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INDIA: AS THE ECONOMY GROWS, SO DOES HUNGER
Anuradha Mittal
AUGUST 2008 (IPS) - Blaming high food prices on rising demand in fast-developing countries
like China and India deflects scrutiny from structural causes - like
the liberalisation of agricultural markets - and suggests incorrectly
that market-friendly reforms have uplifted the poor and
underprivileged, writes Anuradha Mittal, executive director of the
Oakland Institute, a policy think tank working to increase public
participation and to promote fair debate on critical social, economic,
and environmental issues.
In this analysis, the author writes that a closer examination of India
disproves the latter assertion. In India the total number of the poor
and vulnerable increased from 732 million to 836 million between
1993/1994 and 2004/2005.
In an effort to move towards market-driven production of agricultural
goods, India is shifting from coarse grains to high-value commodities
for export and systematically pulling away from the long-respected
post-Independence statute requiring self-reliance in agriculture.
Consequently, there has been a considerable decline in the rate of
growth of production, productivity, and the quantity of land planted
and irrigated for the major crops.
India's hunger and poverty amidst plenty is emblematic of hunger
worldwide, which is the result of decades of neglect of agriculture in
poor countries and ill-advised policies from the international
financial institutions. Promoting agricultural development in poor
nations would bolster their food self-sufficiency and help alleviate poverty.
/NOT FOR PUBLICATION IN AUSTRALIA, CANADA, NEW ZEALAND, CZECH
REPUBLIC, IRELAND, POLAND, UNITED STATES, OR UNITED KINGDOM/ (END/2008)
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