Cauvery Dispute
Couple of months back the Cauvery interim verdict came out. It declared that Karnataka should release more water to Tamilnadu. Of course, needless to say the government protested and the people protested and our dear actor Ambarish resigned from his position as a sitting MP and some burning and some rioting and allall the good stuff happened. I am not trying to contest the Cauvery verdict but trying to think of it from a different perspective.
So, here it is. The release of more water to Tamilnadu will put the plans of Karnataka to irrigate more lands in jeopardy. So, the villages like my native and in and around areas will not become irrigated if the Cauvery order is implemented. These villages are what people consider as dry land areas, by not implementing the Cauvery order the government can make most of these dry lands into wet lands or irrigated lands. Now, the dry lands have their own set of crops like horse-gram, black-eyed peas, ragi, Jowar and so on, mind you these don't fetch as much money as the wetland crops like paddy, groundnut and so on. By converting the dry lands to wetlands we arehelping people to improve their livelihood (that’s pure economics). All is good and nothing wrong with our poor farmers getting some extra rupees and improving their lifestyle and the conditions of their villages.
Thinking of the same from a different perspective, is it possible that we lose all the tasty dry land crops as all the lands will become irrigated and no one wants to cultivate the dry land crops any more. Think of it this way, is it possible that by the time of our kids or grand kids all these food crops like ragi and jowar might be a thing of the past. They become extinct like the mammoths and mastadons.
I thought, one way of making farmers grow the crops they are growing now is by paying better prices for the dry land crops for ex: making the cost of ragi equal to that of rice, I know sure as hell it is calling for inflation. Another thought was to have the government pay extra money to people who cultivate these crops, but where will the money come from?, from the software companies in Bangalore?, that sounds more like a socialistic idea and it hasn't worked in 50 years and I have my own doubts if it will work at all.
A friend of mine suggested that if economy demands or if people demand it will be grown and supplied, she cited the example of Aloe-Vera (once considered a common cactus, now a good medicine that some people consume it on a daily basis).
Couple of months back the Cauvery interim verdict came out. It declared that Karnataka should release more water to Tamilnadu. Of course, needless to say the government protested and the people protested and our dear actor Ambarish resigned from his position as a sitting MP and some burning and some rioting and allall the good stuff happened. I am not trying to contest the Cauvery verdict but trying to think of it from a different perspective.
So, here it is. The release of more water to Tamilnadu will put the plans of Karnataka to irrigate more lands in jeopardy. So, the villages like my native and in and around areas will not become irrigated if the Cauvery order is implemented. These villages are what people consider as dry land areas, by not implementing the Cauvery order the government can make most of these dry lands into wet lands or irrigated lands. Now, the dry lands have their own set of crops like horse-gram, black-eyed peas, ragi, Jowar and so on, mind you these don't fetch as much money as the wetland crops like paddy, groundnut and so on. By converting the dry lands to wetlands we arehelping people to improve their livelihood (that’s pure economics). All is good and nothing wrong with our poor farmers getting some extra rupees and improving their lifestyle and the conditions of their villages.
Thinking of the same from a different perspective, is it possible that we lose all the tasty dry land crops as all the lands will become irrigated and no one wants to cultivate the dry land crops any more. Think of it this way, is it possible that by the time of our kids or grand kids all these food crops like ragi and jowar might be a thing of the past. They become extinct like the mammoths and mastadons.
I thought, one way of making farmers grow the crops they are growing now is by paying better prices for the dry land crops for ex: making the cost of ragi equal to that of rice, I know sure as hell it is calling for inflation. Another thought was to have the government pay extra money to people who cultivate these crops, but where will the money come from?, from the software companies in Bangalore?, that sounds more like a socialistic idea and it hasn't worked in 50 years and I have my own doubts if it will work at all.
A friend of mine suggested that if economy demands or if people demand it will be grown and supplied, she cited the example of Aloe-Vera (once considered a common cactus, now a good medicine that some people consume it on a daily basis).
Please don't get me wrong, I am not implying that we need to leave people poor so that we get the things we get today. I don't have a solution for this problem that I think exists :).
