A farmersly satire
By: Vamakshi Rastogi
Tags: Farm Bills 2020, India, Farming, Indian Agriculture, Farmers Protest

Farming is not usual job. A farmer works for endless hours and spends sleepless nights to ensure the crop comes off. So don’t just thank a farmer, thank his wife for performing household chores and going for other parts as well. Thank his children who don’t complain him, seeing him if just for a brief moment while he eats his meals in the field. Farming is the family business and it takes a lot of sacrifice. So don’t just thank a farmer, thank the Family!

Indian farmers have remained an ignored entity since 1991. Their hard work is seldom appreciated. It is ironic that people who provide us with food are often deprived of it. A lot of times a farmer is the only earning member in his family and his death leaves his family in destitution. But this issue often remains unaddressed. In one word, the dark side of farming is “losing”. Often, no matter how hard famers try but they lose their land as their expenses exceed their income. In spite of doing everything they lose their crop because of diseases or famine. Above everything, farming is the most hardest and the darkest occupation as a farmer helplessly loses its faith, family, his everything just to feed his countryman.

Amid travelling by road every one of us would have noticed franchise of several big brand restaurants and probably one of us might have had a meal while travelling. But have we ever thought if famers ever choose to quit their occupation then who will feed us? These restaurants? The one who own self purchase wheat and other stuff from the farmers? Feeding someone is the big responsibility. In another scenario, we are passing through a historical time, our previous nurturer have grown up playing and watching blooming fields whereas we are growing up getting clinched in concrete blocks. Nowadays, fields with blooming crops are seen rarely. All these field are replaces with some or the other conclaves or the multi-storey building. This depicts the plight of farmers more than anything else. A small amount of fertile land is left which is the whole world of the farmer. The farmers near capital of India have an opportunity to sell their lands instead of killing themselves. But not all Indian farmers are that fortunate. If the replacement went in its pace then soon India will emerge as the food deficient country.

Seeing through the legislators frame, government makes several “scheme”. But what about its implementation? The harsh reality is that the schemes are implemented only on paper and not in reality. Government offers number of relief and insurance programs to the farmers and under some schemes farmers are provided with loans on “low rate of interest” but ironically benefits never reach them. If once in the blue moon, “schemes” reaches to the farmer then they are solely availed by rich farmers as poor and uneducated farmers are unaware of these schemes and lacks in required number of formalities and documents. Most of the time if farmer lacks in payment of debts then they are detained for by local police. In social embarrassment they are forced to sell their property, wives and daughters. While in some cases the social embarrassment leads to suicide. Suicide is like an “epidemic”. But farmer’s suicide isn’t the sort of thing that media or Bollywood movie would depict. In fact they fail to express such serious topics. While, all that the government can do is to compensate their families. Now that the talk about suicidal-epidemic wrath; the other epidemic is wreaking havoc across the globe- “the novel coronavirus”. Amid COVID-19 outbreak the Indian agriculture sector was badly impacted. Lockdown across the states led migrant farm workers to flee from fields as they were unable to sustain their livelihood. Farmers stuck with inventory, started selling their grains in throwaway prices. Many migrant farm workers remained hungry even as the Food Corporation of India’s go-downs overflowed with grains at three times the buffer stock norms. Ironically, the “feeder of the nation” sleeps hungry stomach every 2nd night. The concept of One Nation, One Ration Card is nothing but just a concept that only gives easement. As India has always struggled to bridge the gap between policy creation and implementation. Moreover, several states like Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Delhi, Haryana, Rajasthan, Maharashtra, and Chhattisgarh faced locusts attack in the month of June and farmers were left with nothing except banging thalis to repel locusts.

Though policies are made to ease the problem but in India policies often create problems. In 1998, the World Bank’s structural adjustment policies forced the Indian government to replace organic seeds with corporate seeds. Unfortunately, the Indian farmers were forced to buy the high priced HYV seeds manufactured by the multinational companies. On the other hand in the current scenario, India is forced by World Trade Organization to decrease its subsidies whereas the developed nations have privilege to give agricultural subsidies to their farmers. In this situation India needs to take some diplomatic actions to protect its farmer’s right at the world level but who cares? All we need is a crisp Mc. aloo tikki.