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  Program: Wide Angle #606
  

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At a moment when India is enjoying record economic growth, THE DYING FIELDS turns to the four million cotton farmers who have been left behind, struggling to survive on less than two dollars a day.

WIDE ANGLE cameras follow Kishor Tiwari, former businessman turned farmer advocate, whose tiny office in the heart of this cotton-growing region functions as the archive and watchdog of the suicide epidemic; traveling salesmen hawking genetically modified - and costly - cotton seeds that require irrigation that few Vidarbha farmers have; the last rites of a farmer who couldn't pay his debts; a tour of the poison ward at the local hospital, whose beds are always filled; and a visit by then-president of India, A.J.P. Abdul Kalam, whom the farming widows beseech for help in convincing the government to forgive their debts.

PBS Airdate: Tuesday, August 28th at 9:00pm (check local listings)

For more information, please visit www.pbs.org/wideangle

Tags:

• pbs
• cotton
• farmers
• India
• suicide
• widows
• Asia
• hospital
• poverty

Post Date: August 27, 2007