Hindustan Times
Beautiful faces behind ugly numbers
Today, I’m going to show you some beautiful faces that lie behind ugly statistics. You will, today, meet not an amorphous mass called ‘farmers’, but Khim Singh Bisht, Tikaram Singh Rekhwal, Hema Guthulia.
Enough research is available on how to serve farmers and agriculture, the role of India in world agriculture, policy reports by foreign agencies tracking Indian agriculture, and of course, an embarrassment of organisations profiting from the poverty in agriculture — departments, offices, autonomous bodies, boards, commissions, councils, public sector undertakings, divisions, units, wings, branches, institutes and not to forget, the all-important “others”.
I will cover all these at some point, but not today. Today, I will only show you the faces of 10 people I find beautiful and have grown to respect. These, again, are just a small sample from a small slice of what comprises a huge mass of people — 60 per cent of India’s population, down from 70 per cent in the 1990s — who live on the land.
- Name: Shivdutt Pande, 77
Family: wife, four sons
Land: 100 nalis or 5 acres
Crop: peaches, potatoes, peas
Annual turnover: Rs 1 lakh
Annual savings: Rs 50,000
- Name: Pooran Singh Bisht, 43
Family: wife, four daughters and one son
Land: 40 nalis or 2 acres
Crop: peaches, potatoes
Annual turnover: Rs 50,000
Annual savings: Rs 20,000
- Name: Hema Gutholia, 27
Family: husband, three sons
Land: 60 nalis or 3 acres
Crop: peaches, tomatoes
- Name: Dewan Singh Negi, 59
Family: wife, three sons
Land: 500 nalis or 25 acres
Crop: peaches, plums, apricots, wheat
Annual turnover: Rs 40,000
Annual savings: Rs 10,000
- Name: Mohan Singh Birodia, 66
Family: wife, one daughter, one son
Land: 35 nali or 1.5 acres
Crop: peaches, plums, apricots, chillies, tomatoes, wheat
Annual turnover: Rs 25,000
Annual savings: nil from farming
- Name: Khim Singh Bisht, 70
Family: wife, four sons, three daughters
Land: 40 nalis or 2 acres
Crop: wheat, potatoes, peas, peaches, apples, apricots, plums
Annual turnover: Rs 15,000
Annual savings: Nil from agriculture
- Name: Shiv Dayal Singh, 48
Family: wife, two sons
Land: 10 nalis or 0.5 acres
Crop: potatoes, peaches, peas
Annual turnover: Rs 10,000
Annual savings: Nil
- Name: Tikaram Singh Rekhwal, 65
Family: wife, two sons, one daughter
Land: 100 nalis or 5 acres; cultivable land: 40 nalis or 2 acres
Crop: potatoes, cauliflowers, tomatoes, capsicum, peaches
Annual turnover: Rs 1 lakh
Annual savings: Rs 60,000
- Name: Pooran Chandra Gutholia, 66
Family: wife, one son, one daughter
Land: 60 nalis or 3 acres
Crop: peaches, herbs
Annual turnover: Rs 40,000
Annual savings: Rs 15,000
- Name: Bhagwan Singh Bisht, 52
Family: wife, three sons
Land: 10-12 nalis or 0.5 acres
Crop: potatoes, peaches
Annual turnover: Rs 12,000
Annual savings: Negative (his costs, he says, are three times his turnover)
I met them all in the four villages of Badot, Chhataula, Garhgaon and Ritha in Nainital district of Uttarakhand. I spoke to them about not only their crop and lack of rainfall but understood how climate change in the developed countries as well as in the developed islands of India are affecting their lives. Rains, for instance, have almost dried up. Snow has vanished.
So have the apples.
Agriculture is a huge subject with issues that range from water and productivity, research and access, markets and prices. But if I were to give one defining need that encapsulates them all, it would be: an integrated agriculture policy.
And if Prime Minister Manmohan Singh wants to bring positive change into the lives of 600 million people who live and die around agriculture, he would have to break the interest groups, including the ministers and the bureaucracy across ministries, and look at agriculture holistically. It would mean getting each arm (crop, employment, health, technology and finance, for instance) feeding one another, facilitating a productivity jump and creating a multiplier that the sector desperately needs.
(Photos by Gautam Chikermane)
(7 votes, average: 5 out of 5)
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These are faces which I can identify with, at least today.
In Bhopal this year there is scarcity of water. We are normal working people but due to our interest we are tending and growing trees in the society park in front of our house. We water these every trees every second day. This luxury we can afford as our’s is a lone house in the area and we have boring water.
Inspite of taking care the trees are wilting, the green leaves are turning yellow, trees have almost shrunk. The trees cannot bear the extreme heat conditions and depleting ground water.
I am saddened to see this situation. But I cannot help much.
When I can feel for these trees so much then how much more these farmers must be suffering. Govt. should really go down to the ground realities. Departments are made but are of no use.
I am myself trying to get these trees registered by the Forest Deptt. but you must be knowing the picture better than me.
I salute these farmers who are still in this work, feeding us all ungratefuls.
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Gautam Chikermane Reply:
May 27th, 2009 at 1:33 pm
Mrs Vivian Das: Thanks for writing in. But please don’t blame yourself or other people who are relatively better off. It’s not your fault. It is, as finance minister Pranab Mukherjee told us yesterday, “Grassroots people are only interested in seeing it (pro-poor policy) implemented. These policies have been going on since the 1980s but did not have that much of an impact that NREGA has done.” You can read the full interview here: http://www.hindustantimes.com/StoryPage/StoryPage.aspx?sectionName=HomePage&id=d359bc02-d81e-4cf7-92dc-46bf6b0c46c6&ParentID=9d8d1ee4-9ac9-4f6d-a470-0e516eec7d64&Headline=%E2%80%989%25+growth+not+possible+immediately%E2%80%99.
The keyword, as I see it, is to get the pro-poor policies working for the poor.
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BRILLIANT! Creature of the urban jungle I am, but I think we need to REALLY focus on agriculture.
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I have a sneaking suspicion that Shivdutt Pandey and Pooran Singh Bisht are comparatively better off than their compatriots in regions such as Vidharbha. We need more journalists like you to reach out to the grassroots and tell their stories in a smiliar simple uncluttered manner. Great Job, keep it up.
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Gautam Chikermane Reply:
May 27th, 2009 at 1:35 pm
Rohit: you may be right. Pandey and Bisht may be better off. But even if they are, it is a pathetic comment on the way India accepts poverty.
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Excellent post Gautam.
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Beautiful post Gautam, it’s so amazing that as soon as you add a picture the numbers and figures become life.
refreshing post after the G-20 series. I just hope people dont spoil this post by pitying the farmers or thanking them for feeding us et al. What people fail to realise is that they are just trying to idolise their own life. Thanks for bringing life back into your blog.
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face to the nameless farmer. A journey not far from home yet miles apart in ways of life. Seems like the votes have been casted and promises will fade. I agree with you mr chikermane, india needs an integrated agriculture policy. With p in power of agriculure atleast the baramati farmers can be happy. Or atleast thats what i assume.faces like these may put life in the story. But what will bring reforms is these face have a voice . A voice that reaches the right ears
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Nice post, thanks a lot for the info! I’m a investment banker so I have to limited my web time at work. I don’t usually post comments but stumbled on this post on accident. Awesome stuff!, I bookmarked your site!
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Gautam Chikermane Reply:
May 27th, 2009 at 1:41 pm
Nigel Planer: If you feel very strongly about fixing India’s agriculture, your skills as an investment banker would come very handy. One of the problems plaguing this sector is access to finance — loans, insurance, microfinance. The other related area is of getting the right price for their produce. Do throw in your ideas on how finance can help.
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valley of kush Reply:
May 28th, 2009 at 1:08 am
Gautam ,financial inclusion some may say. Not on paper but reality. Non frill accounts are available but how many farmers are aware?
And are banks really interested in even suggesting these accounts. Microfinance is just the tip of the iceberg. I think i think i know the real way bring even an isotopic improvement is financial literecy. Awareness of systems and schemes. Benifits and rights. Lets get real gautam. Why not improve the potency of existing systems,its reach. Rather than be in hope of a new and improved agriculture reform. Being a farmers child i can share 1 thing. What we farmers need is financial litrecy just like the urban credit junky .
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sarbajit roy Reply:
May 30th, 2009 at 4:06 pm
Banks HATE no frills accounts.
Even urban people who know about these accounts get refused and harassed when they go to open them. (I know)
Its a MISCONCEPTION that RBI notified no frills account for “financial inclusion”. These accounts are meant for ALL people who do not want to maintain large balances and pay arbitrary and exorbitant bank charges. The only concession RBI has made to less included people is to relax ONE of the KYC proofs at the DISCRETION of the Bank Manager.
fantastic, the other side of gautam.
real people, real life,big opportunity and bigger challanges
while it is easy to get cynical but thank god that we have democracy and votes count ( election commission does a ok job) and so slowly and steadily tomorrow for them will be better than today.
We got to improve our productivity per acreage ( one of the lowest in the world) and link it with the consuming class to reduce wastage. There are large corporates who are trying this out with some limited success. A public private partnership model may work ,that maybe the only way to short circuit bureaucracy and integrate.
why don’t you get the new agriculture minister to lay down plans and targets. At least on face of it the new regime seems to be pushing for performance and accountability from ministers.
BTW, I have seen NREGA working at grassroot level and while there are still challanges of implementation it is a awesome thing. It is paradoxical how much we have to do and yet how much is our disguised unemployment.
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Gautam Chikermane Reply:
May 29th, 2009 at 11:56 am
Aditya: I too have seen NREGS at work and it’s a lifeline for many at the bottom of the pyramid. This post was to attempt to tell the story of farmers through faces. Since farming is not productive enough to offer them a regular income, many here supplement their farm work with NREGS. That keeps them going.
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Beautiful post, Gautam. It is a heartening thought that media finds it worthwhile to chase these real stories. There is a good amount of market reform - real and financial - to be done here. Agriculture needs the modern ideas in finance, prices, markets, reach, organisation and management that have remained the mainstay of urban India. Your writing can persuade people to look beyond the urban obsession with the stock markets as the only places where ‘wealth’ can be generated, and is a fantastic effort.
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Gautam Chikermane Reply:
May 29th, 2009 at 2:08 pm
Uma Shashikant: Thanks for writing in. As far as wealth “creation” is concerned, what you say is far truer than you might forecast. To illustrate, one of the roads built under the Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojana, was opened to the public while I was there. I walked that 6 km stretch and spoke to farmers on the way. Not only have they been able to cut the cost of carting their peaches and potatoes to the main road by horses by Rs 50 a bag, they now have direct access to a lifeline like an ambulance and social needs like a baraat coming right upto their doors. As a result, property prices have jumped from Rs 5,000 to Rs 10,000 per nali (one 10th of an acre) to Rs 2 lakh and higher. Of course, property buyers from Delhi have reached there and I suspect they would be buying into some of these properties on this highly picturesque mountain. The farmer, if he decides to sell — none of those I spoke to wanted to sell — would get good money. What he would do after that is anybody’s guess. But yes, I can see a potential multiplier ahead.
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Gautam,
I wish I had seen your post earlier. This is really good. Thank you for bringing this out.
Here are some more things to consider:
If you had asked the farmer the price at which he sold the crop, and then subtract that from how much you pay for it in Mumbai, you can figure out where the money is going.
Ask him the cost of production and he will tell you that a large portion goes towards fertilizer & pesticides. Seeds are the easiest to subsidize, and see how well fertilizer companies are doing on Govt subsidies, and see how well chemical companies are doing by themselves.
Ask him the interest cost of microfinance, and you will find out that it is more than double of what the original disbursing agency gave it out for.
If you ask those farmers who sold their land out to real estate developers (or SEZ) what they have been able to do with that money, and what the future holds for them, you may not get a coherent reply
Moot point is what kind of pest control can we carry out on all the parasites & leeches that suck up all the support to the farmers before it reaches them?
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Gautam,
Great post, even the photographs are good. What camera did you use?
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Gautam Chikermane Reply:
May 31st, 2009 at 10:10 pm
big mouth: it’s a Canon Powershot S5IS — a very good camera for amateur photography.
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