From here DDS activities look interesting and impressive but I do not have any contact with them. Last year I enquired in Hyderabad and the few friends I spoke to said good things about DDS. One said dismissively that it is Vandana Shiva type of organization. Arun Shrivatsava reports on one of their activities here.
A trenchent conpiracy theory by the same author here.
Data on the nutritive content of the seeds collected by the women here.
Update (3rd November,2006) Kuffir refers to Arun Shrivatsava's article in blogbharti .
Some of Kuffir's comments:
why i liked the article was despite its somewhat strident tone..it attempts to take a holistic look at the causes behind today’s agrarian crisis.
look at the valid point he makes about ‘warehousing’ receipts - there are many activists/economists advocating provision, through public/private investment, of warehousing facilities so that the farmers 1)have more control over the marketing of their produce and 2) so that they may access credit in lieu of their stocks. but, his interpretation of the reasons behind dismantling the structure of ‘warehousing’ in 1971 is narrow - he says it was because of pressure from fertiliser/pesticide companies - the larger truth is the govt probably believed in the idea that the nationalisation of banks would open the floodgates of credit to farmers.. it also attempted to regulate a large portion of credit towards agriculture and rural india. but that didn’t happen..credit increased from around 10% of total lending by banks to around 20% or so in the initial two-three years or so after nationalisation..but has remained at the same level for that last thirty five years. also, the beneficiaries were mostly large, medium and some small farmers and not the vast majority of..marginal and sub-marginal farmers in india.
yes, i agree with you that the section ‘truth’ does seem farfetched but..i’ve noticed most indian commentators take rigid ideological positions on agriculture.
but look at the causes he alludes to, apart from irrigation and ‘marketization’: rural electrification, illiteracy, malnourishment, drinking water, healthcare. these are the issues that are driving these suicides, in my view, more than anything else.
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What a great effort! These women are practicing what I would call "technology at a human scale" (see my recent post on Grameen and microfinance at The Curious Stall). They are perfect candidates for a loan. But can a microfinanced project take on a corporate giant like Monsanto? Time will tell.
Steve, Kuffir and others,
Off and on I will keep posting on farming problems. I come from a farming family and wanted to be a farmer when I was in school. But my father who already shifted from agriculture to school teaching insisted on university education. I got hooked on mathematics and fortunately or unfortunately that engaged my attention for nearly 50 years. Though I still seem to have some learning capacity, I am completely at a loss in social questions. Like my other posts these are meant more for my own record and learning. I must add that I am a bit of Americophile but grew up with many communists (Makineni Basavapunniah and Dr. M.L. Narayana are relatives). I do not believe in left right distinctions. I think many people in these discussions are earnest people who some times feel that they see the truth and others do'nt get it. I feel that the problems are too complex and possibly there are no solutions and I may even post about some unsolvable problems in mathematics. But my appetite for mathematics seems to be very reduced now.
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