Recently in Agriculture Category

"According to a report by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), just 100 families own 25 million hectares, while two million small farmers have access to only five million hectares."

"But the land will be granted to groups rather than individual owners, thus eliminating the distribution of large extensions of farmland to a few individuals."

By Franz Chávez

LA PAZ (IPS) - Bolivian President Evo Morales announced new regulations and financing for a land reform law aimed at expropriating idle or ill-gotten land in the hands of large estate owners in eastern and northeastern Bolivia and redistributing it to indigenous farmers.

The era of the latifundium or large landed estate seems to be coming to an end in South America's poorest country, where Morales proclaimed an "agrarian revolution" Thursday on the 54th anniversary of the enactment of the first law that distributed land to peasant farmers.

Morales - Bolivia's first-ever indigenous president -- announced the country's "second era" of agrarian reform in Ucurena, in the central department (province) of Cochabamba in a speech that once again declared his leftist government's commitment to the ongoing struggle for land and in defence of the country's natural resources by Bolivia's native majority.

The programme he announced will focus on the redistribution of land, the mechanisation of small-scale agriculture, the strengthening of a "People's Trade Treaty" signed with Cuba and Venezuela, and agricultural production in line with environmental conservation standards.

He also asked his cabinet to rename Aug. 2 "Agrarian Revolution Day" instead of "Day of the Indian", as it has been commemorated since the first land reform law went into effect in 1953.

Full story: Bolivia: Requiem for Land in the Hands of the Few

By Shrii P. R. Sarkar

Recently, a particular group of politicians raised the slogan of "agricultural revolution" to solve the problem. They wanted to solve India's agricultural problems by following the example of China. However, there are vast differences between the agricultural problems confronted by India and those confronted by China. The problems of India can never be solved by following the policies of China.

By Shrii P.R. Sarkar Socio-Economic Movement lead by Amra Bangali* draws the attention of media. Photo: AB's meeting on International Mother Language Day (21st February, 2006)

Socio-economic units will not only have to fulfill peoples social and economic needs, but also their cultural aspirations. Culture denotes all sorts of human expressions. Culture is the same for all humanity, though there are differences in cultural expression. The best means of communicating human expressions is through one's mother tongue, as this is most natural. If people's natural expression through their mother tongue is suppressed, inferiority complexes will grow in their minds, encouraging a defeatist mentality and ultimately leading to psycho-economic exploitation. Thus, no mother tongue should be suppressed.

By Shrii P.R. Sarkar

Besides agricultural or farmer's cooperatives, Prout advocates the formation of other types of cooperatives, including producer's and consumer's cooperatives. Producer's cooperatives include agro-industries, agrico-industries and non-agricultural industries. The total profit of such cooperatives should be distributed among the workers and members of the cooperative according to their individual capital investment in the cooperative and the service they render to the production and management of the cooperative. Similarly, like-minded persons who will share the profits of the cooperative according to their individual labor and capital investment should form consumer's cooperatives. Those who are engaged in the management of such cooperatives will also be entitled to draw salaries on the basis of the services they render to the cooperative. Consumer's cooperatives will distribute consumer goods to members of society at reasonable rates.

Commodities can be divided into three categories:

• Essential commodities such as rice, pulse, salt and clothing
• Demi-essential commodities such as oil and antiseptic soap
• Non-essential commodities such as luxury goods

by Ravi Batra Ravi Batra is a Professor of Economics at Southern Methodist University of Dallas Texas. An expert in international trade, he is the best-selling author of The Great Depression of 1990. In the following article he applies the Proutist economic principles of his mentor, P.R. Sarkar, towards solving the agricultural dilemmas facing his native country, India, and the rest of the Third World. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Thirty farmers in Andhra Pradesh commit suicide -- ironically, by consuming the same poisonous pesticides which were partly responsible for the loss of their crops. Over one hundred thousands farmers demonstrate furiously in Meerut ... in Gujarat restive farmers burn buses ... in Maharashtra they stop rail and road traffic. Underground water sources are being drained dry, fertile agricultural lands are becoming wastelands at an ever-increasing rate, crops are being blighted with mysterious diseases--and overall production has stagnated over the past two years. To paraphrase Hamlet, "Something is rotten in the state of Indian agriculture."

The two Opium Wars between China and Britain in the mid 1800's powers effectively ended Chinese sovereignty and began its slide into subservience to Western and then Japanese powers. One of the instruments used to undermine Chinese sovereignty was the addictive drug opium. Using Murphey’s East Asia: A New History as the starting point, this paper will analyze the nature and extent of the opium trade with a view to assessing final responsibility for it and thus make the relation between commerce, colonization, and drug use more accessible.

“Big dams are to a nation’s ‘development’ what nuclear bombs are to its military arsenal. They’re both weapons of mass destruction. They’re both weapons governments use to control their own people. Both 20th century emblems that mark a point in time when human intelligence has outstripped its own instinct for survival. They’re both malignant indications of civilization turning upon itself. They represent the severing of the link, not just the link – the understanding – between human beings and the planet they live on. They scramble the intelligence that connects eggs to hens, milk to cows, food to forests, water to rivers, air to life and the earth to human existence.” ~Arundhati Roy

The forward march of human beings requires an internal approach and an adjustment with external objectivities. That is, it requires an internal, spiritual approach, as well as an external approach which maintains balance, equilibrium and equipoise in the different arenas of our social, economic and cultural life.

Humanity is presently suffering from two problems - one is affluence or bountifulness, and the other is hortages of not only physical but also psychic pabula. Most of the developed countries suffer from bountifulness. If the flow of affluence is regulated, then an adjustment may be made so that physical shortages and psychic deficiencies can be minimized before they become chronic problems. In most countries of the world there is a tendency towards this type of adjustment. Everybody admits that there should be such an adjustment; consequently, you will find hardly any blind capitalism in the world today. Nevertheless, despite this tendency, there is still maladjustment and mis-utilization of resources in developed countries.

By Alex Kirby
BBC News Online environment correspondent

Livestock needs a lot of water
World water supplies will not be enough for our descendants to enjoy the sort of diet the West eats now, experts say. The World Water Week in Stockholm will be told the growth in demand for meat and dairy products is unsustainable.