An international development organization, in response to a vitamin A deficiency among people in the impoverished nation of Tagus, has engineered a new breed of millet high in vitamin A. While seeds for this new type of millet cost more, farmers will be p

In response to a vitamin A deficiency among the people in Tagus, an international development organization has come up with a new breed of millet which has high vitamin A content in it. The author predicts that the subsidies given to the farmers for farming this new variety of millet would offset the extra cost of it and since millet is already a staple food in Tagus, people would readily adopt to the new variety. The author also recommends the government of Tagues to promote this new type of millet aggressively to combat the vitamin A deficiency prevalent in Tagus. All inherent costs and efforts associated in growing it, along with its possible change in taste compared to original one must be known to judge whether the recommendations would yield the predicted results.

Firstly, it is not stated how high is the cost of this new millet compared to the old millet which the farmers were growing and whether the subsidy would be enough to bridge the extra cost. There might be some inherent and indirect costs involved in farming the new millet like it might require extra care, extra time for farming or might rob off the fertility of the land on which it was farmed. Without calculating all the extra costs and efforts that would be needed to grow this new variety and whether all those are substantiated by the subsidy provided, it can't be predicted whether the farmers would be ready to grow it only based on the subsidy provided.

Even if the farmers decide to farm it, there is no guarantee that the people would be ready to accept the new variety as their staple food only because the old variety was prevalent among them. The new variety might not have the same taste as the old one or it might take long time to cook. People don't easily change their food habits and it would be more so difficult to convince them to change their staple food, especially if it differs in taste from the original one. Its variation in taste and cooking time should be known before making this prediction.

The government, no doubt should do everything possible to combat the vitamin A deficiency but in order to do so, it should also explore all the alternatives available and weigh the pros and cons of each of them againest the other to find out the best possible solution. Perhaps a better food option can be developed or found which has greater percentage of vitamin A than this variety of millet, would not require extra subsidy to grow it and is easily accepted by people. The government should take into account the financial, cultural and health benefits of a possible solution and compare them againest a few alternate solutions to come up with the solution which it can endorse. All possible alternatives need to be given before making the recommendation to the government to promote this new millet.