In the Name of the Farmer

Venkat Subramanian is the Founder and Managing Director of Matchbox Solutions, a company which uses technology to solve critical issues in India.  Efarm, one such solution, uses technology to provide supply chain efficiency for procuring and delivering fruits and vegetables grown on rural farms.

How can we really help Indian farmers?

With monsoon failure and farmer suicides back to hogging the media headlines in India, it is once again time for doles to farmers. It is now that every arm chair socialist suddenly develops a bleeding heart for the “poor farmer in distress,” and every rural marketing project which has been shelved, suddenly resurfaces with the tagline, “to benefit the poor Indian kisan (farmer).”

Most people know very little of rural India, or are too scared to speak on such a touchy topic lest they be seen as anti-social. As social entrepreneurs, the least we can do is rip the mask off such pseudo measures and myths. This post is dedicated to the thousands of people who have benefited “in the name of the farmer.”  I hope that by the end of this post, even if one of them develops a real conscience, we will have made a small step in the right direction.

Myth #1: Farmers are poor and hence justify loan waivers
That depends on who you consider a farmer. Recently there were media reports of famous movie stars and even several union ministers claiming to be farmers! Even after land ceiling acts, there are several super-rich farmers in our midst that often take the lion’s share of the loan waivers.  Most real farmers in India who are poor do not own any land; they operate on a lease or work as laborers and can’t keep land as collateral for loans.

Myth #2: The Green Revolution has increased our yield
True, if you call importing rice, wheat, Australian grapes & Chinese watermelons a revolution! Our home grown Simla apples and Elakki bananas don’t have the gleaming looks to match their foreign cousins and are hence a lost species. And then the same “fathers of Indian agriculture” hold conferences to protect global biodiversity after completely wiping out our own local horticulture products.  Answer this simple question: If we had a Green Revolution, then why are we importing staple items like rice, wheat, sugar, and vegetables which are very much cultivable in India?

Myth #3: Farmers need more cold storage to store their yield and get better prices
Even the smallest refrigerator needs power to keep things cool. Now, with even large metros struggling to maintain sustained power supply, and most rural areas under 12 hour shut downs, how can we assure our farmers that we can provide energy to run even a small fridge?  With the rising cost of diesel, do you think they can run off generators? In fact several multi-million dollar cold storage projects have quietly bitten the dust, owing to poor utilization.  India already has over 3,500 cold storages that are rusting away for want of power & supplies.

Myth #4: Farmers are under the clutch of money lenders. Microfinance will save them!
What is attracting hordes of bankers like flies to the flame are the high interest rates in microfinance, often close to 30-40%. But what they don’t realize is that the money lender often lives in the village and is always there.  He’s not a casual annual visitor, who stays in a five star hotel, and drives around in an SUV, and reads Harvard Business School case studies on alleviating poverty.  The money lenders not only finance the farmer’s production, but also any family need – death of his family members, his children’s marriage, or even his alcohol habit.  Now which MFI has those in their loan agreements?

Myth #5: Indian farmers need to reach global standards and target export markets to get better prices.
That’s true if you skipped right through history class in high school. Remember the Silk Route and Chinese travelers who wrote tomes on India’s richness? Or our Kings sending out naval ships laden with best of peppers & spices?  Every conquering army from the Mughuls to the British was attracted by the richness of our agricultural products. And ironically, America was discovered by mistake as Columbus was trying to chart a route to India.

And to think these same Westerners are back in new garb, stating that we are poor in export quality!

Why this sudden gap in ‘Global Gap’ standards?  First, we feel that there is nothing global about these global gaps. These are promoted by few dominant retail giants like the Tescos & Walmarts of the
world who have a rather skewed picture of what is the “right” fruit.  The items have to be bright, shiny & spotless – who cares what is inside, as long as it sells!

With more than 1.4 billion domestic customers and another millions global diaspora of NRIs, we don’t even need to look beyond our own kin for a target audience.

To be continued next week (Myths 6-10).