All in the name of the poor farmer

This is a message that I received from another group. I was impressed with its clarity and decided to post it on CLEAR FUNDAS. There is plenty of food for thought - if not for the farmer's plate.

"With monsoon failure and farmer suicides back to hogging the media headlines, once again it is time for the ever proverbial doles to farmers . Every arm chair socialist suddenly develops bleeding heart for the 'poor farmer in distress' . Every rural marketing project which was shelved for long , suddenly resurfaces with the tagline - to benefit the poor Indian kisan (farmer)'.

Most people know very little of rural India, or are too scared to speak on such a 'touchy' topic lest they be seen as anti-social. Being a 'social entrepreneur' at least the least we can do is to rip the face masks off such pseudo measures.This post is dedicated to the thousands of people who have benefited 'in the name of the farmer'. I hope by end of this post, even if one of them develops areal conscience , we would consider our expose a small step in right direction ;-)

Rip off number 1 : Farmers are poor and this justifies loan waivers

Well, that depends on whom you consider as a farmer. Recently there were media reports of Amitabh Bachhan claiming to be a farmer in UP , and a Union minister who waived off loans for farmers , resulting in his own mother in law claiming how much he himself gained from such a write off ! Even after land ceiling acts , there are several BMW farmers in our midst ! Most real farmers in India who are poor do not own any land - they operate on lease or work as labourers and hence cant keep land as collateral for loans.

Rip off number 2 : Green revolution has increased our yield

Well, if you call importing rice, wheat, Australian grapes & Chinese water melons as REVOLUTION ! Our home grown Simla apples are hardly to be seen in our shelves . Our Elakki bananas are a lost species. And then the same 'fathers of Indian agriculture' hold conferences to protect global bio diversity after completely wiping out our own local horticulture products.

Answer this simple question O father who knows all - 'if we had a green revolution, then why are we IMPORTING even staple items which are very much available in India ?'

Rip off number 3 : The farmers need more cold storages to store their yield and get better prices

Well, if you think cold storage is a big size fridge . But people fail to realise that even the smallest of fridges need POWER SUPPLY to keep things cool. Now , with even large metros struggling to maintain sustained power supply, and most rural areas under 12 hour shut downs , tell me if we even can assure our farmers that we can provide energy to run even a SMALL FRIDGE ? With rising cost of diesel, do you think they can run off generators ??

In fact several multi crore cold storage projects have been quietly bitten to dust owing to poor utilisation. Ask SAFAL/SNX , Cochin airport authorities and the several agri food parks dotting our country sides ... you'll be surprised at the number of cold storages that have actually been built and are rusting today for want of electric power supply !

Rip off number 4 : Farmers are under clutches of money lenders. Micro finance will save them !

Well, provided the people who run micro finance agencies are angels with hearts of Mother Teresa. What is attracting hordes of bankers like flies to flame are the high interest rates in MFI - often close to 30-40% . But what they Don't realise is that the money lender often lives IN the village and always there- Not a casual annual visitor , who stays in a five star hotel , and drive around in SUV, and reads Harvard case studies on alleviating poverty !! The money lenders not only finance the farmer's production, but also any incident in his family - death of his family members, his children's marriage , or even for booze !! Now which MFI has those in their loan agreements ;-)

Mohammed Younus and Grameen bank was an innovation because it grew out of active social projects. Ask even the best of MFI's to really show how their money has been utilised , you will find them dodging the question. Recently, one MFI claimed to be funding millions of farmers across TN, we asked them if we could source from their farmers communities as it would improve the prices and repayment capability- and we never got a call back !!

Rip off number 5 : Indian farmers need to reach global standards and target export markets to get better prices.

Well, that's true if you skipped right through history class in high school. remember Mohanjadaro & Harappa having granaries & modern agri tools ? Read about the silk route and Chinese travelers who wrote tomes on India's richness ? Read about our Kings sending out naval ships laden with best of peppers & spices ? every conquering army from Moghuls to the British came in attracted by the richness of our agricultural products. And ironically, America was discovered 'by mistake' as Columbus was trying to chart a route to INDIA !!

And to think these same westerners are back in new garbs , stating that we are POOR in EXPORT quality !! Here's a gentle reminder note to our western readers : "Dudes - our forefathers ran the granaries of the world civilisation when your's were hanging from trees !!"

Then why this sudden gap in 'global gap' standards ? Firstly, we feel that there is nothing Global about these Global gaps. These are promoted by few dominant retail giants like Tescos & Walmarts of the world who have a rather skewed picture of what is the 'right fruit' - To extend their own racist backgrounds , the items have to be 'white , bright , shiny & spotless' - who cares what is inside , as long as it sells ! These standards are set again by developed nations , who mostly are 'meat eaters' , where vegetables & fruits are used for salads & table decoration.

With more than 1.4 billion domestic customers and another millions global diaspora of NRIs, we don't even need to look beyond our own kin for a target audience.

Rip off number 6 : We need to invest in more agri research and dissemination to farmers

Crores are being spent on research projects on how to increase the yield and productivity. But strangely nobody seems to do much to reduce the 'wastage' which is almost 50% of the yield ? Lets put this in perspective. Suppose you are working hard to earn for your family , and your wife cooks a grand meal and then your kids throw half the food into garbage everyday and claim they are not fed , what would you do ? Will you : (1)go and start working OVERTIME in office to earn MORE money so your wife can cook MORE food and bring to table and occasionally borrow from neighbours? OR (2) SPANK your kids to start respecting the food already ON THE TABLE ??

Well, if you were a normal person you would choose option 2. But if you happen to be an agri researcher or a government official in agri department , option 1 IS the obvious choice ;-). well, I think you would have got my point by now. Money saved is money earned - similarly less wastage is equivalent to more production . What research are we doing to reduce wastage ? To start with - do we even have demand/supply data with us ?

Stop chasing the light at end of tunnel - because every researcher wants to 'discover' this silver bullet solution to solve world hunger. Often the problem is , they are facing the wrong end of the tunnel !!

Rip off number 7 : GM crops are a boon to Indian farmer v/s Organic/Natural farming is the solution to restoring natural balance v/s Organic farming doesn't have enough yield

Funny , that these concepts are ALL originating from the west . All these statements are backed by research and consulting agencies and expensive certifications . GM crops which have been banned in western countries are openly flouted as 'god's gift' to Indian farmer. And on the same note, we see the government claiming that Year's of abuse of fertilisers & chemicals has destroyed yield and promoting organic/natural farming. We have saying in Tamil ' pinch the kid and rock the cradle'. Dear Agricultural minister - when you are not busy between IPL cricket match schedules and posing with cheer leaders - can you please resolve this little dilemma ?

Rip off number 8 : India doesn't get enough rain to do farming owing to repeated monsoon failure

Well, yaaawwwn .How long are we going to hear this same sob story ? Is it that the rain gods are ONLY angry with India and rest of the countries are all well taken care of ? Global climatic change is a pretty worldwide phenomenon by now . What others have done is anticipate this, and taken measures to plan, protect and allocate their natural resources wisely . For example, China doesn't do boo-hoo over poor rainfall ? Is lord Indra leaning towards communism

India's agri planning & water resource planning has 'malfunction' written all over it. between politicians, environmentalists, naxals and NGOs , all the waters we get either get lost to ocean or results in skewed flood/drought combinations that when we look at macroscopic picture, we have to admit - even God helps only those who help themselves . best of weather satellites and Abdul Kalams not withstanding, our rain & water management is just PATHETIC . With a slightly more stronger central govt. we hope at least this time our prime minister can wield a stronger stick amongst the state governments to cooperate better - or else !

Rip off number 9 : Information technology can rescue the farmers

Well, after they manage to rescue themselves ;-) Given the global meltdown, and scams that have tarnished the much glorified IT incs. Yes, technology definitely can aid the millions of India's poor. But problem is the business houses have always more tuned to working with HNI's and $$ customers, that the huge mindset shift which is required to adjust to Indian customers and that too those BPL is too vast for now. India's IT companies have built the backbone of the worlds leading supply chains & agri businesses, but look within and we just about have put a cell phone in every person's hand. There is a LOT that can be done in this sector , provided one knows where to start ad how to go about.

Rip off number 10 : We need to create rural hubs - provide commodity futures trading, health care, insurance and FMCG products to improve farmer's lifestyle and needs

Well, if you ask any farmer he will tell you he has already discovered such a hub - it is called the 'CITY' - duh ? Just like any city bred middle class man always dreams of going to the West & settling down in land of opportunities , the villagers also harbour dreams to coming to our cities ! They want to drive cars (maybe not Tata's Nano - but the swankier Camry's) , live in high rise apartments , and send their kids to private school and get treated in Apollo hospitals. You think I am joking - just look at any village today - you won't find any youngsters - they are all in the city , powering the BPO & call centres. Attend any rural job fair and the single point requirement is to 'settle down in the city'. Even the farmers are pushing their kids to move away from their villages The real estate boom has increased land values to such levels in last few years that it is lot more lucrative to sell the land and live off its riches than toil on it.

Our great minds in planning commissions assume the farmers to be 'village idiots' - but the jokes are on them now. The pace of change in rural India is so drastic and the migrations to city so rapid , that most of these Utopian projects like 'farmer's hubs' are becoming ghost towns. people have always tried to 'sell' things to farmers, without actually realising that they haven't done much to 'buy' things from them ? Every village now has one rupee sachet shampoos which have become success stories in rural BOP marketing, read by generations of MBA graduates - but go to any wholesale Mandi near the city and look at how vegetables are sold - in crude gunny bags and open crates !!No case study there Mr. IIM professor !

The city dweller may cherish this dream of fresh air, green fields and swinging by the Babul tree - but the villagers are just bored ... they would rather see all that in a multiplex . Mr. Gandhi, had he been alive would have rephrased his statement - "India lives in villages .. but the villagers are living in our metros ". Well, shocked ? upset ? dazed ? So are we... lot of the myths which have been built around us about villagers are breaking every day . The more we think we know about rural India, the farther we seem to be from truth .

What is written above is but a small pebble.. we need more pebbles, and more throwers ... lets stop romanticising about the farmers . There is NOTHING romantic being an Indian farmer today . If you can't genuinely do anything for them, at least stop raping them and telling them that you are doing a great service to them. As Michael Jackson would have put it - "if you wanna make the world a better place, take a look at yourself and make a ... CHANGE"."

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