Mainstream Weekly

India: Growing Importance of Fruits and Vegetables

Gilbert Etienne — 2014-04-06T18:50:12Z

Fruits and vegetables (F/V) have been quite a luxury in many countries in Asia and elsewhere for centuries. When travelling from Lebanon to the border of Bengal, kitchen gardens, so widespread in Africa south of the Sahara, were not common, although some fallow lands could have been devoted to F/V.
Milk was widespread but with low yields. There was a combination of agriculture and animal husbandry which was not the case further east. The famous French geographer, Pierre Gourou, called (…)

- 2014

"Irrigation Makes you Free, Irrigation Makes you Rich"

Gilbert Etienne — 2012-06-11T23:00:04Z

“Irrigation makes you free, irrigation makes you rich.” This we read in the Archives of Catalonia (Spain) in 1243. Such a statement, already valid in Europe and China at that time, remains more topical than ever in Asia, including India. The shift from rainfed to irrigated crops brings considerable socio-economic benefits to the local people, including small cultivators and landless labourers.
This was amply confirmed by the impact of canal irrigation under the British, in the (…)

- 2012

Failures of Western Countries and UNO in Afghanistan

Gilbert Etienne — 2011-03-19T18:30:00Z

Very rarely in contemporary history can one come across such an accumulation of wrong assessments, poor judgements, ignorance as shown by the Western countries and UN interventions in Afghanistan after the collapse of the Taliban in December 2001.
A review of such mistakes may help avoiding their repetition in future. No doubt a number of difficulties have been boosted by the shortcomings of the Afghan authorities: weak administration, corruption… but the reconstruction and fight against (…)

- 2011

China: Some Challenges and Issues

Gilbert Etienne — 2010-11-24T18:19:01Z

Let us first reject the latest fad,“The Beijing Consensus”, created in 2004 by J.C. Ramo (Foreign Policy Centre, London, May 2004), a kind of opposition to “the Washington Consensus” which favoured the neo-liberal theses in the 1990s. Though not promoted by the Chinese, the new consensus refers to the development model of China for developing countries.
In fact, the achievements of China since 1978 do not constitute “a model” or a recipe that is transferrable. They are due to the (…)

- 2010

Millennium Development Goals (MDG) in Asia and Sub-Saharan Africa

Gilbert Etienne — 2010-09-08T08:21:52Z

On September 21 will take place an important international Conference on the Millennium Development Goal (MDG). It was launched by the United Nations in 2000 with the aims to reduce acute poverty by half, to promote rapid progress of basic education and health, as well as gender equality.
Half-way through, there has been some progress in education and health, but, as stated by Ban Ki-Moon, the Secretary-General of the UN: "We are not on track to fulfil our commitments." (The MDG Report, (…)

- 2010

India's 11th Five Year Plan 2007-12: Challenges and Constraints

Gilbert Etienne — 2009-08-31T17:36:00Z

India has started its 11th Five Year Plan (FYP) from a relatively high basis because of much progress achieved in many sectors of the economy, thanks to the rising and pushing middle classes and entrepreneurs, thanks to reforms and a more pragmatic approach in planning, including the Private-Public Participation (PPP) projects.
The emphasis on agriculture and infrastructure, after decades of neglect, is highly welcome. To improve health and education is no less important. While the (…)

- August 2009

Agricultural Prospects and the Rural Economy in China and India

Gilbert Etienne — 2009-05-02T21:25:00Z

Agriculture is again in the world news with the food crisis in 2007-08. In Asia, agriculture has been neglected during the past twenty years. In Africa the situation is much worse since more decades. Now, from China to South-East and South Asia, governments are rediscovering their farmers. In Beijing, as in New Delhi, one hears the same worries: growing income disparities between towns and villages, rising imports of agricultural commodities, social malaises leading in China to violent (…)

- May 2009