Farming is at the heart of the Indian villages. This is evident in Mullaikulathur. What is more interesting is that the farmer of today has learnt to cope with the modern day demands without giving up on farming. Kamalakannan is one such farmer.
You could easily mistake him to be a farm hand. He was toiling hard alone in his farm with the sun harshly beating down on him. Quiz him and he reveals that he owns this farm and the small piece of land adjacent to it.
Most farmers in Mullaikulathur are not the landlords who own the land and contract it out to farmers to grow crops in it. They own the land and work in the farms themselves along with the other farm hands.
There is a lot of talk going on about the fact that farming as such is not a viable occupation, especially for farmers with just a small piece of land. With the rising prices of commodities there is a need to supplement your earnings from agriculture with some alternative income. Surprisingly many farmers instead of just cribbing about their fate have earnestly taken up jobs in the nearby Kalpakkam research centre on a shift basis.
Kamalakannam says that once the seeds are sown, all that needs to be done is to water the fields and take care of them by adding the requisite fertilizers. So he works as a maintenance help in Kalpakkan during the day. He gets up early to tend to this field before leaving for work. Once he is back, he again spends some time in the field. This has helped him secure a regular monthly salary.
He says that it is during the months of sowing and harvesting that it really gets hectic. He then takes some time off work and hires field hands to help him plough the field, sow the seeds and harvest the crop. Modern machines like the tractor, which he borrows from his father-in-law helps speedup the process. He also has a well on this farm fitted with a motor for irrigation purposes.
He children go to school, one of them is studying in 11th standard and has to travel all the way to Vengampakkam to study. Will he ensure that they study further? He is very supportive and acknowledges the value of education.
What are the problems with farming in Mullaikulathur? Kamalakannan says that they are at the mercy of the rice mill owners. They come to the farms during the harvest season, weigh out the harvest and fix a price. The farmers end up selling the harvest to these rice mill owners at whatever price they quote.The farmers also have some rudimentary knowledge about the fertilizers and pest control, any expert advice on increasing the yield would be useful.
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