Improving lives of farmers in India
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| An Indian Farmer |
Yesterday, a farmer committed suicide in the middle of Delhi in front of large
crowds and TV Cameras. There has been a huge uproar over the incident. It
is not that a farmer’s suicide as a result of financial distress is something
new in India, but in front of TV it shocks human sensibilities much more. A single incident may expose past agonies that have been
suppressed for long as happened with a single slap in Tunisia some years ago leading to
the Arab Spring.
About two thirds of Indian population lives in villages
and a majority of these are directly or indirectly dependent on farming. Over
the years while some development has taken place in cities, it is much less in
villages. When the question is raised as to what might be done to
improve the lives of modern villagers, some of the answers are simple and others
complicated. The first thing that can be done is to deal with the simple and
the obvious while not ignoring the complicated, and the simplest are the three
basics of modern living, Roads, Electricity and Water
Rural Infrastructure
As regards electricity,
there are very many models now available from small scale to large scale national
grid models for electricity supply, involving both renewable and non-renewable
energy sources. Some of these must be employed with great urgency to ensure
24x7 electric supplies in villages. Once that is provided, many types of
productive economic activities would develop automatically improving the lives
of villagers; this is assuming there is still much honesty and goodness that prevails in villages. if it is not so, it would merely be an additional tool in the hands of the corrupt to create more misery..
Economic activity may flourish only when there are roads
that connect a village to modern means of transportation.
Within the village itself, covered drains are required under or beside the roads otherwise good health would be a far cry. This is not difficult and if modern engineers find it so, they may refer to 5000 year old technology of India from the Indus valley for the same.
As regards water supply, there is a need to build lakes and
dams around villages. Once that happens villagers can find their own water with hand pumps, wells and small motors,
because ground water level then goes up.
It is necessary though to have individual home toilets in order to minimize pollution of these water bodies and these are neither difficult to construct nor expensive if one refers to older posts in this blog. If people of the Indus valley could do it 5000 years ago, why not now? All that is required is a firm resolve.
Presence of water bodies makes it easier to develop forests of edible food trees in the common areas around villages rather than bleak and barren landscapes of starvation.
It is necessary though to have individual home toilets in order to minimize pollution of these water bodies and these are neither difficult to construct nor expensive if one refers to older posts in this blog. If people of the Indus valley could do it 5000 years ago, why not now? All that is required is a firm resolve.
God be gracious, if this author was a near pauper in a village, he would have
constructed a toilet for free at home by sticking an inverted clay pitcher broken in half into ground and
connecting the hole at its center with an improvised clay pipe trap and pipe to an unlined drain covered
with stone pieces and soil that would work as a septic tank., and instead of a brick
room just grass mats that can be woven for free would have sufficed to create
an enclosure. A bucket of water would flush away the matter and the roots of a grape or other food vines by the side of the septic tank would absorb it all to yield fruit and edible leaves while covering the enclosure with a green wall and greater privacy. Water and urine that splashed around would cause grass to grow around it to create a green floor. it is not being suggested that is exactly how it should be done because this paragraph is spur of the moment loud thinking to illustrate that will and wisdom overcomes any shortage of resources.
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| An improvised squat toilet and septic drain |
What is required more than resources is a will, honesty to free oneself from corrupt gain and education to bring about change.
When hearts, minds and hands of those who govern are freed from pursuits of corruption, they return to what they are supposed to do - govern to improve the life of all citizens, rural or urban.
Policy
Aside from rural infrastructure there are very many matters
of national policy that impacts the lives of farmers. Agricultural income is
non-taxable in India
and that is a great savior of farmers from harassment. That is something that
must continue and there are always other simpler indirect means of taxation
such as excise and GST that can generate revenue for the government
Removing Government Controls
What impacts the lives of farmers seriously is the controls that governments have designed on the sale and purchase of farming commodities such as seeds, fertilizers, produce etc. There are restrictions not only on the import and export of such things from the country but also from state to state within India. Symbolic of this is the most basic of food items that provides energy to all humans all over the planet - sugar. The government must consider seriously which of these controls can be done away with and leave it to natural forces of the market while merely regulating to prevent exploitation. Needless to say it would also require a government that is not weak kneed because any policy change causes some vested interests that feed upon it like a leech to lose out and protest. Another throttling control for farmers is the agricultural produce marketing ones. Farmers are not free to sell produce as they like.
Any dismantling of controls would cause pain for all concerned but it is the only sustainable solution. The liar gets temporary relief but must not keep jumping from one lie to another in a series of painful lies but return to truth for sustainable peace,
Food Processing
This note began with infrastructure because with adequate infrastructure it is possible to set up small scale food processing industries in village. While much food processing leads to unhealthy food the simplest, dehydration of fruits and vegetables is the healthiest. So useful is this technology and practice that this blog has posted a full separate note on it. It is something that helps both consumers and farmers although not those in the middle of the chain but these latter are far fewer and must not be the priority for any nation where greed does not rule policy. Please see:
https://steamcenter.blogspot.in/2015/09/need-for-dehydrating-onions-and-other.html
Diversification
Diversification into horticulture, tree and bamboo farming, poultry, diary, fish farming, honey keeping are some of the greatest means available to increase income of farmers and this blog has separate notes on some of these. This process is assisted with help of rural extension centers providing the inputs and technology to farmers along with training. A small training center in village clusters as well as one larger level near the largest village in each district is needed. Inputs from the district village center as well as instructors can then move for a few weeks at a time to the cluster extension centers with inputs and training and production materials such as bee housing, fish seeds, mushroom culture, tree saplings etc.
What impacts the lives of farmers seriously is the controls that governments have designed on the sale and purchase of farming commodities such as seeds, fertilizers, produce etc. There are restrictions not only on the import and export of such things from the country but also from state to state within India. Symbolic of this is the most basic of food items that provides energy to all humans all over the planet - sugar. The government must consider seriously which of these controls can be done away with and leave it to natural forces of the market while merely regulating to prevent exploitation. Needless to say it would also require a government that is not weak kneed because any policy change causes some vested interests that feed upon it like a leech to lose out and protest. Another throttling control for farmers is the agricultural produce marketing ones. Farmers are not free to sell produce as they like.
Any dismantling of controls would cause pain for all concerned but it is the only sustainable solution. The liar gets temporary relief but must not keep jumping from one lie to another in a series of painful lies but return to truth for sustainable peace,
Food Processing
This note began with infrastructure because with adequate infrastructure it is possible to set up small scale food processing industries in village. While much food processing leads to unhealthy food the simplest, dehydration of fruits and vegetables is the healthiest. So useful is this technology and practice that this blog has posted a full separate note on it. It is something that helps both consumers and farmers although not those in the middle of the chain but these latter are far fewer and must not be the priority for any nation where greed does not rule policy. Please see:
https://steamcenter.blogspot.in/2015/09/need-for-dehydrating-onions-and-other.html
Diversification
Diversification into horticulture, tree and bamboo farming, poultry, diary, fish farming, honey keeping are some of the greatest means available to increase income of farmers and this blog has separate notes on some of these. This process is assisted with help of rural extension centers providing the inputs and technology to farmers along with training. A small training center in village clusters as well as one larger level near the largest village in each district is needed. Inputs from the district village center as well as instructors can then move for a few weeks at a time to the cluster extension centers with inputs and training and production materials such as bee housing, fish seeds, mushroom culture, tree saplings etc.
Debt:
One serious issue that has led to distress of farmers has
been debt. When a farmer goes under debt and there is crop failure as must
happen from time to time, he is harassed for the repayment until he hangs
himself into the next life. There is a
need for a widespread debate on how to free a farmer from this.
Law and Order
The lack of proper law and order mechanisms in India for justice is a nation wide problem common to rural and urban areas. It is an issue that requires its own separate discussion and is presently left out from this brief note so as not to divert attention from other issues that can be handled more quickly. There are problems in all three facets of law, the laws themselves that are from previous centuries and covered with cobwebs, an amazingly slow justice systems that is perhaps the slowest in the world, and a police force crying for reforms. Without an efficient working legal system an organized human society cannot be created and chaos prevails.
In the ideal case every small village even with a population of five hundred persons should have the minimum of a police constable and assistant in residence, just as Mr. Goon on his bicycle in the popular children's Mystery series by Enid Blyton centered in a village in England, one who can call upon Inspector Jenkins or a a larger force at a time of need, However, such a police man would do more harm than good if there is corruption followed by extreme harassment in a court of law that will decide a case after three or four decades. The village homes of the poor would then become weekly (Hafta) collection points just as all the streets of all of urban India have been for decades to satisfy the mouth of corrupt greed that never closes and sucks the blood of the poor to their graves to be replaced by more such poor on the streets from the bulging billion of struggling Indians.
Perhaps any debt on interest except from public sector banks might be made illegal. It would keep away micro financing as well as mega financing sharks from praying on the lives of vulnerable and poor farmers.
Law and Order
The lack of proper law and order mechanisms in India for justice is a nation wide problem common to rural and urban areas. It is an issue that requires its own separate discussion and is presently left out from this brief note so as not to divert attention from other issues that can be handled more quickly. There are problems in all three facets of law, the laws themselves that are from previous centuries and covered with cobwebs, an amazingly slow justice systems that is perhaps the slowest in the world, and a police force crying for reforms. Without an efficient working legal system an organized human society cannot be created and chaos prevails.
In the ideal case every small village even with a population of five hundred persons should have the minimum of a police constable and assistant in residence, just as Mr. Goon on his bicycle in the popular children's Mystery series by Enid Blyton centered in a village in England, one who can call upon Inspector Jenkins or a a larger force at a time of need, However, such a police man would do more harm than good if there is corruption followed by extreme harassment in a court of law that will decide a case after three or four decades. The village homes of the poor would then become weekly (Hafta) collection points just as all the streets of all of urban India have been for decades to satisfy the mouth of corrupt greed that never closes and sucks the blood of the poor to their graves to be replaced by more such poor on the streets from the bulging billion of struggling Indians.
Education
No doubt a proper school and good quality education up to high
school level is a must to improve the standard of villages, an education that
teaches not just reading, writing and arithmetic but also ethics, life skills
and wisdom. It is here that a really serious effort is required by governments
to make it possible because the other things like roads, water, electricity and
sanitation are much more easily achieved.
An innovative concepts to help both education and village life in India is here,
An innovative concepts to help both education and village life in India is here,
A solution for management of both village and urban schools, both public and private that has worked well in other countries in past is here
A rural village that survives without electricity, education, sanitation and an efficient law and justice system lives in the dark ages both literally and metaphorically; and when it is combined with corruption and dishonesty of purpose, this darkness is the darkness of hell.
Subsidies
While most progressive nations have found that agricultural subsidies help well being of a nation as a whole, their are right and wrong ways for it. One wrong way is to give increases MSP, purchase price to farmers because this fuels inflation and eventually hurts the farmer too as well as the nation as a whole. The right way is to provide subsidies on inputs, fertilizers, seed, diesel, electricity, farm labor (say through Manrega) and reduce costs. This latter practice does not fuel inflation and helps all
As an IIT Professor once as far back as 1984 when this
author applied his mind to the backwardness of villages he realized that aside
from infrastructure, policy etc. what is needed is basic emotional education
that changes the psyche of a community burdened for centuries. Since the
thoughts that emerged from such an exercise were of a somewhat abstract nature
a small fictional novella was composed to illustrate how that might be done. It
is a story of a village that changes from completely backward to modern,
beautiful and prosperous in seven years through a practical model of
development; while President Clinton has sent this author a thank you note from the White House in 1993 on receiving a copy of this novella, it has not been read in India and places where it is needed. The Novella can now be found in some of the major online retailers
of the world in both electronic and print versions, for example here:
PS: The present note would be useful for other developing countries besides India. A note on how to improve new rural farming areas of the most advanced and developed countries is here:
http://steamcenter.blogspot.in/2014/05/postmodern-designer-villages.html
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