The Cost of India's Green Revolution
Almost half of the nitrogen found in the muscle and organ tissue of our bodies originated in a fertilizer factory. In the beginning, the urea and the aerial sprayings of pesticides cost the farmers nothing, and the hybrid wheat seeds that arrived from the West were subsidized.
In terms of feeding people, the Green Revolution did work. They provided a level of food security and food sovereignty for the young nation. But at what cost? Today Punjab produces nearly a fifth of the nation’s wheat and 42 percent of its rice, though it inhabits a mere 1.5 percent of India’s landmass. It also accounts for 17 percent of the country’s pesticide use.
Eighteen people die of cancer in Punjab every day. The cancers are clustered in hotspots—the cotton-producing Malwa belt, Amritsar, and Bathinda—where many farmers live and work. Even with such high rates, Punjab lacks a cancer treatment facility, so every evening, at least forty and sometimes up to a hundred cancer patients board train number 339 at Bathinda’s railway station to travel the eight hours to the Acharya Tulsi cancer center in neighboring Bikaner, Rajasthan.
The farmers in Punjab are standing at a crossroads. A growing number are turning to organic agriculture. They are shunning synthetic fertilizers and instead choosing to improve the overall fertility of their farms’ ecosystems.
Could India begin to emerge from its silent spring?
Be A #Bookaanan, Read:
A RIVER RUNS AGAIN:
India's Natural World in Crisis, from the Barren Cliffs of Rajasthan to the Farmlands of Karnataka
Book By
Meera Subramanian
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