The food that we eat comes to us at a price but have we ever thought about the prices that their growers pay every year to put this food in our mouth?
The obstacles that come in the way of crop production are hardly spoken out. Every year more than 15000 farmers commit suicide and yet the country questions the integrity of the craft. For most intellectuals, the problems of farming are not their problem, neither does it affect their wallets much nor the plate of food on their tables so why bother.
This is when it struck my mind that we are talking about a country in which more than 70 percent of the population engages themselves in this craft so their problems, troubles, issues must put all our minds at toil.
The Major Problem:
India is the second most populated country after China. Hence every year Billions of seeds are sown and irrigated but due to the various problems of climate change, rains are either scarce or in a gigantic quantity, later resulting in the destruction of crops that ends in causing huge loss to the farmers. The loss is so unendurable that the consequences are pretty much doomed.
Each year there happens to be a new problem that destroys and plunders the lives of millions of farmers. There are quite a few reasons how and why crops are destructed some of which are discussed later
CLIMATE In areas like Rajasthan, mostly crops are destroyed due to the lack of rain whereas, in places near West Bengal, the huge qualities of downfall creates “downfall” for the specific people.
PESTS AND INSECTS: Even though pesticides and insecticides are continuously being used yet there are a lot of kilograms of crops that are annually destroyed by insects, pests, and wild animals like elephants from the nearby forest.
https://www.thehindu.com/news/cities/Madurai/wild-animals-damage-crops/article33425744.ece#
One of the major insects invasion took place earlier in 2020 that shook the lives of the sons and daughters of the soil.
The Locust Invasion:
The year 2020 was an absolute curse. India was one of the most affected places in the world. Not just that India also experienced the “WORST LOCUST ATTACK in the last 27 years.”
In April 2020 huge swarms of locusts were spotted destroying the seasonal crops of the western and central parts of the country. Nearly 125,000 acres of land destroyed were by them. Locusts are the epicure of the insect world, a swarm of 35 million locusts can eat for 35000 people.
More than 15 lakh worth of foodcrops were destroyed by those pieces of darkness ruining lives of millions.
https://www.thehindu.com/sci-tech/agriculture/locust-attack-in-india/article31729025.ece
Consequences of Crop Destruction:
Farmers of our country take loans for buying seeds for cultivation. There is a remarkable impact on the human economy. The lives of millions depend on crop cultivation. It is evident that farmers are poverty-stricken, and absolutely impoverished section of your country. The seeds required for cultivations are bought with a handful of money that they lend from unkind money lenders who charges a sky-touching interest. Once harvesting is done, the money lenders force and pressurises them to return their money as well as interest.
Due to crop destruction, the farmers in our country fail to make the money they first planned while sowing the seed. This unfair system traps their livelihood and then forces them to a path of self-destruction. Moreover, there is no government support insight. Very few, almost negligible to protect the farmers from the brutal corporates and their caprice corporations.
Farmers are the wisest pursuits of the country because, in the end, they are the ones contributing the most real component of life, food. And we have to keep fighting for their well-being.
Lastly, my heart goes out to all the protestors participating in the FARMER’S protest. My condolences to all the people who have lost their close ones due to this protest. May the almighty give you strength to process the grief.
