TheJakartaPost
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Letters: Modernizing agriculture?
I refer to an article titled "Forty years after the *Green Revolution' (The Jakarta Post, June 30,) by Subejo of Tokyo
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I refer to an article titled "Forty years after the *Green Revolution' (The Jakarta Post, June 30,) by Subejo of Tokyo.
I believe Indonesia should not reinvent the wheel, but look at the global arena, and study the experiences of other countries.
History has shown many times that positive predictions regarding the impact of modernity and efficiency have far from materialized.
Modernity is fueled by greed and leads to wider disparities in wealth, increased crime and other adverse effects.
In many countries, when agricultural technology became much more advanced - it caused the price of agricultural products to fall sharply, and the by-product included the deepening of poverty of the majority of farmers, while causing some mega-businesses bloom.
Instead, Indonesia should focus on elevating its education system, especially among the rural population. To allow for modernity and efficiency in agriculture - the number of farmers must be reduced dramatically, in order to prevent deepening poverty.
It can be done relatively smoothly, if Indonesia have much higher standards of education in rural areas. Then, most of the children of farmers can migrate from the villages to towns and cities and have a professional careers.
It should be clear: An advance in agricultural technologies without a dramatic decrease in number of farmers will cause a deepening of poverty for most of farmers.
Ronen Skaletzky
Jakarta
