Farming is a local businessfeatured
It was around ten at night and pitch dark. A rustling sound woke up Mehendra. He rushed outside with his brother and their father. As they suspected, a herd of cattle was eating through their clump of banana trees. Their shouts startled the bulls and cows and they ran up a hill nearby. Mehendra realised with dismay that the cattle would run over the top and fall in a ravine. The fall would break their legs or worse. To intercept the stampeding herd, he started to climb a rock face. As he pulled himself up using a tree branch, the branch snapped and Mehendra fell. He banged his head against a rock and was lucky to escape with a big gash and a concussion.
I narrate this anecdote to illustrate some of the reasons that make increasing farmer’s income very difficult. As we have discussed, a farmer faces many challenges in making money from farming. He may not have water. The market may be so far that the cost of transportation may be higher than the price he gets in the mandi. He could face difficulties like pests and may not have anyone who could advise him. Add another difficulty to the list – local culture.
Mehendra is a tribal farmer from the village of Palsunda. The village is located in the hilly region of Palghar district in Maharashtra. The region gets very heavy rainfall, but the thin topsoil is not able to retain the water that falls down in the three monsoon months. Consequently, most farmers in the region grow crops only during the rainy months. Mehendra is the only farmer in his village who farms after October. One key consequence of this fact is that the villagers keep their cattle penned up only in the monsoon season. After that, the cattle are free to graze the grass which has grown in the monsoon.
And the villagers take the right of the cattle to graze very seriously. When I heard this story, my first reaction was why did Mehendra need to put himself in danger to save cattle that was trespassing on his lands. Mehendra was unequivocal. If the oxen or cows had fallen and broken their legs or worse died, he would have had to compensate the owner. The other villagers agreed with this assessment. It did not matter that the cattle was eating his banana trees. What mattered was that it was after monsoon and hence the cattle was free to move around. Mehendra had the right to chase them away from his fields but not cause them harm.
If you are farming in village like Palsunda outside of the Monsoon months, then you would need to live in your farm hut. The farm hut would be in the middle of your fields away from the village and will not have luxuries like electricity or toilets. Snakes could slither into you house from the fields nearby. And of course, you would need to sleep with an ear open to any sounds of wandering cattle. No wonder most villagers prefer to engage in casual labour instead.
When we discuss increasing farmer’s incomes, we usually talk about what the central government can do. Yes, measures like crop insurance would help all farmers and yes good quality of local healthcare would have helped Mehendra a lot and the central government can help in such cases. However, most of the challenges that farmers face have to be addressed very locally. At the village level or even at the farmer level. Challenges like soil and climatic conditions, the distance from markets, the availability of water and the knowledge level of the community. And challenges arising from local culture. With treatment and time, Mehendra made a full recovery and continues to face these challenges every day.
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More from the author on Palsunda and farming.
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Author –
Yogesh Upadhyaya
(Yogesh Upadhyaya is one of the founders of AskHow India. Blogs are personal views.)
Follow Yogesh Upadhyaya on @Uppi89
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