Proved right, Padma Shri farmer says quality life & livelihood exist in villages
MEERUT: For decades Padma Shri Bharat Bhushan Tyagi has been diligently advocating a theory which IIT-Delhi and Pantnagar Agricultrure University have been researching on. But a few adopted it in practice.
The Pantnagar Agriculture University also conferred him an honorary D. Lit on him.
The Delhi alumnus, who made agriculture his profession on the advice of his father, had evolved a theory called SAMAK (Sah Astitva Mulak Avartansheel Krishi) – co-existence of rotational farming. He developed his theory on the basis of “farmers’ relation with earth and nature” with least dependency on the ‘market’.
His theory, coupled with his outstanding contribution to organic farming, won him the prestigious Padma Shri award from the union government. But not much headway could be made as people in hunt of their dream job continue migrating to other states. Now, he sees an opportunity in reverse migration, a nightmare for many in the country, as the septuagenarian explains to the befuddled travellers his theory - the quality of life and livelihood exist in villages.
The prevailing coronavirus crisis has given him an opportunity to make people understand about ‘real happiness’, which he feels “is directly related to their relationship with mother earth and nature, and village is a place which has the potential to nurture this happiness of mankind.”
Sitting under shadow of trees at his farm in Beeta village of Bulandshahr district, Tyagi continues his mission even during lockdown by interacting with groups of labourers, village youngsters and farmers. He discusses with the labourers’ their plight and explains to them the reasons behind it and then elaborates why a stronger village economy is needed to end such plight.
Tyagi clarifies that there are more than two dozen works (seed production, grafting, bee-keeping, farm equipment repair, food processing, vegetable and fruit preservation etc) associated with farming and villages, which could fetch sufficient money with honour for thousands of village youngsters who normally go out in search of jobs.
He claims that the villages still have the potential to create sufficient employment “but villages and farming were deliberately degraded to give cities an edge over them.”
He then shares with the group, what he calls the greatest fallacy about agriculture. “They say ‘kheti me kuch nahi rakha hai’, which is totally false and emphasizes. Kheti aur gaon me hi samriddhi aur samman hai and the ‘reverse migration’ of labourers has once again proved it that even in the worst time of their life they return to their villages and farming,” said Tyagi explaining that “barely a month long harvesting season of wheat provides these labourers food security for almost the whole year. They harvest crop in exchange of wheat (30 to 40 kg per beegha).
He said, “Coronavirus will not go away until its vaccine is invented. Cities are closed and it’s clear now that villages and farming still have the potential to serve people even in this time of crisis.” Two brothers -- Tasreef and Dilshad - who used to work as welders in big cities have returned to the village and they support Tyagi’s contention. Dilshad said: “The corona crisis has made us understand what Tyagiji was saying for decades. We have now decided to stay in the village and work here.”
Several labourers and young farmers who keep visiting Tyagi from nearby villages to seek his guidance. , said: “The race to create a new ‘system’ instead of understanding what’s important has given rise to problems and human consciousness needs a qualitative change.”
Pankaj Gupta, national president of Indian Industries’ Association, also believes that “village and agriculture could be a favourite destination/job for many enterprenuers after the Covid crisis and organic food would be in demand for better immunity to fight with such viruses in future.”