Sowing crops always comes with high hopes of a profitable harvest for farmers. Many cultivators move to different states when farming fails to yield profits in their home regions, hoping to save some money through sheer hard work. However, agricultural challenges like unpredictable weather and poor market prices remain the same everywhere. Farmers often take loans to fund their farming, meaning crop failures double their misery. A similar ordeal befell Mahadev Rishidev, a farmer from Araria district in Bihar who came to Faridabad and has been farming there for the past 30 years.
Three decades of farming in Faridabad
Mahadev Rishidev shared his struggles, detailing how he cultivated cauliflower across one acre of land. From preparing the soil and purchasing seeds to applying fertilizers, spraying pesticides, and managing irrigation, he put in immense effort. Despite this, the crop did not grow as expected. He initially suffered heavy losses during the first round of cauliflower sowing, forcing him to buy seeds again and replant the field, accumulating a loss of 25,000 to 30,000 rupees including the first failure.
Rising expenses from re-sowing
With previous investments already sunk into the fields, starting over required fresh spending on seeds, fertilizers, and labor. Mahadev Rishidev noted that fertilizers and other essentials alone cost around 24,000 rupees, while labor expenses added another 5,000 to 10,000 rupees. In total, the overall agricultural expenditure has reached roughly 40,000 rupees. Despite this relentless hard work and heavy spending, there is still no guarantee of how much profit the current crop will actually yield at harvest time.
Two months remaining for the crop
According to Mahadev Rishidev, the newly replant cauliflower crop will take about two months to fully mature. Preparing the field required five to six rounds of plowing, alongside intensive labor for fertilizing and watering. He now holds onto some hope that the crop will thrive this time and fetch the right prices in the market. Currently, retail shops sell cauliflower for around 40 rupees per kilo, whereas wholesale markets offer farmers roughly 20 to 22 rupees per kilo.
A life of struggle and hardship
Farmers like Mahadev Rishidev sweat day and night in the fields, yet lead lives filled with extreme hardships. Near his farmland in Faridabad, he lives in a very modest dwelling. Despite having an LPG cylinder, he still cooks food on a traditional earthen stove. Space is severely limited, and he shares a tiny veranda with his wife, where a cot is placed under a makeshift cloth roof. Driven by the hope of earnings from agriculture, he continues to toil relentlessly every single day.
