How To Save Punjab Agriculture


For over 40 years now, ever since Green Revolution began,the nation has eulogised the Punjab farmer.Newspapers have reported time and again about the visible prosperity ushered inthrough intensive agriculture. Magazine articles have featured the opulent lifestyle of prosperous Punjabi farmers. The story of the bygone era somehow remainstransfixed in our memory, and that perhaps is the reason why policy makers,economists and scientists still continue to live in the past.

For nearly two decades now, Punjab’sunderbelly has been gradually caving in. Excessive use of chemical fertilisershave turned the verdant lands poisonous, water mining has dried the aquifers leadingto the expansion of the desert, and chemical fertilisers and pesticides haveplayed havoc with the environment and human health. With the input pricesclimbing year after year and the output prices remaining static, Punjab farmers became a victim of the same economicpolicies that projected them as country’s heroes. Agriculture has turned notonly unsustainable but economically unviable..............Read more

 

Source: Counter Currents


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