Cooperative Farming

I bet you have never heard any of our Indian Politicians talk about Cooperative Farming. Even though it is something that makes perfect common sense, Something like this has never happened in a prominent way till now.

Take the way usually things work for the average farmer. He owns a few acres of ancestral land, where he has been growing traditional seasonal crops. The farming process is itself is mainly that of gruelling manual labour. Even on recent train journeys I have often seen farmers plouging their fields with a couple of bullocks in the country side. Technology has not made too much of an impact.

A tractor is a luxury for the bigger farmers. and those who own it probably still dont have enough land to make efficient and optimum use of it. Each small farmer spends a high proportion of his income on water pumps , alternate sources of water etc.

If you are a Farmer and are having a good year and have reaped a good crop things are just about ok. But this is not the usual case a lot of times. Farmers have to fight against famines, droughts , floods. You might just see a lovingly grown crop close to harvest destroyed in one night by flash floods.

Teamwork can make a huge impact in increasing our Agricultural productivity. The farmers need to team up and help each other. Cooperatives are not new. Not many people know that the "Amul butter" brand is actually produced by a womens cooperative society in Gujarat. The society itself was a result of a few enterprising women coming together to create a livelihood for their own. If it worked a number of years back, Surely it can work now.

Imagine tens and hundreds of Farmers ploughing thousands of acres of land with a common goal and with common resources and modern technology thrown in too. Its a no-brainer. There is definitely going to be increased productivity.

Did you ever check how vegetables and farm produce are transported from villages to the cities ? Mostly in open trucks , at least a quarter of that produce is wasted due to bad packaging and some of it because it just rotted during the journey. If they could transport them in "fresh" vans using modern technology this could be avoided.
There are lots of such small improvement that one can think of.

I think the reason why Cooperative Farming does not happen is not because we dont know how to do it. It is because of very complex issues at the grass root level. the divided communities can never unite unless there is a strong inspiring leadership who can setup something like this and ensure that things function in a fair and equitable manner. Its all there in the lawbooks too - just a matter of implementing them.

We cannot bank on our politicians to implement these schemes. They will only be there to dish out sops such as free electricity , free water and then just disappear till the next election !

A Sketch

This was done by a sidewalk sketch artist , close to NYC Times square. It sure was fun to sit on the sidewalk and act like a model ! :-)