FARMERS IN INDIA
Majority of Indian natives live in villages and about 50 to 60% of their people are farmers they cultivate land as a part of their livelihood they rely on farmland and agricultural crops for their food and economic trading. They usually work all day on the field around the village. Most of them are productive and hard working people they usually start early in the morning before sunrise with their cattle and other farm animal to help them out. Usually they take a few times to eat on the afternoon and rest under the tree for a few moments and they continue to work on the farm again until sunsets. Most farmers have lived in humble lives and they usually inherited small land from their old ancestors they will also give this land to their children when they pass life. Even if they work in hard labor the usual farmers rely on debt from other farmers or from banks and other financial institutions to continue their farming, they may also rely on the rain if they have not maintained adequate water resources for irrigation.
Sometimes flood can destroy their crops their houses can also fall when it rains heavily, famine, snakes, pest and other insects are their enemies, sometimes they don’t have enough healthcares and education services in their nearby villages and they may sometimes grow old in farm lacking in literacy. Although most of their children and their adults have lived a simple life away from modern civilization and technology they are still happy and contented with nature as their playground they enjoy the breath of fresh air, fresh fruits and vegetables are their staple food and because of their modesty in living they learn to help each other by sharing material things for others, friendship and trust keep them safe. This is the usual life of the farmers in India.
During the 17th century during colonial period they had a problem in acquisition that usually British businessmen bought most of their land for mining, enterprise development and owning most of the land that they used. In a newly developed government system the history of the pass still remains when most owners of the land are only a few landlords and intermediaries control their land while most farmers are tenants who cultivate their land. The farmers have to pay in cash or in kind in order to continue their farming but usually most farmers never really own their land or they just have a part on their crops that they planted. Most farmers do not really received equal shares considering their labors and landlord never usually concern about their productivity but only in their payment of land inequalities are therefore rampant. During the 19th century there are various land reforms that have been implemented by the government although there are still many land reforms and special concerns are needed to protect their farmers.
One of the reforms that benefited the farmers are the “Jawahar Rozgar Yohana” that aims to improve the lives of their people and “Punchayati Raj” this includes the loans for the farmers up to Rs 10,000 rupee. Somehow some of these reforms have become a relief in the life of the farmers to attain equality, justice and dignity to retain their confidence in their production and still the government is open in their land reform issues. The government knew that most of their farmers are tenants and most owners neglected their performance to give to the farmers their rights to own a part of land even they spend years in cultivation and there are still numbers of problems that needs to be measured. During the year of 1999 the International Financing Institutions and World Bank extended their help to support land reform for the farmers in India.
Security of tenure, access of land, proper water or irrigation, health and benefits and machineries are the government focus although there are still so much work and resources to introduce including the presentation of modern technology in farming and basic knowledge. The answer is improvement of ownership, land titling and legalization framework and proper training and development for small farmers but this has not been thoroughly implemented within the countryside productivity is still missing but they also believe that they are on their way to progress in farming. International trading also opens up agricultural crops for export and linking of customers from other countries in their production although there are issues that still unclear and unsettled.
International trading has also influence industrialization and modernization in farming in India that has further reshaped their activities that they have sources of knowledge in agriculture, they also import and export good seeds and nowadays they also use fertilizers and machineries from other countries. One of their problem that is still unmet but gradually it is still recognized is irrigation and water system that can largely enhance the cultivation of land and grows crops; feed their animals and culture fish and marine life. In 2001 World Bank came up with two major project to ease their burden in irrigation, these are the 0 million credit for Rajasthan and the 9.2 million USD for Uttar Pradesh with forty years term for irrigation purposes.
References:
http://www.foodfirst.org/files/bookstore/pdf/promisedland/4.pdf
http://www.publishyourarticles.org/knowledge-hub/essay/an-essay-on-the-life-of-an-indian-farmer.html http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/asia/1500-farmers-commit-mass-suicide-in-india-1669018.html
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