“The number of farmers committing suicide in our country in the last fifteen years is more than the number of soldiers dying on the war front of our country.
“It is estimated that more than 200,000 farmers committed suicide in India in the last 15 years. It is strange that for a country that is mostly agrarian, depending on agriculture production for maintaining a stable economy, policy makers don't seem worried about small farmers,” says Dr. L.H. Manjunath, Executive Director, Kshethra Dharmasthala Rural Development Project (SKDRDP), Dharmastala, Mangalore.
Death blow
“The Government's claim that it evinces keen interest in uplifting small farmers seems to have no basis, given the fact that many small farmers across the country suffer due to shortage of manual labour. The 100 days rural employment scheme struck a death blow to the already crises ridden agriculture,” he says.
One cannot expect a small farmer to pay high wages to farm hands from the meagre income he gets from the land.
Crop gestation period of four to five months for most crops means that these farmers get no income on a daily basis and therefore cannot pay the labourers.
Most small farmers depend on family labour for their agriculture work.
“Therefore they are hardly innovative. Many of them also do not maintain proper land records and therefore cannot get financial aid from banks,” adds Mr. Manjunath.
To address these two issues, an innovative model called Pragathibandhu developed by the SKDRDP under Dr. Veerendra Heggade, Dharmadhikari, Manjunatha Swamy temple in Dharmasthala is being implemented.
Pragathibandhu model
SKDRDP promotes small farmers self-help groups called ‘Pragathibandhu SHGs'. There are about five to eight members in each group and every member owns anywhere from a few cents to two hectares of land.
Predominantly made up of men, one or two women also join the group. The field workers of SKDRDP, after promoting such groups, train them on managing a group, documentation, handling of cash etc. - as routinely done in the case of any SHGs'.
In addition these groups also prepare a five-year farm plan based on the landholdings and cropping pattern of each member.
The farm plan is unique to each member and will consist of change in the farming practice, take up multiple cropping to generate continuous income, sustainable farming, mechanization, sustainable water supply and also ancillary activities such as home management, children's education, house construction, marriage etc.
Compulsory sharing of labour between the members of the group one day in a week is a new feature in this region. The members go to the house of another member and work in the farm without receiving any wages.
Sharing work
The work to be done and the house to be visited are predetermined. On the day of the labour sharing, hospitality becomes the host's responsibility. The same day of the next week they go to another member's house.
As a result, each small farmer gets five to six free labour days in two months. The small farmers get the labour so essential for farming, that too, without payment.
Contrary to the belief of unemployment, there is high percentage of labour shortage in the farm sector in our country.
Labour shortage is acutely affecting production. The labour sharing programme is a unique answer to the labour shortage suffered by the small farmers.
No need to pay
In this method the farmer does not pay the labourers in cash but instead returns the labour day to the member farmer, by working in his farm, according to Mr. Manjunath
“In the process, the affinity between the members of the group becomes stronger, they learn from each other, they help each other in times of crisis.
“It is very common to see members working for eight to nine hours on a labour sharing day to complete the work,” he explains.
For more details visit www.skdrdpindia.org and contact Dr. L. H. Manjunath, Executive Director, SKDRDP, Dharmasthala, email: >skdrdp@skdrdpindia.org , mobile: 09448469009, phone: 08256-277215.
