I am writing this article out of sheer pain and agony. Someone who is responsible for my survival and existence is struggling to lead a life. The man whom according to me is the fulcrum of life for everyone is being ignored.The man whom according to a Saint Poet must be the leader of men is now the biggest Laggard.

This man is none other than the Poor Farmer. Cheated and exploited to the core he finds himself left out of the growth express in which many other Indians are now traveling in now.

I am now hearing some voices saying"Boss now that the Food prices have gone through the roof and hence the farmer must now be happy." Friends all i ask you to do is to visit Nagapatinam district or Tanjore district in Tamil Nadu once and you will get a hang of the real scenario.

One of the basic rule of business is that the producer or the owner decides the price of his own product. Agriculture is the sole exception.

The Governement and the Traders decide whats the price that they will be paying for the produce. The reason behind this being the protection of the farmers and the maintanence of the price of essential commodities. I could understand this when the country was an out and out socialist country. Now with the country Liberalizing and embracing capitalism as the way to go,i don't see any need for the government to do this.

The government is better when compared to the traders who form a cartel and make sure that the farmers are exploited to the core. With lack of good godowns and cold storage facilities and Interest costs weighing down heavily he has no other go but to sell it at whatever price he gets.

Words fail me when I try to describe the life of these "Real Heroes" of the society.

What needs to be done to better this situation: Long back ITC came with e-Choupal there by eliminating middlemen and providing farmers with the pricing power. Not one, not two around 100 e-Choupals are the need of the hour.

I would also like to see more of "Central Points" where the farmers can actually bring their produce and sell them directly there by eliminating middle men.

Providing them with more Cold Storage and Godowns there by preventing the exploitation.

Last but the most important: Eliminating money lenders( might be the most difficult thing to do since majority of the money lenders are big shots in the local political scene or people close to them) by the introduction of Stringent laws and also by ensuring that Banks cover the needs of these people.


I also find it Surprising when i see 100s of NGOs speaking about AIDS awareness but hardly any about more serious issues such as this.( Friends please let me know in case if there are any such NGO. I would be more than happy to know about it).

P.S: When i decided that i will start a blog, i also decided that not all my articles will be lighter topics like "My attempt at making Mirchi Bajji" or "Software Engineer's lifestyle in US" or " Carnatic Music reviews". I wanted to write on topics which i felt were of importance but not being given the required attention in Media ( I don't blame them, they were tied up with Indian Idol and Sydney test match yesterday, Sharukh and Aamir episode today, Might be Rakhi Sawant tomoro). I would be more than happy if this blog creates awareness in even 10 people( over ambitious perhaps, as thats roughly the number of ppl who visit my blog) and if it leads to the birth of "ONE IDEA"