Two-thirds of India makes its living from the land. The earth, the most generous employer of our country, employs over a billion people both directly and indirectly.
The World Bank’s Structural Adjustment policies leading to seed monopolies, the Free Trade policies of the World Trade Organization leading to a dramatic fall in prices and the Indian Government’s Special Economic Zone Act of 2005 leading to large-scale land acquisition have all pushed the Indian peasants to a crisis of survival.
Our state, Tamil Nadu, holds together more than 50 million people; among them more than 70% of the population depends on agriculture. In our state most of the farmers are resource poor and the farm activities are carried out through lake and well irrigation. Employment generation is possible only through the farming sector by increasing the cropping intensity and by integrating other farm enterprises.
It is famously said in India, “Farmers are born in debt, live in debt and die in debt.” The year 1997 noted the first cases of farmers’ suicide in India. Approximately 17,060 farmers committed suicide in India in 2006. 86% of those who committed suicide were debt-ridden. 34% debt-ridden farmers found money lenders extraction methods humiliating. 77% were 36 years old or above. 31% has mortgaged their land.
The river Thamirabarani is known as 'vattraadha Jeevanadhi' (வற்றாத ஜீவநதி)- the life-giving river, where more fertile lands are available in the surrounding area. The villages of Tirunelveli are ever-green lands where I was born, brought up, and studied. I was very much disturbed when articles appeared in the newspapers regarding suicide of farmers because of the debt, popularly known as Kandhu Vatdi (கந்து வட்டி). My research along with the students unit in college named 'SIFE', revealed some disheartening facts. Even the farmers are not able to buy pesticides or fertilizers when the mortgage their lands to moneylenders and they are not able to retrieve the money spent. The consequence is that they commit suicide. Interactions with farmers as well as advisers encouraged our team to execute a project in southern districts of Tamil Nadu to help small farmers. Thanks to Entomology Research Institute, Loyola College, Director, Dr. Ignacimuthu, and fellow scientist Dr. Maria Packiam, for invention of the biopesticide PONNEEM, which is a boon to farmers.
My students, under my guidance, distributed the biopesticide in northern districts of Tamil Nadu. After witnessing the results, we zeroed-in to Tirunelveli District.
The villages of Tirunelveli suffer from acute poverty. Due to unemployment, the people resort to unsafe migration to urban areas which leads to scattering of families. The women are forced to work in hazardous occupations like the beedi rolling industries which cause severe health problems such as tuberculosis, asthma and cancer and even severe harm to their reproductive system.
After a thorough analysis and an in-depth study of various socioeconomic and demographic indicators of Tirunelveli, we identified the following problems and needs of the small farmers in Tirunelveli:
- Inability to purchase pesticides leading to severe pest menace, therefore the need for affordable and eco friendly pesticides.
- Overwhelming illiteracy and ignorance of government schemes, therefore the need for awareness about government welfare schemes.
- Rampant poverty and reliance on exploitative money lenders, therefore the need for government aids and loans.
- Poor productivity because of depleted soil, therefore the need for eco friendly fertilizers and biopesticides.
Hence, we decided to train the farmers to prepare the herbal formula, PONNEEM, a combination of Neem and Pongam oil, on their own. We named it EcoGreen. We felt proud that we had taken the lab to land or the scientific technology to rural farmers. On the contrary, we realized, during the course of time, after interaction with elderly people, the fact that this herbal formula is nothing new to them, but a forgotten age-old practice.
It is quite interesting. We started learning several other organic farming techniques from them and revived among them. We started in 10 villages among a small number of farmers and we are now able to reach hundreds of villages. This herbal formula is proved to be beneficial and cost-effective, eco-friendly, and increases yield.
Yet, we felt that some major factor is lacking in our initiation. After rigorous discussions, we came to a conclusion that these farmers must have the knowledge economy i.e., information; the reason being, the Agricultural Department of Tamil Nadu has opened a website exclusively for information to farmers. In the villages where we work, they do not have access to computers and/or internet. In the first phase, we selected 5 villages and distributed computers for internet access.
At first sight, they thought computer and TV do the same, but slowly they realized the potential of the information technology with the help of my students and the first generation trainers trained by us.
This would revolutionize the ways of farming in rural Tamil Nadu by enabling the farmers to be aware of
1. Seed prices of various crops
2. The market rates of crops
3. Use of weather forecasts
4. Upcoming and present government schemes.
I am really happy that me, along with student community, are able to bring smiles on the face of poor farmers. Now, the farmers are able to access internet as well as their lands successfully. I am grateful of Erbacher Foundation, Germany, for the grant of €25,000, which helped us for successful completion of the project.
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