Early on, I remarked that India was a land of extremes. A couple weeks ago, I saw Mumbai’s antithesis: the villages of Dheroli and Chacher. Despite the presence of a few tractors, most farming here is done the old-fashioned way: with bullock-pulled plows/carts and manual labor. The area is peaceful, picturesque and incredibly green.
To get there, Abhay (our project assistant) and I took a series of buses to Bordeli and then took a car for the last 30-40 kilometers. On the drive, we passed fields of cotton, castor and corn, acres of the greenest banana plantations, and a series of overloaded trucks, bullock carts and rickshaws. I was glued to the window and so absorbed in the scenery that I hardly noticed the lack of shock absorbers on our rented van or the blaring old Filmi music our driver insisted on blasting on his old cassette deck.
The main purpose of our trip was to meet with some of SEWA's members and conduct a few focus groups for the price information project. We wanted to learn how they’re using the futures prices we’re giving them to make their planting or selling decisions, and what we need to do to improve the program in subsequent seasons. On the price information project, not everyone participating would be considered poor, so there was some variety in the livelihoods of the people with whom we spoke. In fact, the largest farmer had almost 30 acres of land. Some of the homes in the village are mud huts, while the house where we held the Dheroli focus group was 200 years old and was owned by Prameenbhai, one of the larger and most experienced farmers. Despite the diversity in the group, each village seemed more like an extended family (and to some extent, it probably was).
Most of our questions centered on how farmers make their planting, growing, harvesting and selling decisions, as well as how the market is structured (places where they sell their crop, to whom they sell it and whether the process is an auction, private negotiation or something else). I've noticed that if I ask a yes or no question, people are reluctant to give a negative answer, perhaps feeling that saying 'no' would offend us. This is sometimes obvious when the 'yes' response is inconsistent with other things they've already said. There's some literature on this, which I won't get into.
Even though we asked them a continuous stream of questions for two hours, everyone was extremely gracious to us. Villagers came to meet us promptly, and of course, the tea flowed abudantly. The Sarpanch of Chacher village (the chairperson of the village's governement) told me "you are most welcome here anytime." Which is nice, since I might want to retire there one day.
To get there, Abhay (our project assistant) and I took a series of buses to Bordeli and then took a car for the last 30-40 kilometers. On the drive, we passed fields of cotton, castor and corn, acres of the greenest banana plantations, and a series of overloaded trucks, bullock carts and rickshaws. I was glued to the window and so absorbed in the scenery that I hardly noticed the lack of shock absorbers on our rented van or the blaring old Filmi music our driver insisted on blasting on his old cassette deck.
The main purpose of our trip was to meet with some of SEWA's members and conduct a few focus groups for the price information project. We wanted to learn how they’re using the futures prices we’re giving them to make their planting or selling decisions, and what we need to do to improve the program in subsequent seasons. On the price information project, not everyone participating would be considered poor, so there was some variety in the livelihoods of the people with whom we spoke. In fact, the largest farmer had almost 30 acres of land. Some of the homes in the village are mud huts, while the house where we held the Dheroli focus group was 200 years old and was owned by Prameenbhai, one of the larger and most experienced farmers. Despite the diversity in the group, each village seemed more like an extended family (and to some extent, it probably was).
Most of our questions centered on how farmers make their planting, growing, harvesting and selling decisions, as well as how the market is structured (places where they sell their crop, to whom they sell it and whether the process is an auction, private negotiation or something else). I've noticed that if I ask a yes or no question, people are reluctant to give a negative answer, perhaps feeling that saying 'no' would offend us. This is sometimes obvious when the 'yes' response is inconsistent with other things they've already said. There's some literature on this, which I won't get into.
Even though we asked them a continuous stream of questions for two hours, everyone was extremely gracious to us. Villagers came to meet us promptly, and of course, the tea flowed abudantly. The Sarpanch of Chacher village (the chairperson of the village's governement) told me "you are most welcome here anytime." Which is nice, since I might want to retire there one day.
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