I was going to say "Things are frustrating here." but decided that it would be more accurate if I just said "Life is frustrating". I could probably start every post like this. This time, the reason I’m frustrated is for two reasons.
1. Farmers here want more money, but they want it the (semi) easy way. They way they want money is with higher prices for their crops. So they just ask why the cotton company doesn’t give a higher price for cotton, or why they don’t give bonus’. They turn a deaf ear when you start talking about global cotton prices or the value of the kwacha and just reply "I don't care. I just need more money to live". This is pretty normal. I’ve heard countless farmers in Canada complain about the price of feed, beef, grain. But you can’t just ask the buyer to give you more money, that’s too easy, you have to be creative. What the cotton company offers is a YIELD program, each letter stands for something, but it’s basically a program that teaches it’s farmers better practices so they can have higher yields. Here, it is more realistic to double yields than it is to double the buying price. Yields here average 700kgs/hectare, but good farming can yield 1400kg/ha. I’ve heard of farmers getting anywhere from 200-1700kg/ha, so yields vary widely and it's not just because of weather.
2. The second thing I’m frustrated about is farming subsidies…Correct me if I’m wrong, but American cotton farmers get an average of $80,000/person per year in subsidies!!!! That is the yearly income of 200 peasant farmers here! Try explaining that to farmers here. "The reason the cotton company doesn’t give a high price for cotton to you isn’t because they don’t want to, but there are farmers getting so much money from the government in other parts of the world that they can afford to sell their crops for such low prices, and you have to compete with them because cotton is a globally traded commodity".
So, farmers that are reading this, or anyone else. What do you think about farm subsidies? Should we cut them? Why shouldn’t we?
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ReplyDeleteWe've been telling you for years, Ben...
ReplyDeleteWhat have you been telling me?
ReplyDeleteSubsidizing American farmers is the cause of so many global problems! It creates a false ecomony in which no other country can hope to compete! That's the problem w/ NAFTA (among many other organizations)! I say cut it! Come up w/ a better solution.
ReplyDelete