Thread by @project_polis

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https://twitter.com/suchitrav/status/1433792114937278464

"What is the daily life of a farmer?" asks @suchitrav to begin this conversation, speaking about @journohardy's qualitative approach to his book on the farmer's crisis.

"When you travel to the world of a farmer, you are travelling to a different planet. Opportunities are scarce, education is hard to come by, health is inaccessible, and after a year of farming, you end up with nothing," says @journohardy.

"Every monsoon seasons begins with hope. But those hopes crash within months. Inability to dream is the crisis we are talking about," @journohardy says.

"We don't even talk about this world. Sitting in a coffee house in Nagpur, you don't care about dry spells. Even though it wrecks the countryside," @journohardy talks about the disconnect between the urban and rural life.

"We talk a lot about policies. But no one knows what life as a farmer can look like," says @journohardy.

"What is a place Vidarbha like? And how did that end up becoming the place with the most farmer suicides in the country?" asks @suchitrav.

"During the colonial times, Vidarbha was a place with massive cotton growth. It was a surplus agricultural region at the time of independence. Within 60 years it got catapulted to the misery today. It is a riches to rags story," says @journohardy.

"The countryside in western Vidarbha is a negative growth story for the past twenty years now," he says @journohardy.

"How do farmers end up with such vast amounts of debt, even though in recent years there have been so many policies that, at least on paper, have looked to address this," asks @suchitrav.

"Farmers are currently losing out many. Whatever they produce barely matches production cost. You sell your assets to get production cost in the first place. So first off, income itself is a problem," says @journohardy.

"Those who diversified income streams instead of depending only on farms, have managed to keep their head above water. But that economic structure needs other support like market linkages, different agricultural sectors," says @journohardy.

"We need to come up with different strategies to address these issues. Because one strategy will not work across the whole countryside. We have not even started talking about this," says @journohardy.

"You talk about how the loan waiver does not reach the farmer in the book, can you expand on it?" asks @suchitrav.

"What I meant was that loan waiver is not the only solution. The first loan waiver worked for a couple of years in the beginning, but it did not address the question of income," @journohardy says.

"How did demonetization affect farmers and their informal economy?" asks @suchitrav.

"Most of the dealings in the countryside is in cash, it does not mean it's the black economy," says @journohardy.

"Demonetization happened right after Diwali when the Khareef crop was to come in. In many regions that is the only surplus crop. It wrecked the economy for years."

"The voices speaking about countryside are not based in the countryside. They are based in the metropolitan, speaking to confirm their own hypothesis," says @journohardy.

"What do you think about the recent Farmers' Bill? Do you think they solve a problem or are they going to create more impediments for the farming community," asks an audience member.

"These laws will not fix the rural economy in any way. Each bill has a different objective, but cumulatively they are trying to restructure the way our markets function. There are problems with the mandis, but the solution does not lie in bulldozing them," says @journohardy.

"What were the effects of the pandemic and the wave of the urban-to-rural migration. Did the lockdown and state violence affect the farmers?" asks audience member.

"People have lost livelihoods in the weirdest of ways," says @journohardy recommending audience members to read the reportage by PARI to truly understand the extent of the destruction caused.

"We had set up a soup kitchen that had 50 to 60 people in March. By July the number was over 5000," @journohardy says speaking about the plight of those caught up in the migration crisis.

"How is the protest in Madhya Pradesh and Maharashtra changed overtime?" asks an audience member.

"India today does not have a pan-India farmers' movements even though there is solidarity. I think that is not possible any longer. This is a sustained movement, however, the agitation is by splintered group," says @journohardy.

"The question is how does this agitation addresses the diverse issues based on regional differences," wonders @journohardy.

"Why is this government not even acknowledging the pain and point of concerns of the farmers?" asks an audience member.

"The current communication structure is not meant for consensus building," says @journohardy. "It's a very top-down method of communication. You saw the same thing happened with students. There was no dialogue."

"It's a battle between two Indias with very diverse views on conversation and consensus building," according to @journohardy.

And that is a wrap on this conversation!

Thank you so much for tuning in. See you all again soon!

Find @journohardy's book here: harpercollins.co.in/product/ramrao/