Today is Kisan Diwas, a farmer’s day. We start with famous line – If you ate today, thank a farmer.  But we also want you to ponder over this question – Do we really care for our farmers?  Farmers grow food for them and they grow food for you. We all earn for food so that we can live but question remains why he finds difficult to live.  How many of us can live in meager monthly income of Rs 3000/- per month? Yes, this is the average monthly income of farmers in India. How do we expect our farmer to make all ends meet for his family in this income? Is growing food not a profession even equivalent to a peon that serves in some government department or any organization? Government is fixing the lowest income, that of peon at Rs 18000 per month.  Is farming such an inferior service in the eyes of a nation?

Every year, we come across disturbing pictures showing farmers leaving their produce on road as it could not fetch them any money. But do we ever get it for free in our home? No. No one gets it for free. And we don’t even question that why we paid for something which a farmer left on roads for free.  Okay, now the government is assuring that it would double the farmers’ income by 2022. Does that mean doubling the income from Rs 3000 per month to Rs 6000 per month in six years? And we are still not ready to question.  We can constitute a pay commission to raise income for public servants but we cannot even think of such an income commission for our farmers to assure a decent income and living wages for them.  But we will keep discussing and continue to discuss in big seminars about raising the profitability in agriculture and food business through technological innovations and agro-processing industries but we will never discuss farmers.  And the question remains – why we should thank a farmer. Still we would say – if you ate today, thank a farmer.  Thank farmer! Before he stands up for his rights and rightful income that we, as a nation, owe him.

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