Rice Shortage

The rice I grew up eating was fragrant and had a bite on chewing. It is called kinanda and does not grow on wet rice paddies but rather on dry land ploughed starting the onset of the rainy season and harvested in early december. No one plants this variety of rice anymore. It consumes a lot of overhead expenses and harvest comes only once a year. In short farmers are at a losing end when they plant this variety. I saw my father loose money for several years when he was planting this variety until he eventually gave up on cultivating rice and shifted to livestock.

I do not know about the agriculture situation at present having committed the worst crime of a son of a farmer, forget about the land. What I know is that when I start farming, the problems that will beset me will be more than handling patients at the hospital. First raising capital is not that simple. The bank has interest rates like they should be the only ones who should profit. Next there is the uncertainty of the harvest including pests and bad weather. Next there are farm hands who does not only do the worse jobs, but poach from your produce. And then there are the neighboring farms who do not respect your privacy. And then there is marketing of the produce. The prices are so low that only the middleman gets the beef. So in the end its the farmer who suffers the most. He does the work and everyone else gets the profit.

Other farmers have moved on and taken lives away from the field. Or the field have taken another life. When I was young when you drive throught the south super highway, all you can see are long strecth of rice fields. Now only housing projects and industrial plants liter the scenery.

I do not condemn development. But I condemn the process by which we are developing. Our leaders do not have foresight. No one is planning for us. Nobody foresee anything except the end of each leader's term.

Unless we see ourselves in such bad situations, only then will we realize that we have to change things. So bring it on. Let's have all kinds of food shortages, increase the price of fuel and transportation, provide no health services. Let the people know what it's like, so they will wake up from this long long sleep.