Agriculture – an itching experience

Last year, I was enthusiastic to enter into the venture of doing agricultural work on seeing a vast amount of land without cultivation. My friend Subbaiah told me that we can go for Onion where the work is simple and we can get more profit i.e in an acre we can make at least 10 to 15,000 rupees profit. I made arithmetic calculations with my calculator on the possible expenditure including seeds, manure, pesticides, wages etc and income. At that point of time the rate of onion per Kg was Rs.25. My calculation was almost equal to what Subbaiah said about the profit. We had a meeting with our students and informed them about our plan and they were also enthusiastic to see something grown in Rajapalayam Boys Town.  Things went very well, even we could minimize our expenditure as we could mobilize the support of some of the parents aid for harvesting and weeding. The yield was also good. When we took the onion to the market the selling prize was only Rs. 4 and we were forced to sell as we did not have any storage facilities. Finally the loss was Rs. 11,000/. I could only sympathize with our farmers and decided not to venture further in agriculture.

Our Jasmine Garden

Itching sensation will not allow the hand to keep quiet. This is 100% true to an honest farmer’s attitude. Again this year when the rain started pouring, my boys were enthusiastic to go for agriculture in a different way. Our farm in charge and subcommittee suggested for Makkacholam (a type of gram that will withstand the drought and mostly preferred in the semiarid areas). Of course, the area was fully under agriculture about 10 years back when mother earth was pleased to offer sufficient water.   The change in the climate, intrusion of urban culture in rural areas, westernization,  migration to urban centers, freebies( rice, TV, Electricity, Animals etc) offered by state and central governments, poor price for agricultural products and such other factors eroded the sense of involving in agriculture. After 10 years we again felt the itching sensation to involve in agriculture.

MuthuPandi Chase the Peacocks

We had good rain and we had a discussion to go for Makkacholam. Our farm incharge fixed a tractor and find out the availability of seeds. Today, by 9 AM the tractor arrived and started ploughing. The driver told us that he needs the seed by 12 AM when he completes the first plough and start his second ploughing. Sekhar went to Karivalmvanthanallur but could not get the seed. He was directed to go to Sankarankoil but again he failed. How this happened? Yesterday it was available and not to day. I contacted one of our well wisher Mr. Dhanraj Raja in Kovilpatti who could get 2 bags and transported to RBT by 1 PM. We have sown the seeds in time. It will grow. Will we make any profit? It was Rs.18 per Kg last year and now it is Rs.50 per Kg. For tractor it was 400 last year now Rs.500 per hour. On the next day of sowing, about 100 peacocks assembling for morning breakfast in the field. They will also come for lunch and dinner. How many seeds we will lose? How long the rain will continue? What new pests will enter into the field and dominate the already known pesticides? Will there be increasing of wages? Answers to these questions alone will determine the outcome. It is a gambling but yet itching sensation forces the hand to scratch... What to do?