Some stories and conversations with Indian farmers

January 11, 2013 by greenskyindia 6 Comments

Our country India is an agro-based nation. Agriculture is the primary occupation in India. But in our country, around 70% population lives in rural areas. We might be blessed with natural resources and weather conditions; still the condition of our farmers is not an ideal one. A large number of farmers are extremely poor, uneducated and depend highly on the weather in order to earn enough to sustain their lives. India ranks second worldwide in farm output today, but at the same time the average size of land holdings is less than 2 hectares. There are rich and prosperous farmers also in India with huge land holdings and all technical equipments. But majority lies on the poor side. We ourselves surveyed some farmers and came across this diversity. In our small survey only, we met farmers ranging from ones with innovation awards and association with Agriculture Research Institution to a group of around 10 farmers who all worked together on small rented lands and that too only for one season. They didn’t even have enough resources to continue farming throughout the year. Some had all irrigation methodology at place, while the others relied entirely on rain. It’s a painful scenario. Growing up we don’t realize we get all this great food so easily. But the real fact is that so many of those who grow this food for us, themselves go to bed with empty stomachs. In our survey we had a lot of discussion with these farmers regarding agriculture and technology. Thanks to the spread of mobile in our country, everyone was aware of at least the communication advantage that ICT can bring in. We will share these discussions in a Special category we’re putting on our blog called “Farmer’s words”. From next week onwards, we’ll bring stories and conversations from Indian farmers. We’ll bring out their problems and difficulties and will happily share their innovation and experiences. We want to bring a significant change in the lives of our farmers and with the help of ICT, we’ll put in our best efforts to bring this change.