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Article: The market and the monsoon. (India).
- Article from:
- New Internationalist
- Article date:
- January 1, 2003
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2003 New Internationalist Magazine. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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A quarter of the world's farmers are Indian. In this three-part report Katharine Ainger journeys through Andhra Pradesh to uncover their problems, solutions -- and a grandiose plan to transform agriculture that will ride roughshod over the lives of millions.
PART 1: Of drought and debt
The small farmers of the Warangal district of northern Andhra Pradesh are vulnerable not just to drought and deluge, as they have always been -- but, now, to the vagaries of commercial markets as well.
After two months of searing drought -- the worst in 50 years -- late rains deluge southern India in mid-October 2002. The hard earth, sealing in months of heat, ...