Draught is certainly one of the worst situation to face and if you are a farmer then it is the worst bane to your life. This is what is happening with the farmers in India where the lack of rain has been resulting with farmers committing suicide. There are various factors that actually add to the agony of the farmers apart from the rains. They certainly get exploited in the whole logistics chain from what they cultivate and what they make. One such case that I heard was of the farmer who cultivated 2000 or so kgs of Pomegranate but ended up with only few rupees.
Now in the whole series of incidents, the government gets blamed for inactivity or of not adopting fair policies. To certain extent I would agree with the blame on government as the government is ineffective in curbing the grey market and middleman culture a prevalent. The level of corruption is so high that even the Government officials are hand in glove for commission purpose and thus the fair minimum price defined by Government is not something that actually reaches the farmer. And so compounded with all the problems the farmers head to commit suicide.
So, what should we be looking at to help those farmers committing suicide?
- Donate some funds to provide help
- Steer a movement against government and stage protest against government policies
- Educate farmers to steer clear of the middleman and corrupt officials
- Educate and Unite farmers for proactive ways on Water harvesting?
- Helping Farmers create Cooperative Society that should be taking their products to the Market and get them fair price advantage based on the share of their crops they bring in?
If I were to ask I would pick 1 with 4 & 5 to help them be self reliant and not just help them monetarily. Belong them monetarily would have a one time or say short term impact. What is needed is a long term solution that would mean educating them on Water harvesting as well as creating the Farmer Cooperative Society and yes that would certainly need good financial backing.
The long term solution the way I would see getting unfolded would be –
- Constituting the Farmers Cooperative Society as a registered organization with representation of farmers
- The Farmers Cooperative society can be national level society with Share holding patter defined differently for different levels of society
- Keeping the shareholding pattern of the Cooperative Society matching with the pattern of Produce that the Farmers bring in
- Setting up of funds to run the show at Farmers Cooperative Society
- Working with farmers to set up water harvesting projects and ensure that the water harvesting is worked out in an optimized manner
- Ensuring that the Water Harvest is covered and protected adequately from loss and contamination of water
- The overall control to be with the Cooperative Society with no Government interference as well as no scope of middleman as the Cooperative Society should be the one to deal with market directly rather than the middleman…
I appreciate the efforts that are being taken by like so Nana Patekar, Akshay Kumar and others, but then my request would be to work on a larger initiative than just donating money….ensure that the money you donated reaches the right end point and is utilized optimally.
