#kamatchi

I had a special guest waiting for me when I arrive at my native place - Chinnamottanoothu. She was fondly named as "kamatchi" by my dad. Her arrival means, I was able to gulp some steamed Colostrum (Seem Paal).  What else to ask for when you return to your native after 2 years?

Small flashback...

I was born and brought up in this small village which does not have public transport access (even today). Whenever someone asks about my native - I will have to start with South TN(technically not) -> Coimbatore -> Palani  and finally Chinnamottanoothu. High five to those who made it that far :) 

My family stayed in a home located within our farmland. We also had poultry farm and good number of cattles in our farm. My sister and myself used to help with daily chores to some extent until my 8th standard after which I moved to residential school.

Gobar gas was our household fuel, milk from cows in the farm, eggs from the poultry farm, farm grown vegetables (generously shared with neighbors). Most of the lentils are seasonally grown and we had to go out for rice as our area soil type does not support rice cultivation. Cattles were given equal importance as a human member in the family. No business for PETA (pun intended).

Over the period, many things have changed. Gobar gas -> LPG

Pause... Re read the above paragraph

Nothing else -> this is farmers and rural India for you!

One of the disturbing thing that I see today is Artificial Insemination of the cows. Except for this they are treated with respect. Most of them have jersey cows now which have good milk yielding capacity. Most of the crops/vegetables grown are hybrid. Why? Farmer's greed to earn more?. Little do you know about how much a middle class farmer earn and the pain he goes through - physically and mentally. If the farmer doesn't own the land then the problem increases exponentially.

At times we had to leave the fully grown vegetables go bad in the field just because that avoids him losing money on labor. This is the problem of demand and supply. Middle men benefit a lot making more money from end customers and farmer always get the fixed rate. When you farm at small scale, you have very little option if you are not going through a middle men.

If you read this far, thank you from bottom of my heart.

We started realizing farmers are great and saluted. Being born and brought up in the family of farmers, little do I know about farming. My generation will just listen to the stories if I have time to share them :(.

Is this the end? Can we do something? I believe so. Can we foresee the demand of particular crop being cultivated - this can definitely prevent loss for the farmers.This can't be done within a region and it has to cover the entire country even including exports/imports.

If you have interest, idea, suggestions - please feel free to connect with me.