Editorial»
Trading grain
NOV 25 - U S environmentalist Lester Brown visited China a few days before the Bush administration announced that it would restore curbs on imports of Chinese knit fabrics, dressing gowns and bras. Brown was in Beijing to hint that the US would supply China’s grain needs. The US is also aware of the fact that the price of wheat shot up by 32 percent in northeastern China in recent months.
Brown is the director of the Washington-based Earth Policy Institute. He visited China as a harbinger to strike a deal on the export of American wheat to China. But Washington cited that it had to limit the growth rate on apparel imports from China under the pressure of American textile manufacturers. And that the US has lost 2.5 million manufacturing jobs since 2001 was its reason.
However, the US curbs on the Chinese apparel came at a time when the American exports to China are rising faster that its imports. Besides, the growth of those imports are largely driven by the American and other foreign investment in China. In the last two months, China has imported 1 billion dollars worth of General Motors cars and auto parts from the US. This points to the fact.
Last week’s AP report states China, following the five years of smaller harvests, runs short of 40 million ton grain this year. China imports soybean from the US and other food-grain from most ASEAN countries. Recently, India has eyed on the Chinese markets and agreed to open the Nathula Pass through Sikkim to trade with the four Chinese provinces that border India.
India produces enough surplus of rice and wheat. The five Indian states –Punjab, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and Madhya Pradesh meet the domestic demand. If India invests more in agriculture in India’s northeast states, which is known as the most fertile rainbow region, it could feed another half a billion population of the world.
Studies by the International Rice Institute and the US-based Cargenie Institution have also indicated that grain production can fall by 10 percent worldwide. America also intends to sign a long-term food agreement with China in order to meet the Chinese food needs. This indicates the US is not in a hurry to put curbs on the apparel imports as the Bush administration has said. But it intends to trade grain with China to reduce China’s trade surplus with the US that has crossed US 100 billion dollars in 2002.
Unfortunately, Nepal is a country, which has not realized its potential in agriculture nor has it learnt any lesson on agriculture, nor has it seen the Chinese food markets, or it has felt the need to meet the domestic demand. Rather, Nepal seems comfortable living at the mercy of the donor countries.
The trade route between Nepal and China through the Kodari highway resumed in the late 1960s. In a span of three decades, what it intends to export to China still remains in question. In fact agriculture, which should have got the priority, has remained one of the most neglected sectors ever since 1950.
Nepal’s trade deficit with its neighbouring countries is, no doubt, widening. The international community has begun to see Nepal as a failed state, not because it does not have any natural resources but because it has failed to make any headway in any sector. The rural poor, who depend on agriculture, are becoming poorer. And the few rich continue to enjoy the rights to rule them.
China is soon going to announce the substantial grain purchases. The agreement on the grain purchases will reach before Premier Wen Jiabao visits the US in December. India will be the loser if China signs a long-term grain agreement with the US. China’s population is growing albeit slowly. With the rising standards, the Chinese have begun to demand for a more meat-based diet and there, the government, is naturally looking towards world markets to satisfy grain needs for food.
Nepal should at least realize that the poor farmers living under abject poverty would benefit, if it invests in agriculture, instead of raising army battalions. And it is foolish to ignore the urgent needs of the people like food which, if grown in surplus quantity, could certainly enhance the living standards as the surplus grain will find the markets. This could also help quell the Maoist insurgency which thrives on poverty. We can easily draw a lesson on how India has become economically a strong nation after it became self-sufficient in food production.Posted on: 2003-11-24 08:25
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