I read in the news paper yesterday that farmers who live in and around Palani in Tamil Nadu, who have plenty of Guava fruits to sell fetch only rupees 15 per kilogram in the local market. They can fetch upto 120 rupees for kilogram in Kerala. So they hire a van and bring farm workers to sell this fruit in the high ways form Palakkad to Ernakulum. They travel in the night to come and spend the day selling the fruits and return in the night to after another 48 hours. They do this for about three months till the monsoon sets in.
Now with the pandemic making the road traffic restricted at night, these farmers are yet another group who would lose their income for livelihood.
The direct purchase of the fruits by factories has suffered with demand going down for juice, jam, pulp, etc made from this fruit.
When Anna and I look at the two Guava trees in our garden and relish the fruit as a desert, we seldom think of the farmers who have this as their main crash crops in their farms. It is a fruit tree which needs least attention.
I remember noticing acres of Guava farms on either side of the high ways, while travelling in the Dindigul and Trichi districts of Tamil Nadu.
Life has become stressful for farmers. Even after six months of protests in New Delhi, the government has not yet thought about the stress the farmers face in their lives!
The least among us do not get enough attention.
A family from Assam with their son having intractable seizure came yesterday and I felt lost as I listened to their story. They neither have the resources or know how to take care of their son. But a group of post graduates took some initiative to help that family. I felt touched by their spontaneity! They bought clothes for the child and made arrangements for medicines for the next three months.
I feel that there is just as much of poverty as it was when I was growing up!
I wish that more people would come forward to feel the pain of others and be involved with them.
M.C.Mathew(text and photo)
No comments:
Post a Comment