Indian farmers abandon paddies
Kurukkupotta Kandai Vasu's family has grown rice in Kerala, India, for four generations. Now, the 62-year-old farmer buys the food staple in his local store.
When the annual monsoon rains reach India's southernmost state this week, Vasu will sit out the planting season because he can't recoup the cost of fertilizer, seeds and pesticides.
"The cost of cultivation has more than doubled, but the yield has only fallen," said Vasu, pointing at his barren paddy field below a green hill near Mundur, a village 2,665 kilometers from New Delhi. "There's a shortage of rice globally, and the government is finding it difficult to supply enough rice to people at a reasonable price."
To ensure it can feed India's 600 million poor, the government banned rice exports on April 1, contributing to a shortage on world markets that drove the price of the grain to a record last month and sparked food riots from Haiti to Egypt. The curb caused local prices to lag behind the international increase, encouraging Vasu and other growers to switch to more lucrative crops and further reducing supply.
"Paddy cultivation today is a complete loss for the farmers," said K.A. Jayachandran, 64, who advises farmers on growing and cultivation techniques at the Integrated Rural Technology Centre, a nongovernment organization. "If the farmer doesn't make money in one season, then he's ruined."
The area growing rice in Kerala has fallen to 276,000 hectares in 2006 from 801,700 hectares in 1980, according to the state's Planning Board. Production almost halved to 630,000 tons from 1.27 million during the same period.
The price of rough rice has almost tripled in the past two years, reaching a record $25.07 a 100 pounds on April 24 on the Chicago Board of Trade. It closed at $20.35 a 100 pounds on May 23. In India, rice sells for 18 rupees a kilogram at local markets, and government-run stores distribute it to the poor for a sixth of that price.
To make ends meet, Vasu and his two brothers have devoted a fifth of their 20-acre plot to vegetables to feed their family, and reckon they can double the 10,000 rupees ($234) they earned from one acre of paddy by planting natural rubber.
Agencies
(China Daily 05/28/2008 page16)
