By H H Mohrmen
How does a farmer sustain his life is perhaps a query asked only by economists and planners. And in spite of the fact that we all depend on farmers for almost all our basic needs and also have good intention to help the rural folks, we rarely have time to try to understand how farmers support themselves. In a state where majority of the population lives in the rural areas it is inevitable for the bureaucrats, technocrats, politicians and all of us to understand this very important topic. This therefore is a layman’s attempt to understand this very important part of life of a very vital section of people in the state – the farming community.
Findings from several preliminary surveys conducted in few villages in the East Khasi hills and West Jaintia hills districts in which I was involved gave us the broad idea of the kind of livelihood the farmers engage in the Khasi and Jaintia hills of the state. The surveys gave us the idea that when it comes to earning their daily bread the farmers in the state have not changed much from what their parents were. Their livelihood activity is no different from that of the previous generation because they still continue to farm for subsistence only.
To understand the economy of the village one need to understand the first and the most important unit of the village and that is the household. If we are to define what a household is, one can say that a household in the Khasi and Jaintia hills comprises of a husband, wife and the children. The average members of family in the house would vary between 5 to 6 members in one unit. Now the tendency is that the family system in this area is gradually undergoing change from a joint family system to a nuclear family especially in the areas where Christians are in majority. There are very few villages which still continue with the joint family system and there are two reasons why people continue to follow traditional joint family system.
The one reason why people continue with the joint family system is because it is a part of tradition. One can still find people following this tradition in places where there are large numbers of people following the Niamtre (indigenous faith). The other reason which compels people to continue with the tradition is the scarcity of land in the area. In the villages of War Jaintia areas a large section of the population still continue with the joint family system because of the peculiar land tenure system in the area. In the southern slopes of Amlaren sub-division, land belongs to the few clans or as they would like to call them, the jamindars. Only few clans in the village owns large tracts of agriculture and non-agriculture land and people have to depend on these clans for their land needs. People in these villages are compelled to live in a joint family system because of the non-availability of land to construct new houses.
A survey on the livelihood portfolio of the households in few villages pointed to the fact that almost all households are engaged in multiple livelihood activities – which is not a surprise. Unlike the salaried class or labourers in service sectors, farmers do not have a permanent or stable income that they can rely on. They can only have security by engaging in multiple livelihood activities, so in case one crop fails them or one activity fails to take off then they still have other activities to rely on.
This is a common experience and in a typical village if one would ask villager questions like ‘do you grow crops? Or do you rear pigs/chicken/goats/cows and etc., the common response would be ‘of course a little or few, just for consumption and the little extra that we cannot use we sell in the market.’ In Khasi they would say (Haoid tang kat ban bam bad kaba tam khyndiat ngi die sha iew ban ioh thied ia ki jingdonkam.) In a typical village one would find that a household would normally grow one major crop depending on the region and few minor crops. For instance in West Jaintia hills the major crop will be rice and minor crops will be vegetables, ginger, turmeric and fruits which are seasonal. In War Jaintia area arecanut and betel leaf are major crops and pepper and some fruits are minor crops.
Apart from that a family would perhaps rear one or two pigs and few chickens; some keep goats and cows. And animals are reared for particular reasons. Pigs and chicken are with the intention of selling them off during Christmas or New Year when the demand for the animals is high. Or animals are reared with the plan that they will mature at the right time to enable them to buy books and pay for their kids’ education. Some would keep animals to be used or sold in preparation for a child’s baptism/birthday or church’s special jingiaseng in the village. The point is that in spite of the fact that there is a huge demand for meat in the state, the farmers still do not involve in commercial farming of animals.
Apart from these multiple livelihood activities, during lean seasons farmers would also migrate to other places or commute to the nearest town and cities to engage in labour activity. This is broadly the kind of livelihood activity that a typical household in the village would be involved in. Therefore the entire livelihood activity that the farmers are engaged is like a vicious cycle and if the farmers continue with this same practice it will be difficult, if not impossible for them to get out of the shackles of poverty. The vicious cycle will go on from grandparents to their children and continue to the grand children till they decide to stop it.
We read reports about the illegal export of cows to Bangladesh and about the Shillong butcher’s association protesting the failure of the BSF to stop this activity because it also affects the supply of cows to Iewduh. Things would not have come to such a pass if we continued with the tradition of cow rearing which was one of the major activities of our parents. Now very few people keep animals. And by the way, instead of protesting against the illegal supply, why not look at the brighter side of the issue. Instead of protesting the illegal export of cows why don’t we pressure the state government to lobby with the Centre to allow legal export of cows to Bangladesh? The state government can then promote commercial cow rearing (which of course is not an unfamiliar activity to the locals) and we all know how huge the market is, considering the dietary habit of the majority of the people in Bangladesh.
To help boost the economy of the state the need of the hour is to help the farmers improve their production and the only way we can do that is to bring an attitudinal change in the farmers. The farmers need to change their mindsets from subsistence farming to a more prosperous kind of agriculture and allied activities. It is important to help the farmer get out of this vicious cycle and one of the ways to do so is to help improve that particular activity and upscale their production. Instead of engaging in the activity for subsistence only the farmers need to be encouraged to work on their favourable activity and try to improve and upscale it. Rural economy depends on agriculture so the emphasis should be on agriculture and allied services. It is important to help them identify livelihood activities which are not only conducive for the region but also have market potential to enhance their income and improve the economy of the village and the state at large. It is important to help them identify where their strengths are and work on their strength to help enhance their incomes and build the economy of the household.
The economy of the state will only improve if the people in the rural areas also prosper. To achieve this goal the state government needs to take proactive steps to reach out to the famers and more importantly work on the area where their strengths lie and build on those strengths. The state has experienced economic instability because it relies only on mining and other unsustainable economic activities. The NGT ban on coal mining and the recent court order on wine stores will definitely have its ramifications on the economy of the state. The answer therefore is farming and agriculture because it is not only sustainable but a large section of the population depends on agriculture and allied activities such as livestock rearing, bee keeping and food processing etc., for their livelihoods.
