Our life cannot be that simple, though hunger is the same for both bird and beast. We too need something to eat, to keep the body and soul together. How small a desire! And yet, how difficult to realize!
More than four decades have passed by, and feeding the hungry is still a dream unfulfilled. One after another, we have seen 7 five years plan, come and go. Many a time, the planners, politicians and Prime Ministers talk of self sufficiency they talk of targets and achievements. But the common man who does not know anything of this high sounding verbiage is baffled to find even the groundnuts which the great Gandhiji called the poor man's staple food, cost him so much. Nor can he understand why the groundnut oil costs him so much while the imported palm oil costs so little. His little head which knows only two things the availability of a commodity and his own purchasing power-cannot understand the international trade laws and subsidized sales.
Planning alone cannot ensure agriculture productions. It depends upon so many factors especially on proper water management. We have no doubt a number of rivers, perhaps enough to irrigate the entire land if properly harnessed. But their waters drain into the seas, flooding the country, washing villages, killing people and cattle alike. Without trying to learn the art of flood control, we tirelessly involve ourselves in wrangling about the distribution procedures of river waters, and gaze at the sky to see if the monsoon is setting in. What is therefore needed is not additional resources, but better management of available materials like land and water.
The village and not the city, should be the basis of out economy and therefore agricultural planning should be village based. It is not from Delhi that planning should make its journey and plod all the way to reach the distant villages, but it should be the other way round. Thus, when the village becomes the focal point, it will become easy to assess its needs realistically and decide upon the priorities.
Though 'Bhoodan' Movement is not as much a success as it should be in a land where charity and compassion have held sway over all the other traits of man, its has prepared people psychologically and creates conditions favorable to the redistribution of excessive land beyond the ceiling the law sets.
This land thus pooled should no doubt be distributed among the landless poor of the village, but these new set of land owners should be persuaded to form into agricultural co-operatives. Not that other petty land owners should prohibited.
The concept of co-operative farming is not new. Many European countries like Denmark and Switzerland, Japan and Russia have conducted the experiment and every where except in Russia, there is no element of compulsion. They have been organized on the willing co-operation of the people and run on democratic lines. In our land, Gandhiji was a great advocate of the system.
Co-operative farming means conducting the agricultural activities on co-operative basis. 'Each for all and all for each'. Nobody loses the right of ownership nor does the society acquire any rights. The bits of lands pooled together, is cultivated as if it all belonged to one individual. From the stage of tilling the land, right up to harvesting, storing and selling everything is done collectively. Only the dividends are divided in an appropriate manner.
Its advantages are many and varied. A part from inculcating the spirit of co-operation, in the minds of the participants, wastage is minimized; duplication of work avoided; and production increases.
Nobody need to bur farm implements individually. They will be bought and maintained by the society. Again, ill health and old age will never stand on the progress of work, nor will there be quarrels on the issues of irrigation or problems of boundary lines. While the entire community stands to gain, no body will remain to lose. If proper irrigation facilities are available, farming can go on endlessly like clock work, throughout the year. If such facilities are not available, the society can diversify and pursue off-season activities like planting of trees, digging of wells or laying of roads. There is every chance for the village to blossom into a well developed, self sufficient and self sustaining unit.
