Young Himachal deserts farm fields for salaried jobs

A farmer ploughing the land (Representational Image) (Image Credit: WikiMedia Commons)

By  Manish Gupta

"Twenty four" was the age when Tarun Kapoor from Churag in Mandi district of Himachal Pradesh completed his graduation in Civil Engineering in 2015. Traditionally, Tarun’s family managed agriculture in their small land holding. Before his graduation, he also tried his hands in agriculture for a while, but found it less attractive.

"I am fit for corporate jobs or running a business more, than taking to agriculture",he says. Now he is working as a construction supervisor in a company at Chandigarh. "Agriculture sector has been lagging a lot, lately. I was not able to make as much money as I wanted. I am no more interested in agriculture”, he said.

According to the annual action plan of Department of Agriculture, Government of Himachal Pradesh, agriculture is the main occupation for the people of the state and about 62 percent of the main working population is employed in agriculture. However, youth in the state do not find agriculture interesting and prefer salaried jobs or running business ventures more.

It is not just Tarun’s feeling that agriculture is not his cup of tea; his family also thinks the same. His father Parkesh, an truck driver, thinks that being a farmer does not convert to social status. "Main apne bête ko bada admi bante dekhna chahta hun. Aur kheti-badi se ek achi zindagi nahin mil sakti"(I want to see my child becoming successful in society. Career in agriculture sector is not good for standard living), he says.

Puneet, another young graduate from Churag  is working in his field. "I am compelled to work in the fields for sowing seeds and cutting crops because I was unable to study more", said Puneet. For him, farming is too laborious and is a gamble based on weather conditions. “Our luck depends on weather conditions. If it does not support, we are unable to get good crops”, he said.

Comparing farming to a salaried employment, Tarun finds it too difficult. "Farming takes a lot of strength to do work. There is no time limit to the work and it just keeps getting more”,he said. “We work too hard but income is very low."

Shubham, another friend of Tarun, points to the lack of action from authorities to help farmers in their plight.  "There are hard chances of making money in agriculture and current policies make it impossible to get a decent living from agriculture.The prices that the government offers are not satisfactory," he said.

Even if the policies exist, farmers do not get enough information regarding it. As per the data from the 70th round National Sample Survey, only 23.72 and 20.04 percent of farmers in the rural agricultural household in India are aware of MSP (Minimum Support Prices) of crops grown by them in kharif and rabi seasons respectively.

"Government policies also do not reach the farmers, they only exist on papers. So practically, there is no assistance from the government. People remain economically backwards," says Shubham.

According to the latest Annual Status of Education Report brought out by Pratham, a non-profit organization, 79 percent of the rural youth in the 14 to 18 age group are employed in agriculture, mostly in their family owned lands, despite their enrollment status in education. But among them, only 1.2 percent wants to be a farmer, taking agriculture as full time employment.

Tarun thinks this is more about the sector being less lucrative in the absence of adequate government support for farmers.  "Government agar hum logon ko facilities de tho hum sub aasani se farming kar sakte hain "(If government provides adequate facilities to us, then we shall manage farming easily), he says.

"People wish to make a decent living from agriculture, they don’t get it as of now ," says Tarun.