Need. Yes, it’s that one element that drives the whole energy from morning till evening before we call it off for the day, and off course substantiating, probably it’s one of the main reasons for survival.

You need me and I need you.

By the same token, if we are not feeling better, we need a Doctor. If we have an argument to defend, we need a lawyer. And if we need proper civic in town, we definitely need a better Government.

Now if you put yourself to complete rest and ponder for a moment, who is the one whom we need every day, maybe every moment. And I’m sure the answer that comes to your mind is the same that is in my mind. And we proudly call him “Annadata”, our dear Farmer. But do you even realise, that very Farmer is in the biggest need of the hour?

On one side he has been tirelessly facing merciless nature and on the other side, the motionless Government and the illicit trading practices. The only resort then he finds is in a rope under a tree or in the taste of chemical locha.

My dear friends, it’s time we open our eyes to this helpless creature before we end up becoming the same.

To shed some light, we at Sunrise Pratishthan (Reg. No. 2059/2010/Pune Date: 04/10/2010) have been studying the current situation of Farmers, especially in the state of Maharashtra for quite few months. So what exactly shall we do to uplift their lives from the pathetic state they are currently in? Financial aid to the family of the farmers who have taken the grave step of suicide? Then the question is will it be a fitting answer to their merciless situation? Or will those pennies slide into the rugged pockets of uncanny relatives, or move a pebble on a mountain of debt? Even if we take a chance on this, still the question remains hard on their faces, what next? The same merciless nature. The same cycle of debt. The same tree. The same rope. The same box of chemical. But another panting life.

What we at Sunrise Pratishthan believe in is if we give pot full of grain to a Farmer, it will be of no use to him and again we’ll be seeing him in the same helpless situation, again looking at us for another pot full of grain.

However, if we give him only a handful of grain and push him to cultivate a pot full, this and only this, will make sure he is brought out of the helpless situation. It’s time we understand that Farmers need to be brought back to capability from incapability, and not made beggars of the situation, and we ending up only giving alms.

All they need is the right timing of the entire cycle of farming, from purchase of seeds to sowing, and the ultimate selling in the market. If this looks so simple, then why they have been struggling?

If we account it in each steps, here’s what we find. When the seeding phase comes closer, the traders illicitly raise the prices and in turn the farmer either gets less quantity of seeds or ends up shelling out more, completely keeping out the question of quality of these seeds. Subsequently, once the harvesting phase is complete and the crops are into the market, suddenly the market goes down and Farmers end up losing more than half of the price.

After a good deal of study, we have decided to implement our idea in a village named Nandale in Dhule district of Maharashtra, to start with. Sometime back, a young Farmer committed suicide in this village, and the situation is no different than the worst.

We will make sure that this village is brought out of this shackle, duly coordinating and assisting them at each steps from purchasing of seeds to selling the ultimate harvest in the market.

For this entire activity, we have estimated a cost of around Rupees 4 lakhs.

On behalf of Sunrise Pratishthan, we wholeheartedly request you to come forward and extend financial aid, whatever you can. We are indeed accountable for each penny received towards this initiative and all your questions and queries on the same will be duly answered and clarified.