Reflect, support and return to roots

Though many of us started as farmers and agriculturalists and somewhere we were enamored by white/blue collar jobs and migrated to other lucrative professions that involve sedentary lifestyle and lack of physical activity. Today, some out of guilt and few out of necessity and tired of city lifestyle are beginning to move back to villages. Both my grandparents are agriculturalist and I am the first generation in my family who has not practiced agriculture. This sabbatical offers me an opportunity to compare and contrast both professions and possibly, get a keyhole view into farming and the sacrifices made by the community. And this blog is an attempt to understand farming from both inside and outside.

There are two points that keep me both awake and thinking at night these days. One, how can we make agriculture more sustainable given shortage of labor, adverse climatic conditions, lack of capital and loan facility, and politics of water. 

Reaching the ominous tipping point

Though India's IT and ITES industry is referred to as the sunrise sector it contributes to less than 9% of our GDP, while agriculture contributes 14% to our GDP feeding 1.3 billion. With cultivable land decreasing due rapid urbanization and industrialization and with population on the rise we will soon reach the ominous tipping point where demand overtakes supply affecting food supply.

The UN survey predicts that by 2020 more than 50% of the India's population would have shifted from rural to urban putting more pressure and stress on food producers, who at the bottom of the pyramid shoulder the burden and responsibility feeding the nation. Are we willingly turning India into another Sub-Saharan country ridden with hunger, famine, and poverty?

Who will hear farmers?

In the last 18 months Prime Minister Narendra Modi has made trips around the world to build investor confidence, seek investments in India, alongside his efforts to pass land acquisition bill in the Parliament, but sadly hasn't visited villages or asked his ministers to lend their ears to withering farmers and attending to their needs.

I was at a local supermarket today and I was not surprised to see all those products available in city supermarkets on the shelves. If FMCG companies can crack the rural market and master the art of marketing to rural India, is it that difficult for a Government to understand rural problems and solve them? 

Can a branch exist without the root?

Can manufacturing and software code feed the nation? While industries can generate employment and put money in the hands of people, but agriculture is fundamental to human survival. US has already learnt their lesson on outsourcing manufacturing to China, is it India time to learn a lesson outsourcing and abandoning food production? 

Second point that made me toss and turn at night is the living and working conditions of farm labor and improve the ecosystem. In corporate sector we enjoy job safety and security, early bonuses, raises, and perks like medical insurance, maternity, weekends off, and privilege leave. But do farmers enjoy the same rights and privileges? Is that why they migrate in search better jobs that guarantees all of the above?

Is it sustainable?

My father holds large land holdings; he educated us and provided for us from agricultural income. Though he moved us to the city for better education, but he always brought us back to the village for summer vacation to stay close to our roots. Though our lives were basic, he taught us how to be happy and contended.

Is Rs.150 a day for women and Rs.300/ day for men sustainable to run a family with two children? Let's say a dual income rural family working on the farm for 25 days a month, it cumulatively adds up to Rs.11,250, which will be hardly enough to help them make both ends meet. Let's pause for a minute and think what monthly expense(s) of us matches with this rural income. 

If you are two acre farmer then you have financial and physical challenges to meet. Economically, a two acre farmland is not large enough to sustain their lifestyle and hence they will have to supplement with income from working elsewhere. That is also a reason why they tend maximize farm output through use of excessive chemicals. 

Build their pride and create more opportunity

Majority of farmers in India hold less than 2 acres of land and together produce to feed the nation of 1.3 billion population. The only way to arrest rural migration and deter farmers from giving away their land to industries is by making agriculture lucrative and farming the pride of the nation. Alongside, there is also an immediate need to provide quality education and hospital facilities in nearby towns. 

Government must definitely look at creating an ecosystem that will not only help farming, but also add value to farm produce thereby arresting migration. For example, they must provide opportunity for farmers children to qualify in the areas of food technology, food processing and also provide them with necessary loans and technology know-how to set up food processing units that give them an opportunity to use their education and support agriculture.

The sacrifices made by the farming community to feed the world is million times more effective and real compared to what corporates do under the banner of social responsibility, which is more of lip service and a marketing ploy. It is time we pay are dues and gratitude back to the farming community.

Consuming is alone is not supporting

Though capitalists and industrialists all started as agriculturalist, but why haven't they taken up farming on a large scale after achieving their monetary goals? Is it hard to return to the roots once you found a place in the branch. I will write in detail about how farmers make ends meet and the perks and subsidies that they receive from the Government in my next blog. 

At times, I may sound both capitalist and socialist in my writings, but I believe in keeping the 'Golden Goose' healthy and happy.