How many farmers are into Bt Cotton and GMO? We were always into organic farming only. Fertilisers and pesticides have come only during last 50 years. Before that we were unable to feed 60 crore people, and used to live from American ship to American ship of wheat. Now after fertilisers and pesticides, we are able to feed 125 crore people, and even export grains. Indian farmers are committing suicide because land has so fragmented that land holdings are 1/20th of what they were just 60 years ago. So farming is no longer remunerative, and with the break down of society even at the village level, traditional support systems of clan, village, and relatives are gone. Do not establish wild connections.
Solution is rapid industrialisation of India, so that people are taken off land and into industry, so that farming becomes viable livelihood option, and revival of social movements which lead to revival of familial and societal ties.
Last year, there were 1.3 lakh suicides in India. Only 12000 were farmers, though they are 60% of population. And highest suicide rate in the world is in Norway, Sweden, and Denmark. The lands of cradle to grave Welfare State. Infantile hysteria should not govern national policies.
Two facts simultaneously existing do not mean that they are connected in cause and effect relationship. Farmer suicides are in no way connected to GMO, Bt Cotton, or to land acquisitions. And solution is not organic farming.
Because of our socialism, population growth has not been matched by growth of the industrial economy. Developed world has hardly 1% population engaged in agriculture, whereas we still have 60% population engaged in agriculture. In absolute terms, in 1941, we had 32 crore people dependent on agriculture. Now we have 80 crore. It should not be difficult to visualise the rat trap like condition.
