Integrated farming system offers work for more number of days

There is no such thing as a free lunch in the world. Everything has an unseen tag, a hidden agenda attached to it. And so, for farmer's seeds, inputs, labour, all of them have a cost.

"Where do we go for all these expenditures? Naturally, towards the local money lender. The lender lives in our village or nearby town, knows us well and demands no big procedures like filling forms or collateral.

"All he insists is our thumb impression on a blank unwritten promissory paper for doling out the money," says a farmer Nagaraju.

Living nightmare

But when the crops fail and interest repayment defaults the same money lender becomes a living nightmare for the farmer.

"With nobody to help and not being in a position to explain his side of the story, the farmer suffers in mute agony due to the verbal humiliations hurled on him, and in some cases on the families as well.

"The mental trauma, social attention, and whisper campaigns behind his back as though he committed a national offence, forces him to end his life to escape the humiliation," says Dr. K. Jagadeeshwara, Associate Director of Extension, University of Agricultural Sciences (UAS), Bangalore.

The question of solving this becomes all the more acute when one deals with agricultural labourers. These people are also into the debt web and getting them out of it poses a real challenge.

Under Vice Chancellor Dr. K. Narayana Gowda, the department of extension chalked out a comprehensive and practicable programme called Integrated farming system approach (IFS) model for 17 districts in south Karnataka, in 56 villages involving 650 farm families, to ease their debt burden.

"We selected the beneficiaries on the basis of permanent residency, possession of some acreage of land, records properly maintained, a drive to properly utilize the inputs, with a willingness to take risks, ability to maintain a record of work being done, and provide feedback as and when required.

Pilot model

"This project is a pilot model for us to assess and judge the impact of our intervention. We found the reception to be awesome. Now several farmers are demanding to be included in similar projects as income levels have doubled," says Dr. K. Jagadeshwara.

"Usually a farmer works for 75 and odd days (during season) and for the remaining period remains idle. But we hope through this project to engage him in work for nearly 300 days a year," explains Dr Gowda.

Important role

Apart from helping them to generate income, the project also played an important role in scaling down caste feelings in all the villages it is being implemented.

Farmers are now learning to work in co-operation as they realise that working together can help raise income levels.

"I worked as a tender coconut seller at the railway station. Today I own animals, do some farming in my meagre lands, and this project has given me hope, added some respect to my life," says Mr Narasimiah another beneficiary-farmer.

"Politicians remember us only during elections. I thought my life was doomed. I worked whenever I got some menial work. Mostly it was hunger, debt and frustration. But today thanks to IFS I can also say I am a farmer," says Mr. Venkatesh

"One thing the project taught me was that suicides are not the answer to our problems. I am confident today because I get moral support and encouragement from the University. When I have a doubt I approach them for guidance. Previously it proved tough for me to maintain the struggle against odds and support my family," he says.

Ironies

"The ironies in these suicides are that farmers who ended their lives owed only a couple of thousands as repayment. A pro-active approach, right suggestions, and personal interaction could have helped prevent this. But there is no use in doing a post mortem. We want to help our farmers and are doing all that is possible to ensure that they are happy," says Dr. Gowda.

When this project was discussed with a secretary rank official in the government, the person, requesting anonymity said:

Try to replicate

"The Central Government can try and replicate this model in different villages across the country to study the impact on a national level. But who is to decide on this? Not farmers or scientists but the agriculture Minister at Delhi. Whether he acts or sits on it as usual is a million dollar question."

For more information readers can contact Dr. K. Jagadeeshwara at email: jagadeeshade@rediffmail.com , mobile: 09844998799 and Dr. Narayana Gowda at knarayanagowda@yahoo.co.in , phone: 080-233332442.