Indian bureaucrats have come up with an unusual solution to aid farmers driven to suicide after years of droughts and crop failure.
With East Africa lacking experienced manpower to till the soil of fertile land, officials in the southern Indian state of Andhra Pradesh spotted a happy coincidence.
A delegation has been dispatched for talks with Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania.
”Our farmers have been suffering from drought, while these countries have excellent infrastructure and land, but don’t have people to farm these lands, said state agriculture minister N Raghuveera Reddy.
”This arrangement can be mutually beneficial.”
Six successive years of drought in Andhra Pradesh have reportedly driven about 6 000 farmers to commit suicide, as the technology-savvy southern state struggled to cope with the human tragedy.
The regional Telegu Desam party was swept out of power in state polls in May as anger boiled over the mounting suicides, which far overshadowed a string of successes in the information technology industry. United States giant Microsoft has joined the rush and is set to open a research centre here.
Reddy said the plan to export farmers offered a window to badly-needed employment as East African countries are willing to lease their fertile lands for up to 90 years at cheap rates.
”We have a lot of vacant land and the people of Andhra have expertise in agriculture which can be shared,” high commissioner of Kenya, Mutuma Katurima, told reporters in Hyderabad.
Under the scheme, Indian farmers will, with the help of national governments, set up co-operative farms across East Africa to grow crops such as tobacco, sugar cane and groundnuts.
”For years now, our engineers and doctors have been going abroad and doing well. Why shouldn’t our farmers get opportunities,?” asked Peddireddy Chengala Reddy, chairperson of the Andhra Pradesh Federation of Farmers Association.
No one expects a shortage of volunteers, however, he warned that this could not be a long-term solution to the agricultural crisis haunting the state.
Low prices for farm produces, high input costs and the shortage of water are the main reasons behind rising agriculture debt in the state he added. ‒ Sapa-AFP