Have you ever thought about how food gets to your table? For most of us, the well-stocked shelves of a grocery store might come to mind, or we might imagine ourselves making the perfect meal for our loved ones. We’re less likely to think about farmers and farming practices all over the world. Today, I’d like to talk about the state of farmers – starting right here in India.
On November 26, 2020, word spread in my community that farmers all the way from fertile Punjab were coming to Delhi to protest new government farm policies. Farmers reached the border of the capital on foot and in convoys of tractors. In the days and months ahead, protesters came from all over the country and pitched tents along the highways leading into the national capital, clashing with police as they were stopped with tear gas and water cannons. Eventually, thousands of protestors reached the historic Red Fort as India was celebrating Republic Day. Fear of increased violence and food shortages spread in the city, not to mention the spread of COVID. The farmer protests made it to the cover of Time magazine and even reached the tweets of pop star Rihanna and environmentalist Greta Thunberg. The resilience of the farmers was remarkable. After one year of protests, the Government of India had no choice but to back down and repeal the new farm laws in light of some of the largest protests the country had seen since Independence.
Why were these farmers risking their lives to protest? What compelled them to protest for over a year? The farmers were protesting laws that were passed in September of 2020 without due process or debate in parliament. These laws aimed to increase private investment in agriculture while limiting government safeguards such as price controls. As I watched and read about the farmer protests, I began to think about the impact that farming had on people around me, and I spent the summer of my 9th grade interning at an agriculture fintech company trying to deepen my understanding of the issues that farmers face.
A very basic truth often overlooked by my generation is that we are entirely dependent on farmers for our sustenance. However, while we reap the benefits that these farmers provide, many of them are drowning in debt, face shockingly low incomes, face a lack of mechanization and digitization, and suffer from the effects of climate change. Just last year in India, more than 5000 farmers, both debt-ridden and depressed, took their lives.
About 90 percent of the world’s 570 million farms are smallholder farms that consist of less than 5 acres of land. Yet they produce 80% of the world’s food supply. Many of these farmers face the same struggles. First, there is a lack of awareness of good agricultural practices and the safe use of agrochemicals. Second, in most countries, the middlemen in charge of handling the transportation of crops from the farm to the factory often take advantage of the farmer by pocketing cash or contaminating the crop with water and chemicals. Furthermore, farmers are not able to access capital given their lack of hard assets required for collateral. Finally, farmland is being converted to commercial and industrial land which leads to small plot sizes becoming even smaller.
As I began to research the financial plight of farmers, I also began to understand the interlinkages between climate change and agriculture. On the one hand, extreme weather events, such as the heat wave we just experienced in Delhi, have wiped out crops. On the other hand, certain agriculture practices are extremely harmful for the environment. In India, the situation is much worse. Delhi is always ranked as one of the worst polluted cities in the world - farming practices such as crop burning in North India add to the pollution crisis. Farmers burn their fields to clear stubble before sowing a new crop. The period between rice harvesting and sowing wheat is very short so the quickest way to prepare the field for the wheat is to burn the stubble. As farmers in Punjab burn their fields in October and November, a heavy smoke blankets Punjab and spreads towards Delhi. Three days after Diwali last year, the Air Quality Index in Delhi was “severe” at 436. 40% of this was due to crop-burning residue causing the air to appear hazy and unbreathable.
As a generation, we are unapologetically dependent on farmers to sustain us, yet they are struggling to sustain themselves. They are grappling with issues like pilferage, oppressive policies, debt and low income, and climate change. The protests in India were a call to action, bringing these issues to a national stage. We need farmers to grow our food and tend to the planet we have so shamelessly abused. You may be thinking, what can I do to help? Well, a first step would be to further educate yourself on the plight of smallholder farmers around the world and in your home country. Get involved in the political discussion around farm policies - they ultimately impact the food you eat and the air you breathe. It’s not just a regional issue but an issue that impacts the entire planet!