Saturday, December 13, 2008
I am not a fan of agriculture
I do not consider it that vital a strategy for development, even if we did become a breadbasket the world is littered with third world food exporters. That said moving away from agriculture was probably the worst thing this country ever did. The shanty towns are the direct result of rural migration to population centers resulting in poverty, crime, and dispair. Could a return to the field at the very least reduce the afromentioned woes? I doubt it, you can take the country out of the rural boy but you can never take the city out of an urbanite. People will not return in droves to a life of hardship and difficulty, lacking so many services they are already accostumed to.
That said the government disagrees, and on the one thing I am most cynical about it is the one thing they have actually delivered to date (in terms of raw economic production). Vegetable production is up 52% compared to 10 years ago.
Milk production is also not far behind with what could very well be the golden yardstick of 2 billion liters this year (a digital cookie for those that figure out why) or roughly 6 million liters a day, compared to 1,44 billion liters 10 years ago..
Beef production is up a modest 23%.
Production of cereals like rice and white corn (our bread staple and not to be confused with regular corn) have increased 72% and 150% respectively
Not everything is perfect however, there is a noticeable decline in production of plantains and bananas (oh the irony), almost half what it was 10 years ago.
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That said the government disagrees, and on the one thing I am most cynical about it is the one thing they have actually delivered to date (in terms of raw economic production). Vegetable production is up 52% compared to 10 years ago.
Milk production is also not far behind with what could very well be the golden yardstick of 2 billion liters this year (a digital cookie for those that figure out why) or roughly 6 million liters a day, compared to 1,44 billion liters 10 years ago..
Beef production is up a modest 23%.
Production of cereals like rice and white corn (our bread staple and not to be confused with regular corn) have increased 72% and 150% respectively
Not everything is perfect however, there is a noticeable decline in production of plantains and bananas (oh the irony), almost half what it was 10 years ago.
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