Technology and the World Market Causing Drastic Changes for Indian Farmers

—by Keith Carey

In one part of India, a farmer is using a wooden plow pulled by an ox just as his ancestors did 1,000 years ago. Other farmers are using the latest computer technology to predict upcoming weather conditions and to discover where to get the highest price for their produce. Tea farmers in India's north eastern Assam State are struggling because of a drop in demand for tea. At the other end of India in Kerala, farmers are making billions of rupees growing and selling vanilla plants.

The peoples of rural India are a diverse group. These groups include the wealthy Jat landowners who, having access to the best seeds, use the best technology; and poor tribal peoples who use rudimentary tools.

Though we often focus on the urban peoples of India in the Global Prayer Digest, the rural peoples greatly outnumber them. Between 70 and 80 percent of Indian nationals live in rural areas. Their world has changed tremendously in the last 40 years with the advent of the Green Revolution in the 1960s and 1970s.

The Green Revolution
No country was more dramatically affected by the Green Revolution than India. Devinder Sharma, an agricultural scientist and journalist, describes India's grim situation in 1965. There was enough food for only a week. In desperation, Indian government officials searched for and identified the closest grain-carrying ship. They sent a message to American President Lyndon Johnson saying that if the food on this American ship was not diverted to India, people would starve. Not only was the food delivered to take care of the crisis, but the Americans also helped India to increase its grain yields. Norman E. Borlaug, an agricultural scientist, introduced high-yielding varieties of dwarf wheat to India's Punjab State. After the Indians watched the new seeds double their wheat production, there was a rush to get more of them. A nation that was on the brink of starvation suddenly had to find new places to store their surplus grain. Indian scientists took it from there, and they managed to increase production for many years. Ever since that time, the Indian government has made food self-sufficiency a high priority. Though production has gone up and down, everyone who can afford food has been able to eat since that time.

Recent Technological Advances Help India's Agriculture
However, farmers still had no choice but to sell their crops in an auction at a government-mandated marketplace, or a mandi, according to Curtis Runyan, the managing editor of World Resources Institute. "The system left farmers at the mercy of the traders who operate the mandi," he said. Farmers were forced to accept whatever was offered, often unreasonably low prices. They had to pay the traders to weigh and bag the grain. Then these middlemen would charge high prices for the product to grain companies. To make matters worse, they would often dilute good grain with poorer quality grain.

Fortunately, the farmers and one of India's largest corporations, ITC, found a way to bypass the mandis and the middlemen. Using the E-Choupal computer network, ITC's agricultural trading division began paying to have computers and internet connections installed in rural villages in order to streamline their distribution and supply chain. Using these computers, farmers can find out where to go to get the highest price for their goods. Each computer serves about 1,000 farmers. So far, E-Choupals helps about 1,500,000 farmers in 11,000 villages.

Computer technology is also helping to jumpstart India's new "white revolution" according to a Dec. 8, 2003 article in the BBC. Dairy farmers in Baramati, a town to the east of Mumbai (Bombay), Maharashtra State are using cutting edge technology in the collection, processing, sale, and refrigeration of milk. This new development, started in the late 1990s, is making the milk industry more profitable. Dairy farmers can bring their milk to the station, have it tested for fat content by a computer, and dispense it into a refrigerated container. A process that once took all day now takes a few minutes. Given the hot climate of India and the perishable nature of dairy products, it's easy to see how much less milk is now wasted. Dynamix, the largest dairy company in Maharashtra, provided the technology.

Modern telephone systems, another aspect of communication advancement, are also helping India's farmers. Realizing that the Green Revolution mainly benefited India's large farmers, the Indian government has set up a call center for small farmers to get needed information. Where can they get the best price for their goods? What are the best seeds to plant this season? Certainly the government is responding to the fact that farmers are the largest voting bloc in an election year. But they have provided one step towards helping the small farmer compete with agribusiness.

The Global Marketplace: Friend or Foe of the Indian Farmer?
As mentioned at the beginning of this article, the global market can help one farmer get rich and break another depending on what he is growing. An article by Lalitha Shridhar tells how more Indian farmers are learning to use the global marketplace for their advantage. In the southern state of Tamil Nadu, Indian farmers maintain a website where they can compare the prices of their goods on the world market. Those who are able to export to the countries that offer the best price earn far more than those who depend solely on the local market. For example, one farmer said that he and others were able to earn $140,000 by exporting chicken drumsticks to Kuwait.

Other Indian nationals doubt that the global marketplace has benefited most Indian farmers. Agricultural scientist Devinder Sharma says that people in India who cannot afford food go hungry while Western nations import Indian grown grains as cattle feed. He also mentions Kalahandi, a region in Western Orissa, that is noted for its hunger and starvation. "What is not known is that Kalahandi is the biggest contributor of "surplus" rice to the central kitty or the Food Corporation of India." His point is that food is grown and sold in the interests of corporate profits, not for the needs of the poor of India. He points out that increasing production of food will not help as long as the poor cannot afford to buy it. He claims that 320 million Indians go to bed hungry every night at a time when there are 60 million tons of "surplus" food.

He notes the stark difference between farmers who have access to irrigation and those that don't. "One year of drought is enough to push a farmer into a deep well of poverty for another two or three years."

A shocking example of this comes from Karnataka, the state we prayed for a year ago in August. As noted then, Karnataka's information technology industry is booming. But their agricultural sector is in serious trouble. This is India's second driest state, and irrigation is not available to all who need it. For three years, Karnataka suffered from drought, and farmers were not able to produce their products. To make matters worse, many of these farmers who had borrowed money at unreasonably high rates, were being pursued by the moneylenders. The tragic result was that at least 220 committed suicide according to the BBC and CNN reports.

What Can Christians Do?
What can Christians do as His ambassadors? Are there people out there who are willing to go into business in Karnataka giving out loans at reasonable rates? This has been done, but it will require much boldness-the loan sharks know how to use force against new competitors.

Are there Christians in the import/export business who are willing to offer fair rates to Indian farmers? Will others with computer skills set up stations like the Indian government has done where farmers can learn about market prices for their goods?