A FRIEND of mine engaged in a medium-scale dairy production told me that students who undergo training in his business venture were all motivated by the desire to work abroad. It dawned upon me that agriculture has not been spared with regard to the desire of the poor to work abroad as a chance to improve their economic plight.

Sticklers will argue that the trainees are not poor but instead come from the lower-middle class. That is a problem with government data: it often paints a rosy picture to show that the government is performing relatively well.