Collective action in Agriculture operations - Can it be revived?
Collective action in Agriculture operations - Can it be
revived?
The major strength of our country is collective action. With the
western influence, we too started looking things more from commercials &
converting our strengths into weaknesses.
The farming operations in our village till mid 80s is the best
example of collective action.. Mostly agricultural operations are seasonal
& more so in delta areas like ours. It is very difficult to get wage
laborers, more so for small farmers particularly during transplantation &
harvesting operations.
Our family & another 3 families in our neighborhood used to form
as group and collectively handle all the operations with minimum engagement of wage laborers. The traditional family Dhobi,
Barber, Cobbler etc used join the operations and get produce in kind. The food
being prepared at farm, rice mixed with pickle, curd in a bamboo basket, served
to everyone by hand is still mouth
watering experience.
The economics like who owns more land, who is contributing more
family labor etc never used to come in picture and compensated in farm of kind
during special occasions.
The bondage is so high, even after 35 to 40 years, our neighbors
(not our blood relations) call me as
brother, uncle etc with lot of affection and extend help voluntarily and affectionately recall the old memories of
joint farming with my father. I was
really moved with the support given by our neighbor during the last days of my
father.
THIS MEMORIES ARE ALWAYS FRESH IN MY MEMORY & SERIOUSLY
THINKING OF RELOCATING BACK TO VILLAGE AND TRY REVIVING OUR TRADITIONS.
BGR
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