Field Trips to the Farm
My first few weeks in the lab were spent learning the basics needed to participate in microbiological research. I spent most of my time watching others work on their projects and listening to explanations. Once I had tried out most of the processes myself and had a solid understanding of them, I began to sketch out a draft for my own project. The first step- obtaining soil samples, which gave me a couple opportunities to leave campus and travel to farms in nearby villages.
Through conversations with the other workers in my lab, I had already come to the realization that Indian farming looks very different than what I’m used to seeing in Minnesota. They were all shocked when I said that my dad farms a few hundred acres, and I’m not sure if they believed me when my answer to the question “How many workers does he have?” was zero. A typical farmer in this area of India will work 2–5 acres, so the idea of one person farming hundreds was hard for them to imagine. Every member of a farming family travels out to their field daily to work, without the help of machinery. In my three and a half weeks here, I’ve seen many animals helping out in the fields, but only a handful of small tractors. These conversations are filled with wonder from both sides- I’m constantly amazed by the amount of physical work that is put into a harvest, and those I talk to have endless questions about machinery and yields.
Even though I had heard all this information, the contrasts became real when I stepped into an Indian field for the first time. I looked out and saw only fields, not a house in sight. Unlike many farm sites seen in the United States, families live in villages and travel to their fields every day. Irrigation hoses lined the rows of cotton in order to combat the unpredictable monsoon rains. Crop rows weren’t perfectly even and straight due to sowing differences between workers. A group of women was sowing maize seed by hand, planting row after row in the hot sun. I broke out in a sweat from just bending down to collect samples, but these women worked the entire time I was there. The only time they paused was to look up at the American girl who was posing for pictures while filling plastic bags with soil.
At a different location we came across a man plowing the soil between rows of maize in order to uproot grass that had begun growing. By the time we reached him, he was about halfway through one of the larger fields. We stopped him, and the others talked to him about the crops for a few minutes. Before I knew it, the ropes were in my hands. I led the cows for a mere 30 seconds and managed to take out quite a few plants. My supervisors also tried it out, with a similar success rate. Traditional farming techniques definitely take practice. As we walked back to our vehicle, I looked out at the many rows already plowed; not a single plant was out of place.
Before returning to the lab, I needed a few more samples from another maize field. I had uprooted my chosen plants and was ready to go when one of my supervisors noticed signs of worms in many of the plants. I checked my samples, and they were all infested. It took a considerable amount of time to find four plants that weren’t occupied by these uninvited guests. Resolving an infestation of this size won’t be easy. A specific solution will have to be applied to each and every plant in order to hopefully get a decent yield. Even with careful planning and particular work, farming is unpredictable, and one problem can cause major setbacks.
My trips to these farms gave me more than just soil samples; they gave me a better understanding of global agriculture. When I think of farming, John Deere tractors and straight rows of corn around my house come to mind, but this isn’t the case for many people around the world. Here in India, farming is more than a source of income. It is a way of life for every member of a family, and countless hours of every day are spent making it successful through physical labor. Even though farming may not look the same on opposite sides of the world, providing food for humans and animals is always an important job.
