February 5, 2025

Farming in MP

This past week, the Green foundation team travelled to madhya pradesh to interview farmers for a case study. We woke up early in the morning that day to catch our red-eye flight to the Nagpur airport, and when we landed, we were graciously picked up by a green foundation driver who drove us to our hotel in mp.

Our drive gave us a small taste of what was to lie ahead of us. We passed by many farms, mostly fields of wheat, mustard, cotton, redgram, and oranges, plants that we would later learn were some of the staples of the region.

The next day, we started interviewing the farmers with the purpose of finding out their motivations and struggles with adopting regenerative agricultural practices. Practices that involved growing crops with the purpose of regenerating the soil while still maintaining productivity.

As we interviewed the farmers, not only did we understand their motivations for switching to regen, but also learned about their motivations for other decisions as well. Some of them were wholesome, like the farmer who dedicated his prime real estate to build a community temple for his village because he believed the unity of his village was more important than his own financial gain. Or the mother who wanted to secure a loan to open a plywood factory so her son would move back to their village from the city where he worked as a daily laborer. But some of them bluntly outlined reality, like the 70 year old farmer who decided to start saving when she got older on the off-chance that her son decided not to take care of her. Or the 23 year old farmer who wanted to work a job in electrical engineering but the death of his father when he was 20 years old pushed him into farming. Or even recognizing that many of these farmers work over 10 hours a day in the beating sun, supplying food to 100s of people, but still live on less than $10/day.

When I think of my own life and the privilege I have to even be given that choice to decide what I want to do for work and what type of life I want to live, one thing that I struggle with is finding a profession that will give me a healthy balance of security and meaning.

To me, meaning comes from learning and promoting unity. But the world doesn’t prioritize unity in the way that I think it should. Helping others is traditionally seen as something you do after you help yourself to your satisfaction. Charity is seen as an afterthought, and naturally there is less security in a field that is rarely thought about.

But at the same time, maybe those who want to see unity have a responsibility to work in a field that will promote unity–even if it means sacrificing their own security.

And I don’t think I’ll find a perfect job for myself that will give me all the security and all the meaning. I will most definitely have to make a compromise. But also maybe there is something to learn along the journey.

By,
Amay