I do not agree to the fact that the farmers are not adaptible to changing scenarios and they have a heavy rooted traditionalism! the farmers in Wayanad have established their roots through struggle to the wild nature and malaria- that too not a distant past. perhabs the problem lies in their urge to follow the changes happening in the market without due consideration to the fragile environment they are living in. the sensitive geographical location the farmers are living in never received its due attention in mans struggle to make a living. part of western ghats, nilgiri biosphere reserve, abode of bio-diversity and what not! where is the bio-diversity now? all lost with human intervention.
Keeping that apart. the vicious cycle of debt trap continues… there are farmers who have taken loan 10-15 yrs back and till now not able to pay back. they keep on paying the interest rate and renew the loan each year. sad fact is that they would have paid interest more than the capital amount. more than 85 percent of the population in wayanad is dependent on agriculture. a major of those who would have send their children for professional education hoping atleast their children can escape from that world. when the whole world is consumeristic and opportunistic, the farmers with unpolluted mind cannot even understand the trap which waits for them.
why do farmers still cultivate ginger, banana, arecanut, and other cash crops? thinking that some day they will get a better price, they will be able to forget their toil in a day when the market sores up! there are times when a sack of ginger costs more than 2500 Rs. and even it can go down to 250 Rs. whose luck?
anybody ever even thought how much do you pay for 100gms of coffee powder. farmer might not even getting that price for a kg of his product.
i do not even know how to end this writing that i have started… as i also belong to a farmer family from wayanad who faces all the challenges of the world, who is still happy to here the voice of the family members at the other end over the distance…