And U.S.A. Is very anxious to help to supply modern machinery to slaughter these two lakh cows per day and unburden us of the cow liability. This foreign and the indigenous experts and their advices smack of vested interests and pose the greatest danger to the nation, an unprecedented one, directed to create complete dependence on the foreign food supply.

On account of the bullock and the manure shortage, our food production per acre Is diminished by stages on one hand and on the other hand, because of the ghee and milk shortage cereal consumption increased. The Imbalance between consumption and supply thus created. resulted In higher and higher prices. An accepted principle of economy is that when food prices rise all other things and commodities start up the price ladder. It is argued that our population increase is the cause of the price rise, but it is not correct. If population increase is 50% than land under cereal production is increased by 100% which should mean more and cheaper food supply and if there is no export; surely the imports would not become necessary. Our food grain imports are multiplying every year Last twenty years have seen this increase by 1000 per cent and yet different parts of the country are falling in the clutches of famine and price of food grain and on its account of other commodities are rising In tidal waves, In reality the doom of our agriculture is solely on account of our reckless slaughter of the cattle wealth.

Our Ministers and industrialists falsely daydream that our agriculture can take huge strides by establishing scientific fertilizer plants. Our 400 min. acres under agriculture will need (every season) 40 million. tons of fertilizer. To produce these 40 million. tons of fertilizers annually, how many billions of rupees will be needed? One fertilizer factory established in 1946 with a capital of As. 7 crores is manufacturing about 2,75.000 tons of fertilizers annually. On this basis, capital requirements to meet our 40 million. tons needs may be estimated. Further, the use of these fertilizer costs Rs. 90.00 per acre while the food grain produce attained is only 15 mds. meaning an additional expense of As. 6.00 per md. of food grain. And by these fertilizers the agriculture is extra-burdened by As. 36,000 min. Can the farmer bear the burden?

And though in the final stage, the burden is passed on to the consumer from where would the farmer produce this fantastic amount even before crop is sown? A further danger to this Impracticable fertilizer idea is its monopoly either in the hands of few foreign and indigenous capitalists or in the hands of the State Governments. Apart from all these, the fact remains that in spite of all the scientific fertilizers, manure is indispensable. Manure is needed to obtain effects of fertilizers. Ten cartloads of manure per acre has to be used prior to the use of the fertilizers. Therefore even taking for granted that all problems in respect of the production and distribution of the scientific fertilizers are solved and these are delivered at the door of the farmers in the desired time, the fact remains that if manure is not available, the entire labor is lost and the fertilizer remains useless.

So it will be seen that if being misguided on advice of the foreign and the indigenous vested interests, we slaughter our cows treating them unproductive (American Bell Commission advises slaughter of the 80% cows) we shall left without manure and all our investments and labor for fertilizer manufacture will be in vain. The country will for centuries not come out of the most unhappy and disastrous era. Further the use of scientific fertilizers needs increased use of water. We cannot provide this. Even after spending As. 1,500 crore on dams, 26% of our population semi-starves for water. On what basis then can we expect to provide the additional water supply to our 400 min. acres necessitated on account of the use of the fertilizers? There are many instances where adequate use only of manure and well ploughed land and no scientific fertilizers at all have yielded 50 to 70 mds. of grain in our country while scientifically advanced countries like America and Russia with fertilizer are not getting more than 15 md yield per acre though we hear loud praises about over abundance of their crops. Does it stand to sanity and justice that we should sink billions in fertilizer plants; burden our lank transport by further 14% and
load agriculture with Rs.3600 crores of added cost solely because we are advised that the cow is unproductive and so be slaughtered. instead of going into all this unending labyrinth of problems; why not feed the so-called unproductive cow at a negligible - completely indigenous cot and in return receive milk, ghee, manure and bullocks, even of negligible value. This way seems more sane and in the interests of the country.

The U.S.A. uses scientific fertilizers; but it has to use manure and probably short supply of manures enforces the use of fertilizers as additive, for their cattle wealth is limited. However, the adverse effect of the excessive use of scientific fertilizers is now being felt in their output as also on the produce. Their crop yield per acre is in no way more than the Indian acre, while the quality of their food grain is much inferior to its Indian prototype. Compare their red wheat with our Khandva or Pisi and their red Jowar with our white Jowar. It seems sensible that the inferior food grain we receive from America are not specially grown for us but it is the only quality produced there and what they eat is sold to us. Both the U.S.A. and India have nearly the same acre-age under agriculture and produce 100 mln. tons each but because of their population being a third of that of India, the U.S.A. has food surplus. Further their daily diet has a very high content of milk products adding to the exportable surplus. After 1947. the agriculture cost in the U.S.A. has risen by 35%. Progressive mechanization of the agriculture progressively increased the output costs and deteriorated the quality. We should not remain under a false impression about the vastness or prosperity of their agriculture. If U.S.A. would not increase their cattle wealth on a very large scale, they would never have cheaper or larger food grain output. Higher production per acre is the headache for U.S.A. while that Russia is to become self sufficient. Inspite of this fact both these countries boast of improving our agriculture and alleviating our distress. Not only food grains produced with manure are definitely superior in quality but also are more resistant to rotting. Our food grains last for years while the American varieties rot in a few months.

Here it would be worthwhile to assess the part played by the cow in food preservation. To establish a buffer stock of food grains is the permanent post-independent head-ache of the Government. To meet famine conditions and provide against war-time contingency, a buffer stock of about 20 mln. tons should regularly be maintained. To preserve this stock the use of poisonous insecticides and pesticides and air conditioned godowns are prescribed. And even after these huge costs the results obtained, are far below expectations. The cheapest and most secure method of food preservation is to mix weight by weight the cow dung ash with food grains and store it in containers. Cow dung ash is insecticidal and germicidal, and moreover it absorbs moisture. If sufficient number of cows is available in the country and if rationing and controls are removed, people would store two years requirements in this manner. Fifty years back food grains were preserved in this way. What the Government could not achieve in twenty years the people will achieve in two years.

Irrigation by huge dams is a folly. Wells are the only answer. But are we to fit pumps to these wells? Or KOSH (leather water lifter)? If use pumps, we would need 20 mln. engines and 20 min. engine rooms. These engine rooms would eat away fully our entire years cement production as also iron sheets and steel in huge tonnage. And we are miserably short of all these commodities. Moreover all these costs would be on farm produce. Now if we propose to use bullock-drawn Kosh (leather water lifters) for water drawing, no extra costs are added. The bullock will plough and irrigate the land, carry loads and give manure. Mechanized farming involving tractors, motors and pumps, fertilizers and trucks for transport would add very heavily to the costs so that the farmer will never be able to sell his products below the present prices and people can never hope for a relieved and easy life.