Word: khaki
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...Khaki is the Indian farmer's word for the dusty, brown, bare countryside of northern India-a word that imperial British soldiers long ago adopted to describe the sand-drab color of their field uniforms. Last week, from the tea gardens of the Malabar Coast to the millet patches of the high Himalaya, Indians were discussing the government's new third five-year plan (1961-66), in which highest priority is assigned to agriculture...
...goal is a 33% increase in food production in five years-enough to enable India to feed itself. Western experts think it can be done, but the problem narrows down to the special and often exasperating problems of "the man behind the plow," the Indian khaki farmer...
Blood & Banians. Fate, for most khaki farmers, is another visit to the banian, or village moneylender. Of Jagjit's 30-bushel wheat crop, the banian already gets about a third. The banian's charge for a bushel of wheat: two bushels at harvest time, the equivalent of 100% interest. Yet Jagjit and others would rather take their chances with a local banian's mercy than ask for government credit. "The government drinks the blood of the farmers," said Jagjit fiercely. "It charges 12% interest, and wants the money back as soon as the term of the loan...
...khaki farmers go, Jagjit must be accounted progressive. In all the 600,000 villages of India, only i% of the farmers till their land with anything more up to date than a metal-tipped stick. There are only 34,000 tractors in the whole country. But even if tractors were available in any quantity, most farmers' plots are too tiny to justify their use. The government has persuaded only a few to band together in cooperatives. For an Indian feels deeply attached to his own land and hates the idea of working on someone else's; nor does...
...during the next five years, the U.S. has agreed to lend $1.3 billion to pay for 17 million tons of U.S. surplus wheat and rice (TIME, May 16). But ultimately, India's economic stability will depend on learning to feed itself. And that will be up to the khaki farmers...