Tilling and Planting!

This is not a common sight anymore in the field, as farmers prefer to leave the land uncultivated due to the enormous cost to plant and the risk of damage to the crops due to pests or weather stress before they are ready for harvest.

Anna and I stopped to watch this sight yesterday on our way to work, because of the activity in the field. On one side the field is tilled and getting ready for transplanting the rice saplings. In another area the tender saplings of the rice are being gathered to transplant in the field that is getting ready. Then there were the waterbirds in the tilled ground finding their food for the day! 

A farmer is a metaphor in more than one way!

A farmer creates food for all of us. He provides that for anyone who is in need of food! He does not choose the buyers. He would not even know who buys his food. He gets his price for the grains that he sells, which is his grain in one sense. But of late, the farmer does not get enough to live on as the prices are decided by the market economy which favours those who can control the prices to benefit them.

What are his other services! He turns the ground to be fertile. He offers work for the farm labourers. He plants, keeps a vigil over his farm and harvests. He gathers the grain and markets them ! He is the reason for food at home and in our eateries. He makes livelihood from the farming with demanding work land. 

A farmer is therefore a provider for others. 

In a brief chat with a farmer, he told me that he farms the field for his neighbours, because for about forty years his neighbours bought milk, eggs, vegetables and grains from him. 

A farmer labours not just for this benefits but also as a service for others!

I had a chat with a colleague yesterday on the question, 'For whom are we labouring' as health care professionals!

For ourselves or for benefitting others!

A farmer reminds me that 'others also are his focus'!

M.C.Mathew(text and photo)