Byrappa belongs to a village called Sondekoppa. He had a son, Gangappa who was appearing for his tenth standard exam this March. He wants Gangappa to learn and be able to earn a regular, consistent income for the family. His daughter, Ramakka is married, but sent back due to insufficient amount paid in dowry. Byrappa intends changing his fate this summer. He has mortgaged his lands with a local pawnbroker for a sum of Rs.70,000/-. He intends planting tomatoes in his land, and sending his Ramakka back to her in-laws, paying Gangappa's pending fee at the school, without which they would not let him attend the examination, and repair the roof of his house, which had fallen during the previous monsoon.

He buys the tomato seeds from the city, starts working long hours with the rest of his family towards ploughing the land. He is happy looking at the saplings. As the crop grows, so do his dreams. The entire family's hard work brings a good harvest. Byrappa and Gangappa carry the harvest to the city with gleamy eyes, hoping their problems would be over this year, and they would have something left for the lean months. They come to Bangalore RMC Yard, and are shocked to sell their entire produce for Rupees five thousand. They are poorer than what they were, lost their land. The entire family today stays in the slums working as construction workers on daily wages. They have lost everything

This is not the only one. There are lots of other Byrappas in Karnataka, suffering a similar fate. Karnataka, India for that matter has agriculture as one of the most extensive occupations. The fate of the farmers out here, says a totally different story. This is the sect of people, who toil from morning to evening, seven days a week, 52 weeks a year. They don't even have a guarantee of the outcome of their toiling. It is one of the most uncertain occupations. The outcome depends on a lot of factors, beyond their capacity or control. The Rain God governs their life. More of it is bad, less of it is problematic. That's the irony! But still most of them endure it year after year hoping against hope for better times, suffering in silence accepting it as their fate.

The Governments have tried time and again practiced favoritism - towards their territories, towards the vote banks, or for whatever reasons, that logic knows not. I cannot offer a solution for this in my capacity, but I guess I have the right to speak on the problems created. Don't I have the right to exercise my right to Freedom of Speech? If I am not mistaken it is one of the fundamental rights available to me. Lets leave the Governments for the time being. The lesser we speak about them, the better for us!

Yes, these farmers…their day begins at dawn, and they are toiling till dusk They are clearing the land, tilling it, sowing seeds, transplanting seedlings to a different piece of land in an arranged order, nurturing the crop, protecting the crop. This is an ongoing process, right up to harvesting. I guess Murphy's laws are the truest compared to all the other existing laws. The weeds and unnecessary plants grow faster in between the crop. Let's not get into the reason for this. Manuring the crops, protecting from pests by pesticides, de-weeding, etc is an ongoing process through the total life cycle of the crop. Then comes the harvest time. This is a time to reap the rewards of their labor, but even this does not come easy.

They collect their entire harvest and load it into lorries and tempos, and travel to the bigger cities expecting a good price for their crop. They need this money maybe to educate a child, for the marriage of a sister / daughter, repaying the debts (due to bad harvests/ spoilt crop earlier), etc. They are in for a rude shock. To add to their woes, these farmers have only middlemen to sell their proceeds to who make the maximum profits in the business. The farmers make less, the consumers pays more. It would have turned out to be more profitable for them had they an option to sell it to the government agencies at near consumer rates. This tells clearly that the farmers do not benefit even marginally in the bargain.

After selling the entire load, they realize they do not have enough even to pay the transport that got them to the city. What about the expenses incurred on the seeds, manure, pesticides, and the priceless toiling? A few of them do not have enough money left to go back home. Last week walking down the road, I find one such farmer begging for fare to return home. When I asked him that he did not look like a beggar, he wept bitterly and told his saga. This really touched my heart, and made me ponder "Is this the fate of our farmers today?" What happened to the slogans of the country like "Jai Jawaan, Jai Kisaan"? Maybe governments feel that it was not their political party that created such slogans, which gives them the freedom to think otherwise.

If this is how things go, we will have to create 'Farmer Relief Funds', the way we have 'Gujrat Earthquake Victims Relief Fund', 'Kargil Relief Funds', and so on. Why can our politicians not open their eyes and watch around? Please pay some attention to the farmer's too. They too constitute your voting banks. They are the ones who are toiling to keep our nation self-reliant in food products, instead of making us dependant on other countries. Long live the Farming Fraternity!!!

Solution

The VIRTUALBANGALORE Team was able to contact the farming community at random, and here is what they had to say. This was in rise of the agency inaugurated by the CM S M Krishna this week.

"This agency should have a division, which is like market research wing, the function of which should be to advice the farmer at the time of sowing as to what should be sown, and when, keep a target of each crop's acreage. They should ensure spreading this information to the farmers well in advance. The committee should also inform the farmers on what crops can give good returns, etc. This would make our farmers a better lot and by elimination of middle people create better price for the consumer. We would lower the cost of living and inflation through these measures, and at the same time help our farmer brothers to get better and ensure some returns for their toil.

Once such experiment is taken forward we can from Karnataka alone start to produce vegetables not only for distribution all over the country, but as a country India can become Horticulture basket for the entire middle-east, Europe, and countries like Russia, Japan, Korea, etc., which are not able to produce the variety due to their temperate climate.

Therefore let us resolve to take this experiment step by step further so that after the hi-tech field of IT and BT, we are able to bring the Horticultural Revolution to take our farmer brother to the 21st century with us. The cycle must keep turning, so let us all keep our spokes strong and proper. Jai Hind and Jai Karnataka!"

Our sincere thanks to NDDB for having picked up the revolutionizing idea. Let us give a thought to the people who have thought and kept farmers dear to their hearts. Long live Kurian, M S Swaminathan, Abdul Kalam, Lal Bahadur Shastri…