Sadhguru Writes: India Can Become The 'Breadbasket Of The World'. The Focus Has to Be On Scale

Sadhguru: Our nation has the blessing of being able to become the “Annadata” of the world, as we have the needed latitudinal spread of weather, soil, climatic conditions and, above all, a large population that has the intrinsic knowledge to perform the “Magic of Transforming Mud into Food”. 

Unfortunately, the farmer who provides us with food has children who are starving and wants to take his own life. From some rudimentary surveys that we conducted, we found that not even two percent of the farming community wants their children to go into farming. In another 25 years, when this generation passes, who will grow food for us? If farming has to survive in this country, you have to make it lucrative.

The greatest impediment for this is scale — the land holdings are too small. Right now, the average land holding is one hectare, or 2.5 acres, with which you cannot do anything worthwhile. The two major problems driving farmers to poverty and death are investments in irrigation and lack of negotiating power in the market. Without scale, these two vital aspects stay out of reach.

Right now, we are facilitating one of the most successful Farmer Producers Organizations (FPO) in the country — Velliangiri Uzhavan. This FPO has brought together approximately 1,400 farmers and their incomes have increased exponentially. 

This was maybe four years before we started the FPO. An areca nut merchant would come to the village with his truck. When he came, he would pay Rs 24 for one kilogram to a small farmer with a small heap of areca nuts, Rs 42 per kilogram to a mid-level farmer with a bigger heap, and Rs 56 to a big areca nut farmer with a huge heap – same day, same product. If the small farmers tried to negotiate, they would say, "Okay, keep it,” and walk away. The small farmer would have no means to sell his produce. Taking his own produce and going somewhere would cost too much and all the merchants would have their own cartel. No one would buy from him. 

So once the FPO was formed, we got everyone’s produce to one place. Immediately, on an average, the farmers started getting Rs 72–Rs 73 per kilogram. This changed their life. Then we opened a store for all the agricultural inputs such as seeds, fertiliser, pesticide, etc. The minimum 30 percent margin that the dealers usually took went straight to the farmers. That means a 30 percent decrease in expenses. Another thing we organised was the people who climb up the arecanut trees and harvest the nuts. You cannot just ask any labourer to go up; they will kill themselves. We set up a group of people who have this skill and scheduled when they would go to each farm. Now the farmer need not go everywhere chasing them. That daily circus is not there anymore. 

The Key To Changing The Fundamentals Of Agriculture

The government has announced that they want 10,000 FPOs to come up in the country. 10,000 FPOs are fine, but the important thing is that there are 10,000 farmers with congruent land in one FPO. Otherwise, we can do some tricks with marketing and procurement but we cannot change the fundamentals. Why?  

Right now, there are two reasons why farmers are going to their land every day. One thing is just to prove they are the owners. Otherwise, someone will move the stones on the boundary a little bit and plough into his land. Another reason is to turn on the electric pump and switch it off for irrigation. 

If we get congruent land, there are companies which can do a digital survey and fix the boundaries through satellites once and for all. There need not be any marking on the land and no one can change it. Once we do that, they need not go there every day to prove it is their land. Next thing we can do is integrated agriculture. Right now, for every 2–5 acres, there is a borewell, an electric connection, and a barbed wire fence. It is a terrible waste of resources. If we get 10,000–15,000 acres together, irrigation can be done in a sensible way. Various drip irrigation companies are even willing to offer their services on a rental basis. That means the farmer does not have to invest, and water need not come from hundreds of borewells. Maybe 10–25 borewells can irrigate the whole place. 

If we settle these two things — that a farmer need not go and prove it is their land, and turn on the water pump every day — then farmers can go to their land only 60–65 days in a year to grow two crops effectively. Over 600 million people’s hands in this country will become free for at least 300 days. Then the amount of ancillary industry will be phenomenal. 

In many ways, the women folk in the Velliangiri Uzhavan farming families became reasonably free because the unnecessarily going into the village and handling things came down. So by themselves, all these ladies got together and started making condiments. That condiment business’ worth is almost close to the agricultural produce now. 

My intention is that those who invest their lives in farming should earn at least as much as a doctor, a lawyer or an engineer earns in the city. Otherwise no one will be farming in the next 25–30 years' time.

Right now, we are 17 percent of the world's population. We can easily feed another 10-40 percent of the people on the planet from this land. That is how much potential it has. Will we explore that potential or not is a big question, but FPO is that possibility.

Sadhguru is a Yogi, mystic, visionary and author. 

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