Chapter 504 The building will collapse

Asan, in a cotton and sugarcane plantation in Mabang, from a distance, it looks like a white land.

The few sugarcane and cotton plants that did exist grew sparsely, their leaves looked malnourished, and cracks were often seen in the dry soil.

“Why don’t you water the plants?”

“There’s no water.”

“Pump the groundwater!”

"The groundwater has also been drained, and the women in the village have to walk several kilometers every day to fetch water for daily drinking water."

"I remember that finding water was always a man's job, right?"

"In order to solve the problem of drinking water, a large number of women have become well diggers to make a living, and even elderly women have become well diggers. Age is no longer an issue that needs to be paid too much attention to in dealing with the water crisis."

"How unfortunate!"

"Compared to the civilians in the city, they are already lucky. The groundwater in the city has dried up, and drinking water has become a problem for millions of people."

This is Ahmednagar, the road transportation center of western Maharashtra and a major agricultural city.

Professor Satnam's miracle of sugarcane and cotton first took place here.

It's a mess now.

Large areas of land have been severely depleted, the soil has been fundamentally damaged, and crops have failed to germinate in most areas.

At the same time, there is an equally serious problem: water shortage.

Agriculture is the largest water user in India, and 90% of India's water is used for agriculture and animal husbandry.

The proportion of groundwater use exceeded one-half as early as the 80s.

85% of urban residents' drinking water depends on groundwater.

However, in Ahmednagar, water-intensive crops such as sugarcane and cotton were originally the main crops.

After Satnam’s sugarcane and cotton varieties created a production storm here, nearby farm owners and farmers were the first to introduce them.

The huge demand for water has led to a surge in tube wells here and a significant increase in groundwater consumption.

It only took two or three years for the groundwater to dry up.

The soil fertility was insufficient and the irrigation water could not keep up. In the end, all Cheng Di saw was a vast expanse of white land.

Cheng Di suppressed the violent beating of his heart and looked calmly at the rare large farmer beside him in India: Rajesh Vikram Patel.

His family operates a total of 8000 acres of cotton and sugarcane plantations in Maharashtra, all of which are irrigated farmland.

There was no sadness in Patel's eyes, perhaps he was already in despair.

The farmland that had been managed by the family for generations was destroyed.

According to expert assessment, even if a water source is found, the loss of soil fertility will require huge amounts of money, manpower and a long time to repair.

Totally worth the loss.

Cheng Di asked: "Is this also the case with the Patel family's farmland in other cities in Maharashtra?"

Patel said, "The whole Mabon is like this, there is not much difference, but Patel's land is probably the most seriously damaged. I heard that Tianhe's parent company is an expert in soil remediation, so we found you."

Cheng Di squatted down and tried to grab a handful of soil with his fingers, but it was too hard, so he had to change from grabbing to digging.

He inserted his fingers into the gap and pried it apart with great force before finally breaking off a piece of soil. The soil looked lifeless, just like the soil dug out from deep underground when a real estate project was being developed, or even worse.

The soil dug out from deep underground is called raw soil, but after two or three years of careful cultivation, it can also become mature soil.

However, if Cheng Di wants to turn the soil in his hands into mature soil, he will have to spend at least double the time cultivating it.

Hopeless.

Cheng Di silently made a judgment in his heart. Given India's population size and the importance of agricultural production, this country is finished.

He pretended to be distressed and said, "It's difficult. Even if Jiahe came, it would cost $1 per acre to treat it!"

"And it will take time, a very long time, at least five or six years!"

Patel was not surprised by the result.

In fact, professional managers discovered problems on the farm last year, including a surge in water usage and a decline in soil fertility, but no one paid attention to it.

Based on last year's output, it would be completely worth it even if it took half a year to a year to recuperate after harvesting one season.

But the situation quickly deteriorated, with water shortages and land degradation making things irreversible.

Even if they changed to crops such as peanuts and beans, it was of no avail as no seedlings would grow in the soil...Since then, the Patel family has hired batches of experts.

They all say this is a terminal illness.

Patel was quite surprised that Jiahe was able to restore the land within five or six years.

However, the cost of $1 per acre for governance is unacceptable to the Patel family or the entire federation.

Patel shook his head and said bitterly: "Damn Monsanto! I will make him pay the price."

Cheng Di was stunned for a moment and asked, "What does it have to do with Meng San?"

“The seeds were brought in by Monsanto,” Patel said.

Cheng Di was surprised: "Isn't it Professor Satnam?"

Patel said indignantly: "Satnam is just a puppet. He doesn't even know when Monsanto implanted the genetically modified organisms! But most of the seeds are sold through Mahaico Monsanto!"

His head was buzzing, and Cheng Di couldn't understand why the blame was put on Monsanto!

Unreasonable!

Shouldn’t Monsanto’s BT cotton be the biggest obstacle to the promotion of new varieties of cotton?

How come Monsanto is infected with both?
But it’s good that I don’t have to worry about my personal safety anymore.

Cheng Di cooperated and cursed: "Monsanto is really abominable. They suck the blood of farmers. People all over the world hate them."

Patel said: "So the states are ready to unite and boycott Monsanto together and drive Monsanto out!"

“It’s a wise decision.”

After agreeing with a few words, Cheng Di said, "It's a pity, though. The cotton and sugarcane areas in South America have dropped significantly this year. Your country has suffered this disaster again. The global supply and demand situation of cotton and sugar has become tense again. The prices of cotton and sugar are going to rise sharply again!"

Patel said: "It would be great if we could grow another crop this year."

"No, please don't!"

Cheng Di looks like he is thinking about you, and says, “Given the current level of damage, your country must immediately stop the spread of the two varieties, and stop planting them after this season.

Now is the autumn planting season for sugarcane, and we must act immediately to prevent the area of ​​autumn planting from expanding further."

Patel looked at the white sugarcane plantations and pondered: "If this continues, the price of sugar will go through the roof this year, right?"

Cheng Di raised his eyebrows. What did he want to do?

You're not trying to do the opposite!

He felt that the Indians were capable of doing such a thing given their national characteristics.

"That's right. Last year, your country was the world's largest producer and exporter of white sugar. This year, the planting areas in South America and Australia are both lower than expected. They are all giving way to you..."

Cheng Di didn't say anything else, but it was enough. The hints again and again were enough for Patel to make a decision.

Big farmers don't care about the lives of small farmers.

Moreover, the country was about to fall into chaos. If he could make a fortune and then immigrate, he could live a happy life in the future. Cheng Di did not dare to stay in the countryside for long, so he followed Patel back to the city, and then returned to Mumbai through the channels of Nuzvidu Company.

Nuzvidu is Tianhe’s partner and the largest seed company in India.

The cooperation between the two has also achieved some results, but it is mainly concentrated on rice and wheat, these two crops also account for 50% of India's crop area.

However, the area has shrunk significantly in the past two years.

Because the profits from growing rice and wheat are far less than those from cotton and sugarcane, farmers of all sizes are switching to other crops, causing the profits of Nuzwidu Seed Company to decline year by year.

The CEO of Nuzvidu is called Rao. After Cheng Di returned to Mumbai, he went to Rao's office.

"Mr. Rao, the situation is worse than I thought!"

"Is there nothing Jiahe can do?"

"No, from what I learned this time, some large farmers have not given up growing cotton and sugarcane. Now the government has to step in and stop people from changing their crops!" Cheng Di said righteously, "Otherwise, there is a high probability of a food crisis, a surge in food prices, and many people will starve to death."

Cheng Di almost gritted his teeth as he uttered the words "food prices have skyrocketed".

Rao also listened very carefully.

Those few words echoed repeatedly in his mind, impacting his spirit.

Will food prices skyrocket?

India has liberalized its grain imports, but it is itself a major grain exporter. If the situation continues to evolve, grain prices will surely skyrocket.

This is a disaster for civilians.

But can the government control the situation?
When Laozi thought about the big farmer Cheng Di was talking about, he knew who he was talking about.

There were only a few large farmers in the whole country, and he knew and understood them all.

The Patel family!
Their lands are ruined but there are other lands. The government can control the farmers but it is difficult to control the big farmers in the states.

This is a loose federal country!

The family of the incumbent Prime Minister Singh is also a large farmer in India. In addition, there are powerful families such as the Sharma family.

A crisis is both a danger and an opportunity.

Rao only had to think about it briefly and knew that these big families would definitely take advantage of this opportunity to make a fortune.

The mess belongs to the country, but the money earned goes into his own pocket, so he has to make preparations early.

In addition to being a seed company, Nuzwidu is also a grain trader.

Rao said: "Yes, the short-term returns from sugarcane and cotton are too high. We have to stop it."

August and September is the autumn planting season for sugarcane in India.

The Indian government headed by Singh has long been trying to control farmers to switch to new varieties of sugarcane and cotton.

There has been a constant stream of crisis propaganda, such as water consumption and fundamental damage to the land...

However, large families such as the Patel family are still privately planting new varieties of sugarcane on a large scale.

Because everyone knows that this may be an opportunity that only comes once in a decade or even once in decades.

The planting area in South America and Australia has been greatly reduced. The areas in the northern hemisphere suitable for growing sugarcane are mainly concentrated in India. There are problems with land and water, and now farmers are strictly prohibited from growing high-yield varieties...

There is a rumor circulating among the elite: this year's sugar prices may reach skyrocketing levels, and cotton prices will also rise sharply!

If you plant high-yield varieties at this time, it is hard to imagine how high the returns will be!

Many people want to make a fortune.

Punjab and Gujarat in western India are the main grain producing areas in India and belong to the Indus River basin.

Most of the Indus River basin is located in Pakistan, but its upper reaches and the upper reaches of some of its tributaries are in India.

The Indus Plain is an extremely important grain-producing area for both sides.

India built dams and diverted water on tributaries, thereby blocking and diverting the water source that Pakistan relies on for agricultural irrigation.

Therefore, the conflict over water sources between the two sides has always been fierce.

In the past two years, this trend has intensified.

Tyrek Lee, a reporter for the British Independent, was walking in a village market in Punjab and witnessed scenes of human tragedy.

A few days later, The Independent published a report that attracted worldwide attention.

"India's agricultural ecology is collapsing, a crisis is imminent, farmers are selling their wives to pay off debts, which is worth at most £150."

“In Asan, there is an unwritten rule called the ‘marriage contract’: once a husband gets tired of his wife, he can sell her to another man.

This year, many farmers were forced to sell their wives due to their inability to repay loans.

These women are only worth 4000 to 12000 rupees, about 50 to 150 pounds, and the more beautiful the women, the higher the price.”

"This year, every 10 minutes, an Indian farmer commits suicide!"

"Due to the lack of drinking water, a large number of women have joined the army of searching for water and digging wells!"

“The rich and powerful prohibit small farmers from growing high-yielding varieties of sugarcane and cotton, but secretly they grow them on a large scale!”

"Grain merchants are waiting for an opportunity to stockpile grain!"

The Independent has lifted the last fig leaf of India, exposing the current situation of water resource conflicts, land destruction, and wealthy people waiting for opportunities to plunder wealth to the world.

Small farmers in various Indian states feel like they have been stabbed in the back. Instead of spending money to manage the land, the powerful are only thinking about making a quick buck and then running away.

This hurt them deeply.

At the same time, it also let them know more information that the sugarcane market will pick up and the profits from growing sugarcane will be beyond imagination.

This has prompted some bold and short-sighted small and medium-sized farmers to rush to plant high-yield sugarcane seeds.

It’s a mess, it’s a complete mess!
First there was the 'vampire' leeches in the Northeast, and now the agriculture industry, which was once highly anticipated, has also caused a big mess.

Many middle-class Indian families have no idea where this precarious country is heading.

As the monsoon ends, water crisis in various states is once again on the horizon.

The contradictions are increasing, the conflicts are becoming more intense, and the scale is getting bigger and bigger.

Fights between villages, clashes between towns, exchanges of fire between states, and wars between India and Pakistan...

No one knows where Asan will go in the future.

By October, the United Nations had released an interim Water Development Report.

The report shows that the South Asian subcontinent will face the impact of a water crisis, and India will be at the center of the impact.

India's irrigation agricultural water and drinking water supply are highly dependent on groundwater.

The long-term and large-scale exploitation of groundwater for agricultural irrigation has put it at risk of depletion, and the high yields of sugarcane and cotton in recent years have rapidly increased this risk.

According to the current progress, by 2020, almost all of India will have no drinking water!

This may sound a little sensational.

However, some data cited in the report prove that this day is very close.

The number of cities in India where groundwater has dried up reached more than 50 within a year!

(End of this chapter)