The unprecedented December 2010 rains overnight converted lush green paddy fields ripe for harvesting, into vast extents of brown coloured water logged lands. One could see smelly rotten paddy sheaves floating like dead corpses, on the water, waiting for someone to cremate them. Cries forcing their way to the innermost depths of ones ears were audible in every village without exception; cries at the loss of their four month toil, cries at the sight of enormous debts for their small lives, cries of families whose masters had committed suicides. Wailing women wading in waist deep waters gathering the stinking floating paddy debris, unmindful of their mud covered sarees struggling to protect their modesty, on one side, and their men folk mourning at that sight were everywhere to be seen. A few days later, a group of agriculture officials landed in one such village near Burja to assess the extent of paddy damaged, that needed to be procured. They came across a farmer whose one acre semi-dried rotten paddy sheaves were heaped at one place on the threshing floor, which on examination revealed that any attempt to thresh it and convert it into paddy would yield only one bag of paddy in place of the 20 bags he would otherwise have got. Considering that the farmer had already spent Rs.12000 till that day in return for the rotten heap of paddy sheaves, that it would cost a further Rs. 2000 to thresh it and convert it into a bag of paddy, that the bag so produced would not fetch him more than Rs.400 at Government price, he was advised by the agricultural officials to burn his rotten paddy heap and limit his loss to Rs.12000. Little did they know at that time that we would be talking to that same very farmer after some 60 days.
On one cool winter morning, when all the Government machinery was busy with procuring the damaged paddy, a group of us visited a damaged paddy procurement centre in Burja. Getting down from our vehicles we witnessed a heated argument going on between the paddy assessment expert and a farmer. On arrival the dispute automatically landed up in our lap. The assessment officer had assessed a cost of Rs.600 per quintal of the discoloured paddy sample brought by the farmer whereas he was asking for atleast Rs.1000. The agricultural officer suddenly recognised this farmer and asked him where he brought this sample from when his total crop was destroyed and he was advised to set it on fire. It was revealed by him that a bag(80kg) of discoloured paddy was salvaged from the large heap of rotten sheaves by spending Rs.3000. I asked him why he spent additional money in threshing, knowing fully well that he is only going to increase his loss of Rs.12000. He replied with a puzzled face, "Dont you understand? the rest of the villagers would have laughed at me had I set fire to the paddy heap", to which I enquired "why so?". "I am a farmer and a farmer is one who extracts produce from the field. If knowing fully well that some paddy howsoever little, could be extracted from the heap, I set it on fire, then how can I be called a farmer?". Everyone remained silent for a short while. All of us moved on to the next location in a confused state, trying to understand what the farmer said.
Now the question: Is the farmer right?
Thinking, as we usually do like one with common sense, we are tempted to say the farmer had done a wrong thing.
But on second thoughts, if we look at the profession of a farmer, it is agriculture. Now, the art of agriculture involves preparation of soil, sowing of seed, raising of crop etc., and finally the extraction of produce from the soil. The purpose of agriculture then happens to be the extraction of produce, doesnt matter whether its one grain or a 1000 kg; A tag of a true farmer can be attached to a person, if and only if he is able to fulfill the purpose of the art of agriculture, i.e. extracting some grains even if he is thrown in the middle of a forest with no seed or fertilizer. Difficulties, big or small such as rains or no rains; high prices or low prices; insect or pest; ill health or injury; wild boars or thieves; debt or suicide; all are to be overcome in order to extract some produce from the soil. Then, and only then can a farmer be said to be to be a true farmer; one who can do justice to agriculture. Such a man carries with him the true art of agriculture which makes him produce crop even in the most adverse environments. The bag of paddy brought by him in the eyes of Government is worth only Rs.600, whereas the just value of the bag as demanded by the art of agriculture is Rs.15000(Rs12000 till harvesting +Rs 3000 for threshing).
Now, the question is whether our State values this art of agriculture residing in our farmers who practice it in true spirit. There is no self-respecting State which can answer in the negative to this question. If such is the case, is our policy so deficient of virtue, that it is ignorant of even valuing the art of agriculture residing in our spirited farmers?
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