In my decades involved in agribusiness I have found that some of those who most passionately romanticize farming have never farmed a day of their life.
Thanks for linking to Venky Ramachandran’s piece, which I found very interesting and informative.
Yes romanticism only helps the social media influencer types, especially in contexts which I am talking about in this edition. I don't know if you got a chance to skim through my conversation with Venky in 2021, which was focused on farming laws. The problems are deeply structural, cultural and historical, and it will take some time or a crisis to dismantle some of them.
"Agriculture’s share of GDP has fallen to roughly 16% for FY 2024, yet it employs nearly half the workforce. This suggests profound spatial and economic misallocation." wow. I also had no idea there were actual caps on the number of acres a farmer could own, based on production.
Yeah, many of the land ceiling and land tenancy laws were put in place to prevent exploitation of the people tilling the land. The intention was good, but as usual any market distorting mechanism has a bunch of unintended downstream effects.
You probably have heard that the fruit that India in particular loves mangoes, and the stone fruits in particular the Georgia peaches, and the treasured wine grapes of France; I think all of them were struck with disastrous crops last year down perhaps 90%. Clearly when we are losing major crops it is an issue! Obviously we need the knowledge Renaissance I'm trying to get out and not getting any help. If I fail you will have an unhappy future! Try reading my email that I'm trying to get help from Barbara Corcoran.
You are correct about mangoes. As someone who grew up in India, I do love mangos. I am not sure I follow the rest of your comment. Can you please elaborate?
I reach out to many dozens of people every night hoping to get some kind of help to save our future. I do remember I was talking about the alarming number of minor crops that are now failing as a canary in the coal mine. You needed to give me more details before I could remember what I was into. During my holy walkabout, I was introduced to mangoes and they definitely are the fruit of the gods!
There’s also the problem of JNU types and other assorted dumbasses extolling smallholder farming as Gandhian and opposing any kind of reform. They can’t envision India as anything but an eternally poor country.
There is an element of romanticism in farming which needs to be addressed for sure. I am not privy to the intentions of the "JNU types" I cannot fathom how we can have hundreds of millions of people toiling away for generations.
These dumbasses think austerity and subsidies are always the answer.
This idiot gives one line to “the decline of the Soviet Union”, as if it was an aging relative, willfully ignoring the causes, while spending most of the essay blaming market reforms for all economic ills. He would prefer a world where everyone is equally poor than one with inequality.
This was a great read.
In my decades involved in agribusiness I have found that some of those who most passionately romanticize farming have never farmed a day of their life.
Thanks for linking to Venky Ramachandran’s piece, which I found very interesting and informative.
Yes romanticism only helps the social media influencer types, especially in contexts which I am talking about in this edition. I don't know if you got a chance to skim through my conversation with Venky in 2021, which was focused on farming laws. The problems are deeply structural, cultural and historical, and it will take some time or a crisis to dismantle some of them.
I have not gotten to the conversation with Venky yet but I’m looking forward to reading it.
"Agriculture’s share of GDP has fallen to roughly 16% for FY 2024, yet it employs nearly half the workforce. This suggests profound spatial and economic misallocation." wow. I also had no idea there were actual caps on the number of acres a farmer could own, based on production.
Yeah, many of the land ceiling and land tenancy laws were put in place to prevent exploitation of the people tilling the land. The intention was good, but as usual any market distorting mechanism has a bunch of unintended downstream effects.
You probably have heard that the fruit that India in particular loves mangoes, and the stone fruits in particular the Georgia peaches, and the treasured wine grapes of France; I think all of them were struck with disastrous crops last year down perhaps 90%. Clearly when we are losing major crops it is an issue! Obviously we need the knowledge Renaissance I'm trying to get out and not getting any help. If I fail you will have an unhappy future! Try reading my email that I'm trying to get help from Barbara Corcoran.
You are correct about mangoes. As someone who grew up in India, I do love mangos. I am not sure I follow the rest of your comment. Can you please elaborate?
I found Venky Ramachandran’s recent piece on mangos to be fascinating.
https://agribusinessmatters.substack.com/p/how-to-blow-up-mangoes-in-indian?r=13syj&utm_medium=ios
I reach out to many dozens of people every night hoping to get some kind of help to save our future. I do remember I was talking about the alarming number of minor crops that are now failing as a canary in the coal mine. You needed to give me more details before I could remember what I was into. During my holy walkabout, I was introduced to mangoes and they definitely are the fruit of the gods!
There’s also the problem of JNU types and other assorted dumbasses extolling smallholder farming as Gandhian and opposing any kind of reform. They can’t envision India as anything but an eternally poor country.
There is an element of romanticism in farming which needs to be addressed for sure. I am not privy to the intentions of the "JNU types" I cannot fathom how we can have hundreds of millions of people toiling away for generations.
Exhibit A for the JNU type, writing in 2025:
https://www.impriindia.com/insights/from-emergency-to-empire/
These dumbasses think austerity and subsidies are always the answer.
This idiot gives one line to “the decline of the Soviet Union”, as if it was an aging relative, willfully ignoring the causes, while spending most of the essay blaming market reforms for all economic ills. He would prefer a world where everyone is equally poor than one with inequality.