Encountering the Plight of Farmers in Rural TamilNadu

As we were Transiting from one District to another our eyes fell upon this old Farmer who was just sitting in the scorching sunlight just to feed his buffalo from the fields. I did not know much about how feeding a buffalo could help someone in his livelihood so stopped our vehicle and went into the fields to find out.

On reaching the fields we tried to reach out to him . But now there was always a communication barrier as i was not at all proficient in the local language just a few words of Tamil and Kannada thats it . So we got help from a local person nearby and tried to understand the economics of the old farmer how he earns his livelihood and if Agroforestry and Cauverycalling could benefit him in some way if he had an empty patch of land.

After speaking through the intermediary we got to know that he had unused patches of farmlands and due to water scarcity and infrastructure he was not able to do agriculture. So then with the help of the local person, I guided him in filling up the Tamil Form for Cauvery calling and explained to him how Agroforestry and planting trees with the high economic value which will be provided free of cost to him, could help his economic situation and also in the long run for his family as security. I filled up his details as he could read or write and then offered him something out of our gratitude.

The farmer was not able to speak much and he was sweating in the sun, most probably he would be around 70–80 years of age toiling hard to just earn a survival for him and his family.

A large portion of Rural Farmers in India depends on buffalo farming. The buffaloes are especially very suitable for tilling rice fields, and their milk is richer in fat and protein than that of dairy cattle. Sharing this as wanted to bring it into awareness their reality as there are many thousands like them who still have to toil their life out just to get the basic survival process going.