Rain of billion bucks

Nothing can astonish us more than Nature. Today’s rain in Telangana is a gift to farmer, in other way to the whole mankind. One of the farmers called it “Rain of billion bucks”. It is. Agriculture is the backbone of any society even though our poverty reduction committees suggest rapid shift from  agriculture labor force to industrial work force. A few days back a ryot came to my bank and literally, begged for credit. In villages, farmers bring credit at exorbitant interest rates from private lenders who will only suck their blood. With the escalation of cost of farming, ryot has nothing but to succumb to fate. Mechanization of farming has done more harm than good to marginal farmers since only affluent farmers have the modern equipment.  A farmer who has three acres of land will spend half of his investment in tilling his land and another half towards fertilizers and other poisons making Monsanto more rich and  powerful. Finally, the moment farmer get crop yield, the arbitrators would benefit due to the minimum support price game played by market and government.

Amidst all these problem, nature is the biggest game for farmers. In the words of a farmers ‘ all these problems created by human beings don’t bother us but what  heartening is the negligence of  the same god who created me’. Don’t know whether excess rains/ drought conditions are in the hands of god or not but the rain showered today made the farmers remember god’s name.

                                                                                                       Prashant K Snigtha