregate all India level as also for each size-class reject the null of absence of any relationship between size-class and productivity and indicate the existence of an inverse relationship. While the small holder seems efficient the low absolute returns raises questions on livelihood sustainability. This is also important from the perspective of the risk bearing capacity of the small-holders given the fact of their per hectare costs being higher.

To the best of our knowledge, these are the first estimates for the 21st century and at the pan-Indian level; and could be used as a baseline for comparative analyses in the future. Our empirical evidence can be considered as an important contribution to the literature on size-class and productivity relationship. While opening up this cold case we are aware that one needs to go down to further details and control for other factors that may affect returns to cultivation. It would be equally important to analyse the variation across states, social groups as also the crop-specific patterns. We plan to do some of these in a series of future exercises.

In spite of the limitations of our study, it is a first attempt at a fundamental problem in Indian agricultural using a nationally representative sample. Given the relevance of our findings in corroborating the story of a crisis in Indian agriculture on one hand, and with the promise to reopen the classic debate on farm size and productivity on the other, we argue for the need for further inquiries, and if feasible, a future round of the SAS as it is almost a decade since the first (and only) survey.

Those interested in the full paper can click, 'Size-class and returns to cultivation in India: a cold case reopened'.

Food, Hunger and Ethics

noreply@blogger.com (Srijit Mishra) — Fri, 30 Sep 2011 05:15:00 +0000

Food, Hunger and Ethics is the title of my new working paper, which has been accepted for publication in the Indian Journal of Medical Ethics. The abstract and key words are given below.

Abstract: Management of hunger has to look into issues of availability, accessibility and adequacy. Posing it from an ethical perspective the paper argues out in favour of right to food. But, for this to happen, the state has to come up with an appropriate and effective bill on food and nutrition security, address the issue of inadequate provisioning of storage space by state agencies leading to rotting of foodgrains - a criminal waste when people are dying of hunger, and rely on a bottom-up approach involving the community that complements the top-down administrative structure to identify poor and reduce both exclusion and inclusion errors in targeting.

To read the paper, see Food, Hunger and Ethics.

Key words: Bottom-up, cash transfers, exclusion and inclusion errors, foodgrains, Mahatma Gandhi, nutrition adequacy, poverty, Rawls, right to food, targeting, top-down, unique identification.

Links to some important papers referred to in the paper are as also given below.

What do we want form a theory of justice? by Amartya Sen

2010 Global Hunger Index

India State Hunger Index

Right to food campaign home page

Report of Expert Group to review the methodology for estimation of poverty, Chairperson: Suresh Tendulkar, 2009.

Wealth of Nations, by Adam Smith

Link to the paper Food, Hunger and Ethics

Report on Strengthening the Role of Agriculture for Nutrition Secure India

noreply@blogger.com (Srijit Mishra) — Wed, 21 Sep 2011 14:04:00 +0000

The Indira Gandhi Institute ofDevelopment Research (IGIDR), Mumbai and International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI), New Delhi organized a workshop ‘Strengthening the Role of Agriculture for Nutrition Secure India’ on 13 September 2011 at New Delhi.

In his welcome and opening remarks, PK Joshi pointed out that the concerns of hunger, micronutrient deficiencies and undernourishment should take our thinking beyond growth. He also mentioned that one per cent growth in agriculture has a greater impact on poverty reduction than a similar growth in non-agricultural sector. He urged the need to look at agriculture and nutrition linkages through three lenses - economic, social and governance.

S Mahendra Dev indicated that one of the purposes of the workshop is to bring in agriculture-nutrition linkages into the policy making exercise. In particular, the twelfth five year plan. Five concerns that he raised are (a) to increase productivity of rainfed resource poor regions with an emphasis on small and marginal farmers, (b) to diversify the diet beyond cereals and include locally available nutritious food, (c) to curb food inflation, particularly for proteins like pulses, (d) a greater need for empowerment of women, and (e) convergence of agriculture with other programmes. Also see his recent co-authored policy note, Pro-nutrition agriculture in India.

In his inaugural address, Vijay Vyas used some recent nutrition indicators on children and women from the National Family Health Survey (NFHS) where India, when compared with similar indicators for other countries, is nearly at the bottom. In addition to low levels, he also pointed out their persistence and in some cases the deterioration of malnourishment. To a large extent, India has addressed the issue of chronic hunger. But seasonal hunger, particularly during the period after sowing and before harvesting, for some sub-groups of population in agricultural communities is a matter of concern. However, when it comes to calorie-protein adequacy and micronutrient requirements we are still below the norm. We are not even able to provide 1800 calories to many and then again a substantial amount of what is provided is only through cereals. Thus, it is not just agriculture, but also the dietary intake, economic accessibility and environmental factors that matter. He reiterated the pivotal role of agriculture both as a supplier but also as a sector that can generate maximum demand. He called for more production, more variety in terms of nutri-cereals, fruits and vegetables and to make this possible the need for changes or a move beyond rice and wheat through policies of pricing, credit facilitation, distribution and institutional reforms among others.

The keynote address was given by RB Singh who began by quoting Hippocrates “Let food be thy medicine, thy medicine be they food” and then goes on to reiterate Dr Vyas’s point by presenting actual data on India’s poor nutrition indicators in a global comparative perspective, particularly with Brazil and China, for undernourishment, underweight children, low birth weight, low body mass index of mothers, greater fertility, higher child anaemia, lower expenditure on child care, lower vaccination, lower mother’s literacy and lower public expenditure. Both Brazil and China also intervened on clean drinking water, sanitation hygiene, education and awareness and backed this up with political will. He reminded the gathering about the Copenhagen Consensus 2008 reiterating the need for Lifelong Livelihood Security and how neglecting issues of child malnutrition can have adverse impacts on the economy. There is immense scope for research towards leveraging agriculture for nutrition. He put up a case in favour of new technology for seeds, but on genetic engineering he said that cisgenic (genes taken from the same species or a closely related one) will have certain advantages and less regulatory requirement when compared against the transgenic (genes from other species like the Bacillus thuringiensis or Bt). He also highlighted the importance of home/kitchen garden in meeting most of the micro nutrient deficiencies. He praised the rich gene biodiversity of India and said that we should maintain it and propagate agro-ecologically differentiated practices. Keeping the importance of children in this concern of nutrition, he concludes by showing the picture of a child with the caption “Hold my today; I will hold your tomorrow.”

In her presentation, Suneetha Kadiyala began by highlighting the overall scenario in India, higher growth, but not doing well in human development dimension and with much higher share of poor and malnourishment (both undernourished and overweight). The agriculture sector is not doing well and one has observed a high food price index. In the global hunger index, India is not doing well and the state-specific hunger index also does not augur well for almost all the states analyzed. To address nutrition problems, direct interventions like infant feeding and bio-fortification could address only one-third of the problem whereas indirect interventions through agriculture, social protection, education, health system, and women’s empowerment turn out to be important. Some of the emerging findings from their recent study are as follows. (a) A cross-country analysis indicates that agricultural growth helps in the reduction of stunting, but the result weakens when Indian states are included in the analysis suggesting a poor linkage or disconnect between agriculture and nutrition in India. (b) There is a data disconnect as the existing information make it difficult to analyze the said linkage. (c) Over the years, dietary diversity has increased and the food base has moved to non-cereal sources but mother’s education and household income seem to have a positive impact on diversity. Some of the key entry points from her presentation are that household income matters, agriculture influences dietary pattern, women’s asset ownership is critical for decision making and nutritional outcomes, and that direct health and nutrition interventions matter.

Praduman Kumar’s talk was from a small holder perspective. It began with the contrast that at an aggregate level, India is self-sufficient in food, but it also has the largest number of hungry and poor and most of them happen to be agricultural labourer and marginal farmers with less than one hectare of land. The presentation pointed out that demand, particularly of non-foodgrain crops will increase, but supply will not. This will increase prices and reduce per capita consumption and also have an adverse affect on dietary diversification. Thus, for a food/nutrition secure India we need to focus on livestock, education, irrigation, aquaculture, horticulture, and dryland agriculture. There is a need to bridge research and policy gaps and integrate them with local wisdom. The presentation ended by showing a critical triangle with the three dimensions being food security and agricultural growth, poverty reduction and rural development, and environmental sustainability.

The next presentation was on Food Security Atlas of Rural India by Preet Rustagi, which was based on a district level exercise for rural areas of eight states. At the district level they came up with two indicators – one on food security based on 12 indicators (of which four were on availability, six on access and two on absorption) and an outcome indicator based on underweight children and under-five mortality. From the 281 districts, 101 are food insecure (all the 18 in Jharkhand, most (13 out of 16) in Chhattisgarh, 29 out of 45 in Madhya Pradesh and 19 out of 30 in Odisha and the relatively food secure districts are mostly in Uttar Pradesh (16) and one each in Maharashtra and Rajasthan. There is a clear connection between food insecurity and low irrigation, poor connectivity, income insecurity, hilly terrain, higher proportion of scheduled tribes and scheduled castes, higher proportion of agricultural labourers, low agricultural wages and low female literacy. However, there did not seem to be much connection with the outcome indicators. Severe or extreme insecurity in outcome were observed in 82 districts (31 in Uttar Pradesh, 26 in Madhya Pradesh (there could be some connection here) and 15 in Rajasthan). The way forward is to focus on the food insecure and poor outcome districts on various associated risk factors, but the interventions should be locally relevant.

Speaking from a gender perspective, Bina Agarwal brought into the discourse some welfare and efficiency concerns. She vouched the concept of land bank, which can act as a depositor of landowners and creditors to tenants. The landowners could be given some minimum returns and higher returns if the land is put to use by tenants. The latter can work in groups, but they need not worry about going to individuals for leasing in. She also mentioned about integrating other support services for the final tiller.

Coming back again, S Mahendra Dev raised some additional issues. The question of availability/access is important, but so is the productivity of water. This reminds RB Singh’s keynote that one kilogram of potato requires 900 litres of water but one kilogram of beef requires 15,500 litres of water. The other concern is that of climate change, as it could adversely affect the yield. Other matters of concern are to bring nutri-cereals into the public distribution system, who should grow pulses (small or large farmers), the slowing growth of fruits and vegetables (or as someone said, the slowing down of horticulture revolution), bridging the gap in prices between what farmers receive and what consumers pay, and the need for convergence of different district level plan through the panchayati raj institutions. An important point that came up during the discussion is the increasing input costs and adverse impacts of pesticide usage.

Veena Rao, a bureaucrat, lamented that nothing much happened out of the National Nutrition Policy 1993 and the National Plan of Action on Nutrition 1995 where the linkage between agriculture and nutrition was spelt out. However, some of these have been taken up in the Karnataka Nutrition Mission. The important ones being that nutrition is to be addressed from a life cycle approach – infants, children, adolescents, lactating and pregnant mother; bridging calorie, protein and micronutrient deficiency through appropriate intervention to different target groups; accelerating, integrating and tightly monitoring multi-sectoral ongoing programmes; achieving convergence between different programmes and covering pragmatic gaps; involving civil society and community; launching awareness and making available nutritious and energy rich food at lower cost through public-private partnership. This reminds me of the ‘health and nutrition’ intervention through the Society for Elimination of Rural Poverty (SERP) in Andhra Pradesh. In some villages where nutritious food was given to lactating and pregnant mothers, the cost of food in some villages could be met by the participants doing some packaging work for the local grocery shop, and as a result none of the child births in this village was less than 3.5 kilograms – the proof of the pudding lies in its eating.

Kaustav Banerjee, representing the revitalizing rainfed agriculture, pointed out that from the perspective of availability at the aggregate level one should not be worried for foodgrains as a whole. While there availability at a local level does matter, but a matter of greater concern is the unavailability of millets in adequate quantities even at an aggregate level. Further rainfed agriculture comprises two-thirds of the farmed area but has attracted comparatively less policy design and interventions. Thus, there is the need for a new architecture to address this, which should be holistic and integrate agriculture with livestock and area development.

Comparing the Empowered Group of Ministers draft versions of the National Food Security Act to that prepared by the National Advisory Council, Biraj Patnaik pointed out that the former has several shortcomings. It does not have the definitions of some important concepts such as child, malnutrition, starvation, job chart and health centre upfront and the definitions of foodgrains, homeless person and public distribution system are relatively restricted. The entitlements for a person per day have been reduced from four to three kilograms of foodgrains. There are no special provision for single women, lactating and pregnant mothers, malnourished children and emergency and disaster affected persons. More importantly the rights of the people living with starvation have been watered down. As a result, the links with nutrition is absent. He also raised the attention of the house to two other things. The global land grab in Africa where many countries (including India) and private companies (including Indian) are leasing in land to produce food to address shortfalls in their own countries, besides building food reserves to make gains through speculation and trading, is contributing to less land being available for the production of food for the local economies in Africa. The other concern was on the role of the commodities futures markets and its implication on food prices (see the Report of the Expert Committee To Study the Impact of Futures Trading on Agricultural Commodity Prices, particularly the note by the Chairperson of the committee, Abhijit Sen).

In his remarks, Sukhadeo Thorat pointed out that some vulnerable social groups suffered more in terms of malnutrition. If one factors in the gender dimension, women from these social groups are found to be suffering more. To address this, there is need to have a group specific policy. He also pointed out that the larger scheme of things makes the farmer take a decision on crop production based on profitability and not on nutrition. See his co-authored policy note on addressing the unequal burden of malnutrition.

Ramesh Chand began by pointing out the weakening link between agriculture and nutrition and the paradox of higher production as also high prices and hunger existing concurrently. He raised the concerns of India being a global diabetic capital, of whether lower consumption of 1400/1600 kilocalorie by some people is because of absence of purchasing power or low requirement based on different homeostatic conditions, and of the fact that people continue to avoid purchasing nutri-cereals even in those regions/areas where their prices are lower than rice and wheat. The homeostatic argument reminded of PV Sukhatme's dissent note to the Report of the Expert Group on Estimation of Proportion and Number of Poor, pp.46-49.

Pravesh Sharma, a bureaucrat with the Small Farmers’ Agri-Business Consortium, made the last presentation where he outlined three things. First, he pointed out that the institutions of the 1970s that were meant to achieve a macro level food sufficiency are not appropriate to address livelihood and nutrition security. There is need to encourage producers organizations that embed technology credit and market and are also linked to pathways that foster food and nutrition security. Second, there should be diversification at the household or village level, which on the one hand will spread the risk of the small farmer, and on the other will also give the farmer household a healthy and varied nutrition basket. Third, there is a need to encourage the non-farm sector with good backward and forward linkages, as this would be of help for the small and marginal farmers, the local region as also the overall economy.

The day’s session ended with the remarks from Liz Drake, Department for International Development (DFID) and the hosts S Mahaendra Dev, Director, IGIDR and PK Joshi, In-charge, IFPRI, New Delhi. The takeaway from the exercise is that a small group will work towards formulating key policy suggestions that would be submitted to the Government of India. From IGIDR’s perspective, this has been a nice collaborative exercise with IFPRI and in New Delhi and one is looking forward to more such endeavours in the future.

(The author thanks Bhaskar Goswami for his suggestions on an earlier write-up.)

Also see my post, Food, Hunger and Ethics.

If a lie is told three times ...

noreply@blogger.com (Srijit Mishra) — Thu, 15 Sep 2011 13:28:00 +0000

I am writing this in response to a response on Aadhaar (UIDAI clarifies on Aadhaar), which itself was necessitated because of a note indicating Aadhaar: on a platform of myths.

If a lie is told three times, then it becomes the truth. However, if a lie is told umpteen times then ...

Faced with this dilemma, I cannot but agree with your observations Sharmaji. I agree that the Aadhaar or Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) cannot be compared with what happened in the UK and the USA. I also agree that India is capable of high-end technology. However, I have some questions from a layman’s perspective.

As the context of India is different from that of other countries, the context of Jharkhand is different from that of Delhi. Have we conducted some pilots or rather a series of pilots to understand the context and implications on service deliveries before agreeing on a mammoth project. If yes, then why is that not being discussed and deliberated?

Has the expenditure of so much money for UIDAI been discussed in the parliament? This is important because we were told about the supremacy of the parliament in the recent deliberations on 'anti-graft'.

It is said that Aadhaar will reduce graft. If that is so, then it might make sense to have a pilot for the beneficiaries of graft and come up with a system of tracing the unaccounted sources of wealth and penalizing them. Instead, I am told that it is targeting people who lost out because of apathy of functionaries through a public private partnership (PPP).

If the enrollment in Aadhaar is voluntary then how will a citizen not enrolled under Aadhaar get her entitlement for different services. If there is no recourse for that citizen, is the proposed system not unfair?

In a liberal democratic set-up, what is the value of privacy? Why is it different in India than it is in the UK or the USA?

If Aadhaar fails to reduce the ills then who will be accountable? Will it be the Prime Minister, the Parliament, the Planning Commission or the People of India?

For an earlier note of mine, see Aadhaar, Radiagate and Cablegate.

Anna, Bapu, Corruption, and Democracy - An Appeal

noreply@blogger.com (Srijit Mishra) — Fri, 26 Aug 2011 18:57:00 +0000

Anna Hazare's fast unto death from 16 August 2011 at Ramlila maidan, New Delhi, is a crusade against corruption that has taken the nation by storm. The unprecedented peoples participation was neither expected by the organizers of India Against Corruption (IAC) nor the Government of India. Much has been said in favour and against (for a repository of some of the write-ups see Jan Lokpal Bill and Anna Hazare). I am not reviewing any of these positions here. I just have a few independent observations to make.

First, Anna's fast and the non-violent nature of the movement has its roots with Bapu, the father of the nation Mahatma Gandhi. This brings into our domain the parallels with other recent people power based non-violent struggle such as the Tunisian and Egyptian revolutions or the Burmese struggle (see the two Reith lectures by Aung San Suu Kyi on Liberty and Dissent).

Second, different sections of the polity impute different meanings and have identified it in some way. It brings with it a hope for a just and fair society. Even those who disagree with team Anna's version and their method or approach agree that corruption needs to be done away with it. Put in other words, it is a call for doing away with vested interest. This is easier said than done as those powerful entities who have been benefiting will oppose. A protracted battle and dilly dallying is only expected.

At the core of contention is the Lokpal Bill against corruption, which was first introduced in the Parliament of India 42 years ago in 1968, but even after a number of modifications has not seen the light of the day. In recent years, the civil society spearheaded by IAC has come with an alternative Jan Lokpal Bill (Peoples Ombudsman Bill) and wants this version to be discussed in the parliament so that it forms a base for strong anti-corruption laws. The National Campaign for Peoples' Right to Information (NCPRI) have come up with another version. Some of the major differences in these three versions are with regard to the inclusion of the Prime Minister, inclusion of lower level Government functionaries, inclusion of civil society's that receive public funding, and separation of judiciary among others. One feels that good points from all versions can be taken to come up with a strong Lokpal Bill.

While discussing corruption, I want to take a small digression as this reminds me of a lecture given by one of my teachers (Professor Sourindra Barik, a Sahitya Akademi award winner in 1988) when I was in college about 25 years ago. He said that tacit toleration or in a sense acceptance of corruption is a matter of degree. For instance, if you want to meet an official and if the peon is preventing you from meeting the person then you grease the person by offering two paans or a five rupee note and you may not be happy about it but brush it aside and think that ye chalta hai (it is fine). But, after meeting the officer if you are told that your work will be done only if you pay (say, Rs.10,000 or some amount that you consider is substantial) then it will not be at a toleration/acceptance level, but you still cannot do anything about it - either you pay and get your work done or wait endlessly. In the current movement, the support of people is to show their solidarity to something they did not know what to do. Having got an opportunity, they are saying it loud and clear that our toleration/acceptance levels have breached and please do something about it.

This takes us to our last, but not the least, point - the relevance of democracy. On the one hand, we have a non-violent people-based movement. On the other hand, we have the movement raising some questions on parliamentary propriety. The question before us in a democratic polity is whether people are supreme or is the parliament supreme - a catch 22.

A democracy is by the people for the people and of the people. But, then it cannot be based on peoples whims and fancies - however reasonable the propositions may be. To weed out vested interests, there are some norms and institutions. There is a basic structure required for a democracy to function. They are, as laid down in our Constitution, the separation of powers between the Legislature, the Executive and the Judiciary and then we have the fourth estate - the media. The question here is if the persons (or, a dominant section of them) manning the important institutions themselves espouse some powerful vested interest then how do we go about.

Business as usual is not an option. In the current scenario, there is a need for peoples power indicated through the crusade against corruption to converge with Constitutional propriety. How? In this seeming disagreement, deliberative processes should be initiated to to bring about agreement and order. Some possible suggestions are the following.

First, all parties agree for a strong anti-graft law. Second, the Government agrees to initiate the deliberations in the Parliament in a sincere, honest and transparent manner and discuss all versions and takes the best points from all of these. Third, transparency requires that the deliberations are open to public so that they know who takes what positions (if possible to include the positions that the Bureaucrats take while providing suggestions). Fourth, this important discussion requires an open voting by each individual based on her or his own judgment and constituencies requirement. In short, no party can issue a whip on this. Fifth, as this is an open-ended discussion that all political parties have committed to, the outcome of the voting will not be construed as a vote for or against the Government. Sixth, all peoples representative should discuss with people from their constituencies as also the civil society and others to form a reasoned opinion. Seventh, provision may be made by the Government to interact with different representatives of the civil society as and when the situation warrants.

Before I end, I should commend the civil society and their representatives for getting this process on. As I see, this is going to be a long drawn-out struggle. Quoting Robert Frost I can only reiterate: "And miles to go before I sleep, And miles to go before I sleep." Hence, my humble request to Shri Anna Hazare. Sir, please give up your fast. If you so desire, continue it in a limited way, as per your Doctor's advise. But, please do give up your fast.

Long live Democracy! Long live Mother India.

(Those interested may see my earlier blog In Defense of Anna Hazare written on 13 April 2011 during his first round of fasting that led to the formation of a joint committee for drafting an anti-graft bill, but differences between them led to the Government and the civil society coming with two versions, and hence, the current logjam).

Poverty Estimates in India

noreply@blogger.com (Srijit Mishra) — Wed, 17 Aug 2011 01:07:00 +0000

Poverty Estimates in India: Old and New Methods, 2004-05 is the title of a new working paper published from the Indira Gandhi Institute of Development Research (IGIDR), Mumbai. It has been co-authored by Durgesh C. Pathak, a post-doctoral fellow whom I have been mentoring for the last two years, and myself. This paper is dedicated to the memory of Late Professor Suresh D. Tendulkar who passed away recently on 21 June 2011. Below I give excerpts that draw from the two quotations that the paper begins with, the abstract, introduction and concluding remarks.

The poor are a part of necessary furniture of the earth, a sort of perpetual gymnasium where the rich can practice virtue when they are so inclined. - Francesco Guicciardini (Discorsi Politici)

But I, being poor, have only my dreams;
I have spread my dreams beneath your feet;
Tread softly because you tread on my dreams...
- W. B. Yeats

Abstract

This paper provides estimates of poverty and inequality across states as also for different sub-groups of population for 2004-05 by using the old and new methods of the Planning Commission. The new method is critically evaluated with the help of some existing literature and its limitations discussed with regard to doing away with calorie norm, use of median expenditure as a norm for health and education when the distribution is positively skewed, difficulty in reproducing results for earlier rounds acting as a constraint on comparisons, and using urban poverty ration of the old method as a starting point to decide a consumption basket. More importantly, it discusses the implications on financial transfers across states if the share of poor is only taken into account without accounting for an increase in the total number of poor. Despite these limitations, on grounds of parsimony and prudence the state-specific poverty lines suggested in the new method, as also in the old method, are used to calculate incidence, depth (intensity) and severity (inequality among poor) estimates of poverty for different sub-groups of population, viz., NSS regions, social groups and occupation groups.

Introduction

In India, the quinquennial rounds of national sample survey (NSS) of consumption expenditure have been instrumental in providing us with an estimation of head count ratio. The Report of the Task Force on Projections of Minimum Needs and Effective Consumption Demands (Government of India, 1979) looked into the age, sex and activity specific nutritional requirements and arrived at a per capita norm of 2400 calorie for rural and 2100 calorie for urban and based on this a monthly per capita expenditure (MPCE) of Rs.49.09 in rural and Rs.56.64 in urban was identified as the poverty line for 1973-74. This was updated to accommodate price changes over time. The Report of the Expert Group on Estimation of Proportion and Number of Poor (Government of India, 1993) proposed the use of independent poverty lines for each state and updating them by looking into the state specific changes in prices. This formed the basis for official estimates of poverty provided by the Planning Commission till recently (hereafter, old method).

Some of the criticism of this approach is that the updated prices may not represent the calories norm that they were initially pegged to, that the calorie norms should change because of demographic shifts in age and sex and change in occupational patterns, that basic requirements like health, education, sanitation and housing are not included in the calculation of poverty line, that a reference period of 30 days may not be appropriate for low frequency items of consumption expenditure among others. These have been partly addressed in the Report of the Expert Group to Review the Methodology for Estimation of Poverty (Government of India, 2009) leading to a new set of poverty estimates for the year 2004-05 that have now been accepted by the Planning Commission (hereafter, new method).

The current exercise focuses on three points. First, it discusses critically the new methodology in the light of a brief review of some recent literature by various scholars. Second, it analyses the change in shares of poverty across states and union territories (hereafter, states) that will occur due to this shift. It also tries to briefly hint the possible repercussions of these changes on poverty reduction efforts in states. Third, it provides estimates of proportion of poor (head count ratio or incidence of poverty), depth (poverty gap or intensity) and the severity (poverty gap squared or inequality among the poor) at various levels of disaggregation like states, NSS regions, social groups and occupational categories.
...

Concluding Remarks

The Planning Commission accepted the suggestions by an Expert Group that it had constituted leading to a new method for estimating poverty in India using NSS's consumption expenditure data for 2004-05. The new method replaces the uniform recall of 30 days for all consumption items to a mixed recall where consumption of five low frequency items were collected for the last year (365 days) and appropriately adjusted to get a monthly per capita expenditure. It also takes into consideration health and education needs that the old method had not incorporated in its calorie norm. While doing these, it also opened up a number of other issues.

First, it did away with the benchmarking of a poverty line with a calorie norm that the old method was based on. They did not let the calorie norm go away totally. A reference is made to an FAO (Food and Agriculture Organization) calorie norm being achievable around its poverty line, but then this norm is for light and sedentary activities that may not adequately capture the energy needs of the poor who put in hard labour. Second, while factoring in health and education expenditure is a positive step, using median expenditure as a norm for a positively skewed expenditure distribution may not represent the actual requirement of a poor person. Third, having done away with a calorie norm, it begins with the poverty ratio for urban India from the old method as given. Using this ratio on the mixed recall it generates a consumption basket at the aggregate level for urban India and then uses this to generate a poverty line for states around this basket. This means that instead of using state estimates to compute a weighted all India average, it begins with the latter. A bottom-up method is replaced with a top-down approach. Fourth, the computation of consumption basket requires use of data from other rounds of NSS as also from other sources. The whole procedure is quite cumbersome and replicating it for earlier rounds or even for thin rounds is difficult and in many cases not possible. This will also have implications on the usage of time series poverty trends in macro modelling.

From a policy perspective, the new method will lead to change in share of poor. If financial transfers across states do not account for an increase in the number of poor or have a budget constraint then this means that the poorer states would end up getting less.

Despite these limitations, on account of pragmatic considerations as also for parsimony and prudence, the state-specific poverty lines have been used for computation of poverty at various sub-groups. This has been attempted in this paper for NSS regions, social groups and occupation groups for both the old and new methods. The relatively higher incidence of poverty among scheduled tribes in rural areas and scheduled castes in urban areas for social groups and that of agricultural labourers and other labourers in rural areas and casual labourers in urban areas for occupation groups have been discussed.

Though they do not play any active role in poverty estimation, yet the poor have maximum stake in poverty analysis as they are at the receiving end. Thus, a move towards a bottom-up approach where the poor get involved in the understanding of vulnerability, particularly in the implementation of policies (including on identification of poor and poverty alleviation) so as to bring in greater accountability and transparency is called for . In its absence, every attempt to define and measure poverty is like treading on the dreams of poor. If poverty measure chosen is going to help them, at least some of these dreams would become a reality. Otherwise they dry like leaves fallen from trees.

For details see the paper, Poverty Estimates in India: Old and New Methods, 2004-05.

Jharkhand Trip, 9-11 June 2011

noreply@blogger.com (Srijit Mishra) — Fri, 17 Jun 2011 01:36:00 +0000

Currently I have taken up a work to evaluate PRADAN (Professional Assistance for Development Action), a civil society that has been engaged for more than 25 years in livelihood enhancement in 43 of the poorest districts spread across eight states in India. In this context, I had been to Jharkhand during 9-11 June 2011.

Ranchi, the capital of Jharkhand is the new emerging city showing signs of haphazard growth. It is still not late and care should be taken to expand with wide roads and landscaping that is natural to the region. After a quick breakfast, Narendranath (from the Delhi office of PRADAN who had earlier spent a decade of his field days in Goda and Hazaribagh areas when Jharkhand was part of undivided Bihar) and I moved over to Khunti, a newly carved out district from Ranchi on 12 September 2007. It is a very historical place, as Kunti and her five sons (the Pandavas) were supposed to have stayed here during their agyantavas (years of anonymity) and also the birth place of Bhagwan Birsa Munda, and we happened to be there 111 years after he died under mysterious circumstances in the Ranchi jail when he was just 25 years. I just wonder what would have been the course of Indian history if Bhagwan Birsa was alive for another 50 years. Would there be 'green hunt' today?

I had a quick interaction with a few of their staff and then moved over to a Mundari village - on the way I saw the path to the village where Bhagwan Birsa was born, the hillock where he organized meetings as also the presence of operation green hunt. PRADAN's intervention in a village begins by organizing women self help groups (SHGs). We were welcomed by flower garlands prepared by the different groups. The local PRADAN staff facilitated the women folk in drawing out a village resource mapping and planning of what could be done. With help from a special Swarnjayanti Gram Swarozgar Yojana (SGSY), which has now become the National Rural Livelihood Mission (NRLM). Mango plantation has been done in lands that were otherwise barren. Some poultry and goat rearing activities have also been initiated. Most importantly, it is this village that featured in Ek Ropa Dhan, on System of Rice Intensification (SRI) cultivation, that bagged the best promotional film at the 58th National Film Awards in 2010. The intervention in this village for SHGs for women built on the existing strength of the traditional gram sabha (which even today is largely a male affair) that has been functioning regularly. Today, however, there are occasions when the views of women are sought at times.

We went to another village where I was shown of an intervention facilitated by PRADAN that has transformed a rocky barren land to a mango orchard. Seeing the success, other similar land are also being extended to orchards. I had a late evening interaction with PRADAN staff who had returned from their field locations and then returned back to Ranchi.

Early in the morning we left for Hazaribagh, rather Barhi block. Unlike, Khunti, this is not a tribal belt. Small women owned poultry farms and tasar weaving are some of the interventions in this region. Some SHGs have been operating for nearly two decades. I was told that some of these are functioning independently and some are now part of other groups - splintered from PRADAN. It would be worthwhile to know the level of interactions and the benefits. Also relevant would be to know about the SHGs that might have closed down.

We also went to a village with a number of women-run poultry farms. Some of the questions raised during discussions were risks associated with poultry farming on account of diseases and price shocks. The system followed by PRADAN spreads the risks and absorbs the shocks while providing income.The last interaction was at Padma block. Here the women were very articulate. There were strong discussions on dowry, and in particular the issue of desertion of women, particularly among Muslims.

By the time we reached Hazaribagh we were joined by Abhijit and Souvik from Koderma and Goda respectively. One of the problems they indicated is the male migration and the unwillingness of the youth to engage in manual labour work (particularly the youth from the middle peasant communities). Thus agriculture has become a domain of the women whereas men migrate out in search of jobs (handling mechanized earth movers and with increasing susceptibility to diseases like AIDS, acquired immune deficiency syndrome). What are the livelihood interventions that would keep the men back and also save the family are important questions? The next day we returned to Ranchi and had a long discussion with Satya on the tasar story - Silken Spread.

Two days in Boston and back to Mumbai

noreply@blogger.com (Srijit Mishra) — Mon, 23 May 2011 05:51:00 +0000

As indicated in my previous blog we rolled into Boston, a historical city from the American was of Independence, but also from the academic perspective. I did share with my co-participants on the famous Cambridge capital controversy with people from both the Cambridge's taking part in 1960s and early 1970s. The prominent among them being Joan Robinson and Piero Sraffa from the University of Cambridge, United Kingdom and Paul Samuelson and Robert Solow at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Cambridge, United States. The former pointed out some important problems in the aggregation of capital, reswitching and on the foundations of neoclassical economics. The latter did concede to some of these but despite that the teaching of economics worldwide (including at University of Cambridge also) got dominated by the neoclassical thinking and students in many schools at the United States not being aware of this problem. A good retrospective of this debate is Whatever Happened to the Cambridge Capital Theory Controversies.

Another development at Harvard is the seminal book by John Rawls, A Theory of Justice in 1971 (though I refer to the more recent Justice as Fairness: A Restatement of 2000 in my classes and in discussions) that had a serious assault on the utilitarian basis of neoclassical economics because of his articulation of reasonable pluralism - different things are intrinsically relevant on their own merit and not because of their relevance to utility. Rawls also brought on other aspects such as 'original position' which means that (free and equal) people who take decisions are under a veil so that they do not know who they are and this will help keep away vested interest. With this and other fundamental ideal he goes on to put forth two principles of justice: First that there has to be equal liberties for all. Second, some inequalities are inevitable and they are of two types. The first inequality is that the most deserving persons should be appointed to positions of power so that societies concerns are carried forward in the best possible way and the second inequality is that while taking decisions the most vulnerable persons or subgroups interest should be maximized. The latter inequality is not a trade-off with better of individuals but rather preempts trade-offs where the interest of better-off is maximized by disregarding the interests of the worse-off.

Getting back to the trip. Our earlier schedule (the one that I received by email before leaving India) for 20 May 2011 was an evaluation day. But, there was no such official evaluation and it was a free day. We decided to go on a tour of Boston. Just outside Marriott Cambridge, where we were staying, towards the Kendal Station side is also the bus stop for local tours. At first the person wanted to sell us a ticket for 42 dollars. When we were a little hesitant then he said that he can reduce it to 39 dollars meant for students or give us ticket for another provided that is for 30 dollars - the difference being that the frequency of the latter bus is 20 minutes whereas that of the former is 10 minutes. Again, the latter ticket could also be used for two consecutive days and if we want a ticket for a single day then it would be 24 dollars. We decided for the single day and when we boarded the first bus we were told that we can use this ticket for the next day also because some logistics meant that there will be no services for this tour after 2.30 pm on our first day. Of course we did not need it on the second day.

Our first stop was Boston commons (a place traditionally used by farmers to graze their cattle) and one where there are people dressed in 18th century attire and explaining to people about the freedom trail. It was nice to see the history being told and retold to groups of attentive children.

The second stop was harbor from where we took a boat ride and were told about Boston's historic significance in maritime trade and some industry that developed but they no longer exist . We got off on the other side of the harbor at Charles Town where there is a US Naval Meuseum and took the bus ride to Trinity church near Copley square surrounded by the Westin Hotel, the Public Library and the the Old South church. There was a farmers market in the square and from a baker came to know that they also barter with fellow sellers. This is done at the end of the day when there is a mutual interest and at times they may also sell in exchange for coupons. A coupon is a guarantee given by the farmers market association in exchange for produce sold to those customers who paid by credit card at a central point. In the market one also met a Maple syrup seller from Vermont.

Back in the hotel had a long discussion with Sarthak. He is currently at Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania and had planned a visit to Boston to match mine. Both of us talked about his thesis and other work that we are doing and walked down to MIT and Harvard and took picture with John Harvard and then took a train back to Kendall and had a nice dinner at The Legal Seafood and discussed about size-class productivity in Indian agriculture late into the night.

On 21 May 2010 my flight was scheduled at 10.15 in the night, but checked out from the hotel at 12 noon. Our luggage was stored and we were given access to the business center but as one of the co-participants, had a flight in the afternoon and as it is the same waiting in the lobby or at the airport, I left early. This has added to the jet lag and though I am tired I am not able to sleep, and hence, this post. There is lot of work pending but that needs some rest before I start.

The whole experience has been wonderful. Nevertheless, the first feeling when back in amchi Mumbai is sare jahan se acha hindustan hamara.

From Burlington, Vermont to Boston by Bus

noreply@blogger.com (Srijit Mishra) — Fri, 20 May 2011 03:13:00 +0000

We left the hotel at Burlington by 8.45 and moved over to Tetra Tech ARD's office at Burlington. There interventions in six areas, namely, Agriculture & Economic Growth, Democracy & Governance, Environment & Natural Resources, Land Tenure & Property Rights, Water Resources & Infrastructure, and Information & Knowledge Management. They mentioned about their interventions in Bangladesh and Nepal as also many other countries across the world on agriculture related aspects. Some of the larger concerns raised were increasing population pressure, availability of technology to produce more food without increasing costs and risks, and the need to work with farmers. There was a thinking that if farmers are not using fertilizers to increase productivity then they are not taking the rational approach but this questioning also stems from not being able to view the farmers perspective. At the end of the meeting we were given a sample of Vermont's Maple syrup.

Our next stop was Cold Hollow Cider Mill which specialized in making products from Apple, another product of Vermont. Had a sample of fresh and raw apple juice and picked up some tidbits of wooden toys. It is from here that we went to Stowe where we had lunch. Over lunch Roger the driver of the van was mantioning that about 40 millioniores own a vaccation home there. Even Jackie Kennedy used to come here for her skiing. The next stop was at Cabot, a cooperative of dairy farmers since 1919 that is known for its cheese in this region. From here we moved on to the last official stop at Ben and Jerry's took a tour of their ice cream factory which has some fair trade practices in paying appropriate prices to the farmers from whom they get milk and insist that they do not use any growth inducing hormones and also insist that the farmers pay their workers well.

We reached Mariott at about 7.30 pm. This hotel has its class as it is the costliest, but slightly disappointing for the participants as it does not give some facilities that we were used to - complimentary breakfast, free internet in room for those with laptops. In the evening we went out for a stroll to Charles river and then all the participants including Alan had dinner together at the Legal Sea Foods, Kendall square, for the first time. It was a nice evening together where we talked about us being at the intellectual hub lose to MIT, Harvard and the Boston college.

Tour of Hardwick, Craftsbury, Montplier in Vermont

noreply@blogger.com (Srijit Mishra) — Thu, 19 May 2011 03:40:00 +0000

The day began with a nice breakfast and we left at 10 am to Hardwick. The economy of the region has not been doing well in recent years. The Center for an Agricultural Economy (CAE) has been trying to revive some of the farm related business around the region. Their Program Director Elena Gustavson and a Masters student working on her thesis Heather Davis explained to us the situation in Vermont. The amount of crop land growing organic would be about 15 per cent but it is only about two per cent in the whole country. Similalry, the population associated with Community Suported Agriculture (CSA) would be about three-to-four per cent but it is only one per cent in the country. The figures are low, but they are much better than the country as a whole. On food insecurity for the state, we were told that it has increased from 10 per cent of the population in 2007 to 12.1 per cent in 2009. On the other hand, this is a healthy state and the life expectancy of the state is among the highest. The harsh weather conditions have also developed a camaraderie where people are ready to help each other.

An activity that CAE has been involved is the setting up of the Vermont Food Venture Center. It has come up as an incubator kitchen to facilitate farmers with small business. The center has been built on a federal grant but the day-to-day management expenses have to be borne from the operations. It is likely to commence work soon and the farmers can get their produce to help them come up with finished products for bakery, cutting and processing vegetables and also producing sauces and jams. The farmers will have to pay about 48 dollars per hour to take advantage of this facility. This will help small farmers package and sell their produce and also perhaps help them reduce their costs in the value addition activity.

We then went to Bonnieview farm where there are about 200 sheep from which they produces cheese and they are helped by an intern, Joe, from an agricultural college who is also learning through this on-the job training. He plans to further study and someday be a farmer on his own. The prolonged winter this year was harsh on the lambs and they lost a few. They have a Llama, an animal that saves the sheep from predators. There are plans of expanding the business by getting more lamb and also some cows.

Our next stop was Pete's Green, a village farm at Craftsbury, Vermont. They are part of a CSA, but suffered losses due to fire in their storage yards in January 2011. They were underinsured because of astronomical insurance costs and received about 250,000 dollars as compensation whereas their total losses was three-to-four times more. Their clients raised funds of about 100,000 to 150,000 dollars. It is this response from the community that has made the proprietor think that in five-to-seven years time they will repay the money to a fund to be managed through the help of CAE that will help similar farmers in distress. Now they are trying to revive their work and they will start CSA again from end June of 2011. They are able to supply through out the year by storing some foods that cannot be produced in winter and also by producing some vegetables under greenhouses during winter.

Our last visit, also at Craftsbury, was Sterling College where they have a course on sustainable agriculture. They provide hands-on training to students and unlike other agricultural colleges most of the training uses minimum of machines and tools. About 25 students join per year for a four year program. The tuition fees and also lodging and board costs would be around 16,000 dollars. The college also produces 25 per cent of its food requirements - they are not able to increase it more because this could affect the academic content of the program. They also had a greenhouse but this does not use any heat machine during winter. The plants do not grow but are put in a dormant stage. This reminided me of the Scandinavian story of how a man had hid his father in the basement against the kings's dictum of killing all old age people. But, a very harsh food shortage during one winter led him to take advise from his father to plough the lands along side the road where grains would have been burried but the seeds would have been dormant and ploughing in the spring following winter would germinate these seeds. It is this act that saved the land from hunger and the king from realizing his folly. Getting back, the larger concerns of sustainable agriculture is to reduce costs so that more and more farmers take it up while remaining small.

On our way back we stopped and Montplier the capital of Vermont. Their capitol has a statue of Ceres the Roman godess of agriculture indicating the relevance of agriculture in Vermont's economy. One of the major agricultural products of Vermont is Maple syrup. This is produced by boiling the sap of the maple tree that is collected in a six-week period after winter and before spring, which at times is refered to a fifth season the muddy season. Vermont borders Canada and is about 90 miles from Montreal, the capital of Quebec in Canada.

In the evening we went to the Lake Champlain Regional Chamber of Commerce monthly meeting. Met an wall street analyst who was pissed up that half the Americans need to be given subsidy because they are hungry or old or vulnerable and thought that if this happens then the economy cannot revive. Then on a high he started talking about his horse and how for the last half mile he gets down and walks along with him. I told him that that is perhaps the solution to the financial mess - we need to walk together. He agreed that the greed was indeed a problem if you whip the horse and wound it to take you faster and faster then it will trip and you will ultimately fall. Another financial analyst said that he is now producing onions and tomatoes as a hobby - perhaps he will have time to empathize on the farmers. Another group I met was The Chill Foundation that is helping the undeserved youth - most importantly they teach them patience, persistence, responsibility, courage, respect, and pride. Important lessons here!

Eli was considerate enough to drop me back and on the way showed me the floods along the banks of Lake Champlain, which also borders New York state on the other side. It is time I call it a day. Tomorrow we start early, move around in Vermont and in the evening drive down to Boston.

Reached Burlington, Vermont

noreply@blogger.com (Srijit Mishra) — Wed, 18 May 2011 02:35:00 +0000

The trip was tiring as usual. Things were smooth at Cedar Rapids where we also confirmed at the United Airlines about my return trip, which one is supposed to do 72 hours before departure. The flight to Chicago was short.

We had a two-and-a-half hour stop there and took and soon after being airborne there was a beautiful view of a waterbody. It could not be the seas and less likely to be a river. It is the Lake Michigan. It was really huge and nice to watch as it took some time for the lake to cross the breadth.

After about two hours of flying we landed at Burlington, Vermont in the midst of a forest. Vermont is referred to as the land of green mountains and the most environment friendly state. Its biggest attraction is tourism - skiing and other ice sports in winter, and also attractive in the othe seasons.

We are putting up at the Green Mountain Suites, a nice place to stay. In the evening just after we arrived they had complimentary drinks (beer, wine, juice or plain water) and snacks given to all, a feature from Monday to Friday in addition to the complimentary breakfast that we were told is quite spread out. This also has this business centre. Our local host here is Vermont Council on World Affairs and our contact person is Eli.

In the eveing we strolled down to the local shopping Mall about 500 meters from here. Not very successful in my endeavours and had to get out before it closed to go to the supermarket and get some grub for dinner. The climate is pleasant and slightly colder than Cedar Rapids. Rain is predicted for the next two days when we are around here, but I am expecting it to be a smooth affair. Tomorrow we are visiting local farms and I am looking forward to it.

Local and slow versus industrial and fast food

noreply@blogger.com (Srijit Mishra) — Tue, 17 May 2011 04:11:00 +0000

The day began with an interaction with local foods connenction, Laura Daud. She tries to bring together the farmers through Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) to low-income people. Most of the low income people are either single-women parents or children or old. In terms of communities they are either Hispanic or Latin Americans or Immigrants (there are a number of them from Sudan). In the usual marketing channel a farmer gets 20 cents of the dollar paid by the consumer, but through the local foods the farmer gets about 90 to 100 per cent of the dollar paid by the consumer. The poor are used to less healthy food and effort is required to make them appreciate local foods with a vegetable and fruit diet. It is difficult to take them out of the habit of fast food which also is easily accessible.

Generally under CSA the farmer gets the food baskets to a common place from where people pick up their baskets. However, under local foods some farmers who deliver at home are tied up with old and physically disbaled households who will have difficulty in traveling.

Another problem about the poor is difficulty in accessing health care. Poor people can access some free medicare, but that will not help them for chronic diseases. Another thing is that when they seek care they will have no bargaining power. The insured always hve their insurance companies who negotiate and reduce the medical bill much after the acture care has happened but this recourse is not their for the poor who pay out-of-pocket.

The next stop was at the slow food restaurant Devotay. Food for international participants was waived by the owners Chef Kurt and Kim Friese. The tip on behalf of the participants was paid by Laura from local foods. The concept of this type of dining is to enjoy food in the company of people at a leisurely pace as against the fast, cheap and easy. After lunch Chef Kurt spoke us at length about the movement's start in Rome, Italy in 1986.

This movement is also antithetical to the industrial agriculture, which is being referred to as conventional but that is not the correct thing as it is anything but conventional. Its emergence is not even 50 years old and has failed. In the new method of cultivation, overall production has increased, but it has less nutrients and with more sodium and nutrients and vulnerable to more attack from insects, diseseases and fungus. The emphasis on producing big has now put us in a situation where a billion people suffer from hunger and a large number who are overfed with unhealthy food. In the United States it started in the 1970s under Nixon with the thinking that a farmer has to 'get big or get out'.

Another watershed in the United States agriculture is 10 Deccember 2001 when a Supreme Court judge (who earlier was an attorney for an agri-business seed producing company) passed a ruling in favour of utility patent (as against the plant patent). In the new scheme of things if the gened owned by a company is found in any other plant either because of pollination or whatever process the farmer has to pay the company.

The alternative to this is food that is associated with pleasure, awareness and responsibility. More importantly food should be good, clean and fair that is the producer of food should get a fair price. This is very essential not only in the United States and in other countries. In India, more that 50 per cent of the population are depenedent on agriculture. They are either farmers with an average holding of 2.5 acres (1 hectare) or agricultural labourers. These producers of food are also net buyers. Their status as net buyers is used to keep prices low, but the latter hurts them more.

One also needs to know that the recent prices increases of food are more to do with the middlemen and less with the benefits to the farmer. A sadder part from India is that in the last 15 years more than 250,000 farmers have committed suicides. More of this in Agrarian Crisis in India. To get back to Chef Kurt, I will end by saying that his co-authored book Chasing Chilies: Hot Spots Along the Pepper Trail is about the changing climate and the need for resilience.

The last meeting was with Mr Richard of Kirkwood community education centre and Mr Bard Buchanan, a distributor of Pioneer seeds who also provides extension on soil health managment with the use of global positioning system. The information here told us the advantages of being big - the corn-soyabean cycle. The need for foodgrade quality production when it is for human consumption and with less stringent requirements when it is for animal feed. We were told that more than 90 per cent of corn is now genetically modied and it would be probably about 80 per cent for soyabean. The contaminaton for non genetically modified is more for corn as there is cross pollination but for soyabean this is not there as it is based on self pollination. The advantages of genetic modified in reducing some pests/diseases was told, but its implication on other new diseases was not very clear.

Climate change is another important question. Mr Richard pointed out that the data with us may not tell us anything conclusively but then if we wait for data we would have lost out on time. Even with the danger of dubbed non-scientific it is better to be cautious than regret.

It has been a tiring one and it is time I call it a day. Tomorrow we move to Burlington, Vermont.

Visit to Amana Colonies

noreply@blogger.com (Srijit Mishra) — Mon, 16 May 2011 03:21:00 +0000

Today it was a nice surprise as one of my friends from University of Hyderabad student days, Lakshmi who was doing her linuistics there, came over from Nebraska with her husband, Madhusudhan (Masa) and son, Miti who has entered his teen. It was nice because we did not interact much during our student days; of course, we have been in touch virtually in recent years. The hightlight was the gift with the tag 'good teachers think out of the box.' They came down with us to Amana colonies and it was a nice time spent.

Amana colonies, like the Amish villages we went yesterday, have a German origin. The Amaa colonies have a lot of handicrats - furniture, wollen, restaurant, brewery and other shops. It is a nice outing for a Sunday.

At the brewery we chatted up with people about American history, culture and politics. How it is perfectly right for an Iowan to talk about weather and pets but it is more about politics and who you claim to know at Washington DC and people will hardly have any time in New York leading to the saying that if you stop moving then you will be run over. Coming from a fast-paced Mumbai, one can empathise with this, as one has also heard umpteen times that the only place faster than Mumbai is New York.

There was a discussion on taxation and how the rich can always get away by paying less. The emphasis on private property means that many people argue against taxes being used for distribution purposes. Instead, low taxes and investments are argues as alternatives for gererating employment and in that sense spreading out the reach of wealth through some trickle down.

On government expenditure, it is the defense that takes a larger pie and the rest are all from a small proportion. This limits the distributional outreach of the government. This means that we need to tax more, but we have been reducing taxes.

Another justification that one hears is the role of the market in fostering growth. One does not deny this, but observes that the relevance of the market as conveived by the founding fathers (to provide freedom in selling and buying goods and services) is missing. And in that sense, fostering freedom and an enhancement of capabilities of more and more individuals to participate in the market is also missing. The relevance and role of the market has been turned on its head. Market, instead of a being a means has become an end. The growth of the market (owned by a few) is given precendence over the freedom of the market.

In the economics sense, the relevance of the market and its justification as an efficient outcome comes from perfect competition. In this kind of a market the efficiency argument follows from an assumption that there are many buyers and sellers. If this is missing then the argument in favour of efficiency also falls. Does, this mean that we do away with the market. No, we do not. But we should be careful of the possible pitfalls. In particular, the vested interests need to be kept out. This requires some structural differences in organising the market and regulating it witout stifling innovation. There is an increasing need to think out of the box.

Visit to Amish Farm, Kalona

noreply@blogger.com (Srijit Mishra) — Sun, 15 May 2011 02:01:00 +0000

Today it has been raining cats and dogs all day lond. A student volunteer from the University of Iowa who was to pick us up got delayed because of some road block and the detour also made him loose his way. He happened to be from Odisa, my home state in India.

We went to the East West Bank where CIVIC was having its board meeting. The board members had some pot luck lunch in which we joined. Later Danielle, their executive director took us to an Amish village centre at Kalona. From here we went in a bigger van with another group of travellers to an Amish farm where we met Mr Paul. Before we started we were told no taking pictures of people. As it was raining we could not go around the farm but were first shown the buggies, horse drawn carriages that they still use today.

In the farms they still use tractors without rubber tyres so that they cannot use it for tranportation and other purposes. He has about 120 acres that he uses as a cattle ranch and also has some hogs, horses (for the carriage) and grows some vegetables ocassionally. He does not give any drugs to the hogs and the cattle are fed only with grass. This is healthier as the cattle will have less fat. More importantly the grass he grows is organic where no pesticides and fertilizer is used. He has spaced the growth the cattle in such a maner that he sells a couple of them every month, but he manages it in such a way that he avoids the growth of a baby calf during January/February when it is very cold.

I may mention that the Amish way of life is simple and they try to avoid modern facilities. They do not have any electricity. Their houses do use gas for heating as also for refrigeration. Amish children go to school in their community till about eighth grade and after that they do not do much schooling. The Amish think that they children learn all that they require to run a farm or a family by the age of 16. It is around the age of 18 that children are allowed to go and interact with the outside world for two years and then they decide whether to be with the community or not. Most of them join back in the community.

They generally have large families. Mr Paul has 11 children and only one, a daughter, is married. There is an increasing incidence of the young of remaining unmarried for a longer time. There are youth of 35 years of age who are still unmarried, which was not the case when Mr Paul, now 63, was younger.

Most of the Amish farmers are organic, they avoid pesticides and fertilizers, but some may be using it. The social construction of gender is that by 16 years of age the boys learn all farm activities. They can do all that their father can do. Similarly, girls learn all household chores and gardening.

Mr Paul has a very interesting hobby, he collects money from different countries. He had a ten rupee note from India with him and a 1000 won from Korea. From our group he collected a note of five real from Brazilian and a coin from Nepal. When Regina gave a box of chocolates, he took it as a matter of respect, but said that they do not receive gifts. It was worth visiting and observing a different practise in 2011 America. How they will withstand the genetic modified and mechanical agriculture jagguernut in days to come is worth studying.

We had dinner at a house who grew up as Amish when she was young. She prepared a nice dinner for us. Some green salad, some sweet salad from tapioca, mashed potatoes, bread stuffing, chicken, beans, sauce, and bread. After an outing in the cold, windy and rainy day the hot delicious food warmed up the environment. The cake decorated with some strawberry pieces was an apt desrert. Thank you!

Some more of Scattergood and Stutsman

noreply@blogger.com (Srijit Mishra) — Sat, 14 May 2011 15:25:00 +0000

Yesterday there are a couple of things that I missed out. First, Mr Tom (the former Executive Director of Council for International Visitors Iowa Cities, CIVIC who retired a couple of months ago) took us around and always eager to tell things about the history and small details of things that we saw whilling passing by.

Second, in the school at Scatergood we also had lunch and they begin with a silent prayer when everyone sitting around a table hold each others hand. The other thing at Scattergood is Mr Mark (the perosn in charge of the school farms as also their literature teacher) who referred to a philosopher cum writer and also farmer Wendell Berry and that how farmers are increasingly with the choice to choose between their neighnbour and his farm lands and they choose the latter though it would be humane to do the former. This is the irony of our times. And of course, the slight drizzle while we were walking across the farm and the symbiotic relationship that Mr Mark had with his plants and animals brought the humane concerns back.

Third, Mr Roger Stutsman did mention about his perspective on the food security and how some people may blame them for selling corn to ethanol producers, but then the waste after ethanol is produced gets back as cattle feed and suffices the protein requirement for cattle. As a cattle farmer he did lament the need for food safety requirement and said that many things are beyond their control though they follow all practises laid down by federal as well as state requirements. He did say that people should reduce consumption of raw meat.

Fourth, is the hotel Best Western or Longbranch. It was a nice experience after Hyatt at Sacramento. My room key was smoth. The room had a microwave and refrigerator that I do not use them but the possibility that I can buy some juice and keep in my room is always a nice feeling. Most importantly it has the business centre from where I can write about my experiences here. It is a little out of the way but has a nice neighbourhood.

Fifth, in the evening we went to the Czech village. The museum was flooded in 2008 and they are working on relocating it to a higher place. There was some small festival and tried some Czech cupcape and muffine - they were yummy.

In the evening, Firoz from Bangladesh and I went over to the Longbranch restaurant and had some fish and then went to Best Buy to inquire about laptops and I also recharged my mobile. Later in the night I sat and wrote down my blogs which I had not done for a few days. Today we start at 11 am as it is drizzling.

(The main thing about yesterday is in my previous blog, see below).

Scattergood school and the Stutsman farm

noreply@blogger.com (Srijit Mishra) — Sat, 14 May 2011 05:36:00 +0000

The Scattergood Friends School is an interesting place. It is perhaps one of its kind that allows students to grow most of the food that it consumes and everything is grown in an organic way. The teacher in charge, Mr Mark took us around the farm. And you could see the personal effort that he has been taking whether it is the tomoatoes and corriander, the greenhouse, the experiment that the bilogy students are conducting, the sheep and the lamb who have been bottle fed. The princples of equality were followed in the school - everyone called everyone in their first names. The meeting area of the school did not have a space for a minister all sat around and the day began for everybody with 15 minutes of silence. One of the ethos of the school is non-violence, a Quaker ethos who have founded the school. It was so satisfying to see Gandhiji's wrting on seven social sins in the school library. This was first published in Young India on 22 October 1925 and I quote from the link given abov.They are

Politics without Principle
Wealth Without Work
Pleasure Without Conscience
Knowledge without Character
Commerce without Morality
Science without Humanity
Worship without Sacrifice

An eighth one added by Arun Gandhi is:

Rights Without Responsibility

They are so relvant even in today's world.

Visit to the Stutsman, a distribution company on equipment, inputs and livestock feed revealed that they had agricultural roots and still continue to do some farming. The roots of this company goes back to the depression when Mr Eldon Stutsman was pulled out of school to help his father who was going to loose his earnings a second time. The buying and selling of livestock feed and other inputs for people in the neighborhood slowly grew into a big business.

Mr Roger, son of Mr Eldon who took us around the firm first then took to his land where they grown corn in 2000 acres (shared equally by three brothers, they usually roatate and grow some soyabean to address soil fertility management), but because of good corn prices this year all their land is for one crop only and it is beiing produced for ethanol. The whole cultivation is managed by two people on a full time basis and another three people during peak time. The process is fully mechanized.

They also own some cattle (for meat) which they manage at the seond stage. The first stage is to feed them grass which requires large tracts of land. But in the seond stage when the cattle are a year old they are fed corn (which now is a by-product after ethanol production) with some other ingredient for four months and for which they have created some hoopsheds. About 900 cattle and some sheep are grown under the supervion of a single person employed by them.

Cultivation of some organic vegetables is being managed by their daughter-in-law after their son passed away (our prayers are with him). There are political intereests in the family. Ms Sally, his wife, plans to contest for the state legislature from a new district. All the best.

Sacramento to Cedar Rapids

noreply@blogger.com (Srijit Mishra) — Sat, 14 May 2011 05:07:00 +0000

On 12 May 2011 we moved from Sacramento to Cedar Rapids that adjoins Iowa City. The travel that started at about 10 am (Sacramento Time) ended by 10 pm (Cedar Rapids or Iowa City Time). The local host was at the airport and welcomed us and made a remark by refering to her personal experience. "Whenever one looses faith in humanity, one came back to Iowa." Yes, we are eaer to explore the same, Danielle.

Last day with formal meetings at Sacrameto and Davis

noreply@blogger.com (Srijit Mishra) — Sat, 14 May 2011 04:55:00 +0000

The day was packed with meetings at Glide Ranch, followed by being part of lucheon organized to honour Asia and Pcific Islanders community at USDA, visit to Yolo county Cooperative and Extension Service, brief tour of Farmers Market at Davis and a Home Hospitality at Sacramento.

At Glide Ranch, David Runsten exposed us to his magazine 'Buy Fresh, Buy Local: The Eater's Guide to Local Food'through his Community Alliance with Family Farmers. The concerns of the farmers were echoed and reiteratd the futily of defining a small vs large famers. He also agreed that when the call for 'organic' farming was echoed by the family farmers to create a demand it also has been taken over by the industrial-mechanical farming group and 'certification' is becoming a costly affair for family farms. He also identified that the increase in productivity in the conventional method is also linked with a decline in nutritional content. These are some similar concerns that we face in India. While we were leaving, he said that Glide Ranches houses a number of offices that work on agriculture related issues and the ranch is a rescue centre for old horses and cattle that the owners do not want to take care off.

Luncheon at the USDA's regional office of Sacramento honouring the asian and pacific islanders was a good time with different kinds of food and came to know about people from different communites. The Hawaiian are a part of the US, but the Japanese and Sikhs have settled down couple of centuries ago and Hmong came perhaps more recently.

Meeting at the Cooperative Extension of Yolo revealed that they have been interacting with the community to improve healthy eating and hygenic practices. With demonstration they shouwed to us how less than 20 seconds of cleaning can still leave germs in our hands. However, the absence of link with researchers and the extension workers became evident. It seems that in recent years as extension workers retire their posts are not filled. Current research in universities is more about doing big things in large sizes and this seems to ignore the relevance of the extension officer. This is so because research is also increasingly going away from the farmer.

We moved through the farmers market at Davis observing their wares and fresh products of fruits, vegetables, bakery stuff and many other things. It is a weekly affair and has a demand in this university town.

The California Crop Improvement Association inspects and certifies seed growers and tells them whether the seed has followed adequate norms to maintain purity. Technology is being increasingly used to find out the distance between plots of seed growers. But the distance with commerical crop growers is done with physical verification, it is not linked with other crops/seeds grown, and there are no limits for cotton and corn. Genetically Engineered crops are going to stay and they are going to spread as the limits will increasingly become ineffective. The end to interesting discussions at Sacramento.

Home hospitality saw interactions with interesting people and good food. A Rabbi indicated that he is working for 'Equal access to produce (to grow), and equal access to produce (what is grown)' at Fresh Producers. An event manger wanted to facilitate these and told how the Governor's house, which is now owned by Doctors of Indian origin, or her own house can be used for raising awareness. An attorney had her son wanting to go to developing countries to know about issues of deprivation. A financier cum enterpreneur wated to set up agro-processing factories that produce healthy food and also create bio-waste as an alternative to fertilizer.

Risk Management by USDA, Arcadia's Biosciences and Full Circle Farms

noreply@blogger.com (Srijit Mishra) — Sat, 14 May 2011 04:00:00 +0000

The Risk Management Agency at the regional office of USDA mentioned how for commodities that are indexed at the Chicago market the prices depend on that, but for commodities that are not traded there and local to California such as strawberries, almonds and the like then they use locally collected informtion to arrive at some price. In almost all insturances, the federal government gives a subsidy and the agency managing it collects the remaining premium and fee but in case of payout their liability is only 30-60 per cent depending on the crop and the loss. Premiums are paid for nature induced losses interpreted in a broad way. For instance, following the recent Tsunami in Japan and the nuclear disaster some food items were obsorved to be contaminated (which exactly is not nature related), but as the outcome was in a sense induced by nature they agreed to pay the insurance amount. On the possibility of farmer and insurance company colluding, they agreed that it can happen and even identified a case where the individuals involved were asked to repay the money - unfortunately, the farmer and his wife ended their lives.

Meeting with Aracadia biosciences revealed that they work largely with bringing technology related, particularly genetically engineered ones, to find solutions to some presing problems of agriculture - salinity, pesticides, and need for increasing yield among others. They indicated about New Rice for Africa (NERICA), also see its wikipedia page here. On the genetical interventions, many questions do still remain - cost of the technology, disregard for alternatie technologies that can be costly, and of course health implicatio which can only be known 30/40 years down the line if some research is done. For instance, they tried to address nitrogen fixation by genetic modification and cared less for nitrogen fixation by azola or other cost-efffective measures that are locally feasible. Similarly vitamin A fortification leading to Golden rice can be supplemented by making the populations available milk, egg, carrots or spinach among others.

In contrast to the above, we also visited Full Circle Farms at Davis. A group of four people have rented the place for 600 dollars and provide vegetables, fruits, nuts or eggs under a commuity supported agriculture scheme to 20 families by charging 20 dollars for a week. The labour put in these farms is much more to the conventional farms that are largely mechanized, but one could relate with similar practices in India. One/two more days at Sacramento, California.

The Capitol at Sacramento and the UC Davis Meat Lab

noreply@blogger.com (Srijit Mishra) — Tue, 10 May 2011 16:13:00 +0000

The highlight of the day was the visit to the state Capitol of California which is just across the road from where we stay, Hyatt, Sacramento. We were taken to the Assembly (lower house) and the Senate (upper house) and then had discussion with the Consusltant for the Senate Committee on Agriculture. A lot of important issues were raised. The budget cut in recent years, the conflicting interests withing agriculture - for instance, citrus groweres do not want bees near them while growing seedless varieties whereas almong growers and bee-keepers would prefer them. The shortage of labour as there have been restrictions on cross-border migration from Southern America.

As the budget is to be decided there were many lobby groups that we saw today. Most important were the teachers who have been reeling under cuts for the last three fours. In fact, last year many teachers lost their jobs and as a result the quality of teaching has been impacting.

The other isues of concern are hunger and homelessness. Almost one in six/seven Americans are facing hunger. And this situation has worsened in the last couple of years. Our discuss with small business and restaurants revaled that business has been poor in the last two years and the difficult part is that they do not see thing being revived in the forseeable future.

We began the day at the University of California Davis Meat Lab where we were told about different processes in slaughtering cattle, lamb, and hog (pig). The United States Departemnt of Agriculture (USDA) inspectors are to be present before an animal is butchered to ensure 'ethical' treatment before being butchered. Well, these are meant to ensure food safety standards. They use some 'foodgrade' chemicals to keep the environment fly free, they keep the digestive tract empty by not feeding tthe animal the previous night to reuduce possibilities of bacteria. After being butchered they are cleaned properly and stored in below 45 degree farhenite to ensure bacteria free environment. An animal can be slaughted under state inspector but that can be used only for personal consumption and cannot be sold in the market.

Meat are graded and those with more fat content and of poor quality are priced the cheapest. These are the ones you will find in fast food and those frequented by the poor leading to greater ill health. One observed a homeless man in a bicycle came and put his head into dustbins looking for food. We are in telling times.

Napa Valley

noreply@blogger.com (Srijit Mishra) — Tue, 10 May 2011 15:47:00 +0000

On 8th we went to Napa Valley. We toured around the Robert Mandavi Wines. We ere told about the requirement for labour for varied activities picking leaves, harvesting grapes and some other activities. There are some activities that cannot but be done with labour. Some other activities are mechanized. The topography, the sunshine and the closeness to bay gives the advantage to Napa Valley so that they could produce some of the godd wines. We ended the tour by tasting four different types of wines.

Landed in Sacramento

noreply@blogger.com (Srijit Mishra) — Sun, 08 May 2011 05:53:00 +0000

Today has been a long dayLeft Washington DC and reach Sacramento, California. First we took a hoping flight via Chicago to Los Angeles and then a second flight to Sacramento. Unlike in Inida, the passenger in the hoping flight were allowed to go out have food and come back. At LA we had some difficultues because the smaller flight had some technical problem and we had to start after and hours. The time lag between Sacramento and DC is three hours. On the way to LA we saw theGrand Canyon. The most interesting part was when the flight landed in Sacramento, it gave the feeling that we landed in the midst of agricultrual field,

California is the biggest state of the US and if it were an independent country then it would the eitghth largest in terms of economy. It is known for Hollywood, agriculture, gold mines in the earlier years. Here we are put up at the Grand Hayatt, but I do not have easy access to the computer as I had in DC. And hence, I may not write as frequently. Tomorrow we are all heading to Napa Valley to visit wineries. It is time that I take some rest.

In this tour of Washington DC

noreply@blogger.com (Srijit Mishra) — Sat, 07 May 2011 09:56:00 +0000

In this tour of Washington DC,
I have these lessons,
For you and me to see.

In the name of science-based policy,
There are some counter-evidences,
That we mus must see.

In the name of growth and meritocracy,
There are vested interests,
That we cannot not see.

In the name of majoritarian democracy,
There are some people with less,
That we have to see.

(This will be my ode to Rabindranath Tagore, whose birtdhday falls today. Happy Birthday Guruji.)