Mind The Gap
22 January 2008 Sometimes a few small items can tell a significant story. As I placed the short news summaries into eNews today, I was struck by the stark contrast of the stories’ content. For many, right now is a time of great growth — not just the companies mentioned in this newsletter, but across the boards, with multinational and middle-tier ag-chem companies realizing major profit growth, as well as fertilizer and seed companies, and a number of industries that serve the farmer. The only link on the chain that might be getting left behind in many parts of the world is the most immediate: the farmer.
The above item on China painted a picture much like that recently described in an argument by M.S. Swaminathan, a leader of India’s Green Revolution of the 1960s. In both countries, where farmers still make up the majority of the population, there is a swelling disparity between the incomes of rural and urban families. The economies of both countries are hot, and yet, for a large part of the rural populations of each country, it is getting harder and harder to survive. At the moment, rising input and labor costs are more than making up for improvements in crop prices, and as industrial jobs keep presenting more attractive opportunities, fewer hands are left to tend the fields.
I do not write this to lay any blame on the companies that are profiting from agriculture — that is not only the point of running a business, it also serves the farmer; if it weren’t for advancements made by the industry to be as efficient as possible, the high prices of fertilizer, seed, and agrochemicals would be much higher, and in shorter supply than they are. But it is important that the crop input industry raises a voice for the growers worldwide who ultimately support our industry.
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