From the Union budget: 2007-08
Allocation for Defence: Rs.96,000 crore
Allocation for ICDS: Rs.4,761 crore
Allocation for NREG: Rs.12,000 crore (including NER component)
Number of farmers into the institutional credit system in 2006: 53.37 lakh
Number of farmers that would be added into the banking system: 50 lakh
Target farm credit for the year 2007-08: Rs.225,000 crore
(This would ensure that the farmers be in perpetual debt trap and be paying more than they receive as loan)
Number of people (in India) who go to sleep hungry every night 350 million
(http://wsws.org/articles/2007/mar2007/bill-m10.shtml)
me: i have one question.....that was ringing in my head...about changing food habits...that seems to be related to...pds-state policy-farmers ….I remember when speaking to some women in makthal...they said they used to eat jowar rotis, and vegetables before and now they do not
sashister: the major thing on that is the shift to rice as the main cereal - also diet becoming cereal centric instead of being balanced - apparently the basis was in NINs policy paper 30 years ago which made the number of calories as the basis for assessing food intake
me: does it also have to do with farmers moving to rice cultivation because they get a min support price and the supplies that they get a fair price shops
sashister: yes - that is part - rice is the preferred crop to grow with irrigation because price is predictive, risk is low, also it is cultural as ability to grow rice is culturally seen as a sign of a good prosperous farmer
sashister: from consumer preference rice is also on top - ease of making and liking for the taste and texture
me: so the state has a role in farmers moving from multi crops to mono crops..
sashister: now they are encouraging them to move away from rice but the farmers are not so willing - except in the delta areas where they have taken to fish farms in a very big way
me: but would the customer not like variety if they could afford and have access to it. When I say accessibility, I am thinking what they could buy using ration cards, which also might not be to, healthy as farmed fishes are not as healthy as wild fishes
sashister: true but it is more remunerative and that seems the main motive
me: hmm...
sashister: i am rediscovering economics ...
sashister: PDS in hyderabad state had jowar, bajra, ragi etc. over sixty years ago. It was also more decentralized
me: yes what changed the policy from multi to mono grain?
sashister: the green revolution - and it was really a wild success
me: green revolution was a failure not a success
sashister: thirty years down the line
me: one of the western promises of making a more equal world....which had unintended/ intended impacts making it more unequal
sashister: if you read policy papers from the sixties - esp. american foreign policy on india - it was considered a basket case that could not be rescued - esp. with regard to food security - the conclusion was let them die because we cant save them anyway. Something like the HIV/Aids policies of recent times with respect to Africa
me: i have not. I did read some theoretical ones. Not the policy papers
I was reading some of amartya sen's work about hunger and some other writer's
I felt depressed and lost
sashister: everyone born needs food in the stomach till s/he dies. that’s the only entitlement that cannot be postponed
Allocation for Defence: Rs.96,000 crore
Allocation for ICDS: Rs.4,761 crore
Allocation for NREG: Rs.12,000 crore (including NER component)
Number of farmers into the institutional credit system in 2006: 53.37 lakh
Number of farmers that would be added into the banking system: 50 lakh
Target farm credit for the year 2007-08: Rs.225,000 crore
(This would ensure that the farmers be in perpetual debt trap and be paying more than they receive as loan)
Number of people (in India) who go to sleep hungry every night 350 million
(http://wsws.org/articles/2007/mar2007/bill-m10.shtml)
me: i have one question.....that was ringing in my head...about changing food habits...that seems to be related to...pds-state policy-farmers ….I remember when speaking to some women in makthal...they said they used to eat jowar rotis, and vegetables before and now they do not
sashister: the major thing on that is the shift to rice as the main cereal - also diet becoming cereal centric instead of being balanced - apparently the basis was in NINs policy paper 30 years ago which made the number of calories as the basis for assessing food intake
me: does it also have to do with farmers moving to rice cultivation because they get a min support price and the supplies that they get a fair price shops
sashister: yes - that is part - rice is the preferred crop to grow with irrigation because price is predictive, risk is low, also it is cultural as ability to grow rice is culturally seen as a sign of a good prosperous farmer
sashister: from consumer preference rice is also on top - ease of making and liking for the taste and texture
me: so the state has a role in farmers moving from multi crops to mono crops..
sashister: now they are encouraging them to move away from rice but the farmers are not so willing - except in the delta areas where they have taken to fish farms in a very big way
me: but would the customer not like variety if they could afford and have access to it. When I say accessibility, I am thinking what they could buy using ration cards, which also might not be to, healthy as farmed fishes are not as healthy as wild fishes
sashister: true but it is more remunerative and that seems the main motive
me: hmm...
sashister: i am rediscovering economics ...
sashister: PDS in hyderabad state had jowar, bajra, ragi etc. over sixty years ago. It was also more decentralized
me: yes what changed the policy from multi to mono grain?
sashister: the green revolution - and it was really a wild success
me: green revolution was a failure not a success
sashister: thirty years down the line
me: one of the western promises of making a more equal world....which had unintended/ intended impacts making it more unequal
sashister: if you read policy papers from the sixties - esp. american foreign policy on india - it was considered a basket case that could not be rescued - esp. with regard to food security - the conclusion was let them die because we cant save them anyway. Something like the HIV/Aids policies of recent times with respect to Africa
me: i have not. I did read some theoretical ones. Not the policy papers
I was reading some of amartya sen's work about hunger and some other writer's
I felt depressed and lost
sashister: everyone born needs food in the stomach till s/he dies. that’s the only entitlement that cannot be postponed
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