Skip to main content

Food for thought

A farmer is someone who 'grows food' - everyone knows that. Food is one of our basic needs- everyone knows that too. Farming is therefore, a profession on which the very survival of human beings depends on. Inspite of that, it isn't the chosen profession for the vast majority of us.....

All these thoughts came to me as I was reading http://www.civilsocietyonline.com/jan10/jan101.asp.

Adike Patrike (http://www.adikepatrike.com/) is a magazine in Kannada written by & of agriculturists for everyone. As a regular reader, I am often in awe of the agriculturists featured. These men and women defy all the common, negative perceptions of a farmer as illiterate/uneducated/ someone who is forced to take up the profession because he isn't fit for anything else. Thanks to the magazine, I know that a lot of people have come up with their own ideas to face hurdles like water shortage, labour shortage, lack of marketing support from the government, etc. What's more, they are tech-savvy enough to keep in touch with the global trends and share their experiences through blogs, web sites, and, of course, newsprint.

Ours is a country that considers agriculture as the back bone of our economy. As far as I know, no other profession enjoys as many tax benefits and loan incentives. Which brings me back to where I started - why, then, is farming considered inferior? Why isn't there any encouragement to take it up as a profession? While the lean times of the farmer are highlighted everywhere, why do we restrict the good times to agri- magazines only? Why don't our movies glorify the annadaata? After all, even Bill Gates has to eat to survive!

Comments

  1. I have seen so many people say to their children when they don't study well, ' you work in the thota', I think this sort of attitude makes people feel that agriculture is the last resort. It is really sad.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Yeah. Another familiar demeaning phrase is 'Fit to pick up areca nuts only' :(

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Ash gourd & beliefs

Whenever a farmer comes to my doorstep selling vegetables, I buy them. The other day, one of the regulars dropped in. This time, he had only ash gourds. Since my own ash gourd vine was looking good, I had to tell him that I didn't want any. He then expressed a desire to see the vine - to check out the variety, etc... Soon after seeing it, he told me that the vine would produce only one gourd and that I should be offering it to some temple instead of using it! Well! I hadn't heard this one before! Though nobody knew why, every single person advised me against using the ash gourd if it turned out to be the only yield from that vine. And, 'Give it to some temple' was the final line that everyone added! You know, as far as vegetables and beliefs go, the ash gourd is one that has many attached to it... each one of them, meaningless and without logic. My mother believed that a whole ash gourd should not be cut with a knife by people whose parents were alive. Fortunat

Ganesha's water-pot!

You will not find this place on the tourists' list of places to visit in Chikmaglur. However, you'll find it on my list of favourite places in Chikmaglur. Let me take you there..... A half-an-hour's drive from home will take us to the not-so-sleepy town of Koppa. From here, onto  the road to Kesave village.  About 3-4 kms on this road, to the right - a rusty arch and the mud track beyond welcome us. Blink, and we'll miss the place! We are now on private property. This part of the estate is open to all. Because, it is here that the river Braahmi has her origins. The Braahmi is a small tributary of the river Tunga. Infact, she joins the Tunga within 20 kms. from her place of birth. The presence of an idol of the elephant-headed God lends some piety to the place.    Someone has done a neat job -  making it seem like the water is gushing out of a water-pot. This, and the presence of God Ganesh... the place is locally known as 'KamanDala Ganapati'. Lik

Temple Ponds

Temple ponds, or, 'Pushkarni's are such an integral part of ancient temples. I just can't get over the idea as well as the efforts that must have been made to build them.  Often, these ponds are quite polluted. But for the presence of some stagnant water, some of them look like dump yards :(  So, it was a pleasure to come across this clean one at the Janardhana Swami Temple at Yermalu on the Udupi- M'lore highway. Dakshina Kannada & Udupi districts can be called the temple districts of the world- there are so many temples that one would need a lifetime to cover all of them! So, not surprisingly, this was our first visit to this temple. If the M-S wedding didn't take place here, we would have missed this one. The idol here was installed by Saint Madhavacharya- social reformer & philosopher who lived 700 years ago. This pond has obviously been renovated since, but, surely, the origins date back to the 13th century, or, earlier? You know, according to t