The Economy of Permanence: A Quest for a Social Order Based on Non-violence (स्थायी अर्थतन्त्र)

Economy of Permanence
II. AGRICULTURE
Our first care must be food and clothing. To this end we must concentrate on
Agriculture and Village Industries. Agriculture production should be regulated
and controlled keeping in mind two main considerations :

1. The locality must try to produce all its own food requirements and raw
   materials for primary necessities of life.
2. It must aim to supply raw materials suitable for village industries rather than
   for factories : for example, instead of growing thick rind sugarcane of long
   staple cotton, as demanded by the factories, soft rind sugarcane as can be
   crushed by the village 'kolhus' for gur making and short staple cotton as
   required for hand spinning should be grown. The surplus land can be utilized to
   supplement crops needed by surrounding districts. Land utilized for sugarcane
   for the factory, tobacco, jute and other money crops should be reduced to the
   minimum, and, if need be, even eliminated altogether. In order to make the
   farmers adopt this policy, utilization of land should be regulated by issuing
   licenses by the government authorising the farmer to grow certain crops only
   according to the plans for the province and heavy dues and extra land revenue
   should be levied on land used to raise money crops. This will restrain the
   farmer's incentive to go in for money crops in preference to food crops. On the
   whole, prices of agricultural products should be made to compare favourable
   with those of industrial products by suitable control.
   Commercial crops such as tobacco, jute, sugarcane etc. are doubly wasteful.
   They reduce the food production for man as well as for animals which would
   otherwise have got their fodder from food crops.
   Primary products like cereals and milk should not be allowed to be used for
   commercial purposes for obtaining starch and casien. The supply of gur which
   may fall, due to the decline in the cultivation of factory varieties of sugarcane,
   can be made good by the production of gur from palm trees now tapped for
   toddy or from those which are found or can be grown in waste lands in
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