Ishrat Jahan epitomises the pain of farmers repeatedly hit by extreme weather events
Their paddy was ripe and the farmers, after harvesting it, had placed it in neatly arranged bundles in their fields. They had hoped that the sunlight would rid their harvest of the little moisture left in their crops. But heavy rainfall in the past three days has washed away their hopes leaving them buried under debt. Details here.
Mankara (Rampur), Uttar Pradesh
Staring angrily at the mayhem caused by the heavy downpour, 45-year-old Ishrat Jahan stood rigidly at the agricultural field she had rented from a landlord to feed her family. The farmland was flushed with muddy water and her paddy crop flattened and drenched in the heavy rainfall that has been lashing Uttar Pradesh for the past three days.
“Kisaan kya kar le… hain? Dil ro reya haiga… pachaas hazaar rupaye lage hain khet me, sab dariya ho gaya. Teen raatein ho gayin, aankhein pathhar ho gayin, neend na aayi hai… tension k maare… kya kara jaye? Poora ghar ro raha. Chutney se roti kha k paise khet me lagaye, itni mehnat se dhaan paale… na bhookh lag rahi hai, na pyaas lag rahi,” she told Gaon Connection.
(What can a farmer do? My heart is wailing. Invested Rs 50,000 but the crop is flooded. Been three days, haven’t slept. Entire household is gripped in sadness. Ate sauce and roti and saved money for this crop. I’m feeling no thirst or hunger anymore)
A resident of Mankara village in Rampur district in Uttar Pradesh, about 325 kilometres from state capital Lucknow, Ishrat Jahan doesn’t own the acre (about half an hectare) of land in which she cultivated the paddy. Against a sum paid to the landlord, she had taken a small patch of land to cultivate and feed her kids. But, the entire crop has been washed away.
The 45-year-old is not alone in her misery. Fields of hundreds of thousands farmers across several districts in Uttar Pradesh are inundated with rainwater, at several places knee-deep muddy water, which has led to considerable damage to paddy, sugarcane, banana and vegetable cultivation in the state. Farmers are yet again staring at heavy losses.
Also Read: Why are farmers in Uttar Pradesh selling paddy at low rates to private traders in the open market?
Ishrat had availed the land on rent under the popular bataayi system in which an agreed upon share of the produce is shared with the land owner. Also, she had borrowed a loan of Rs 100,000 to cultivate the land.
“I have daughters of marriageable age. I had planned to reap the harvest and sell it to afford the marriages of my daughters,” the mother of seven children told Gaon Connection.
Besides her, other members of her family, including her husband Babu and the daughters were also occupied in picking up the soaked straws of paddy from the inundated field, attempting to retrieve some cereals that could be dried later.
‘Paddy is the hardest crop to cultivate’
Meanwhile, Imran, a 24-year-old youth from the same village as that of Ishrat Jahan works as a daily-wage migrant worker in Delhi. As is the norm in the harvest season, hoards of migrant labourers like him return to their villages to contribute to the harvest efforts.
But coming back to his village has proved to be futile for Imran in this season.
“I came back here to help my family with the harvest. We had harvested it as well and arranged the produce in the field to dry it under the sun but the heavy rains spoiled it all,” said Imran.
After a brief pause, the youth went on to speak about the intensely hard labour that paddy crop demands.
“Paddy is one of the most difficult crops to cultivate. It is much harder than wheat. It’s not just the paise ka nuksaan (monetary loss) that is being incurred. Our entire family went through the painstaking effort of planting paddy. It all amounts to nothing. Being a farmer is extremely challenging,” he told Gaon Connection.
From cultivators to labourers
For Ishrat Jahan’s family, the crop damage would translate as a switch in the occupation.
“Now, we shall all work as daily labourers and try to find any odd job that pays us for a day’s labour. That is our best bet to survive the year now,” said 24-year-old Imran. “Farmers like us invest a lot in the crops we cultivate. A crop failure means failing on multiple fronts. And that too for no fault of our own,” he added.
Apart from Uttar Pradesh, heavy rainfall has proved to be disastrous in other parts of the country as well. Uttarakhand and Kerala are worst affected as the two states have recorded at least 60 deaths in the recent spate of heavy downpour and landslides.