Newbies in a Cool New Land

Today, our team (Callie, Josh, Matt, and Vanessa) visited five farms in the Ramanagara District. The first three farmers were already beneficiaries of the Krishi Bhagya Scheme while the last two had not availed the scheme for their farms. All the farms were of comparable size at about two acres each with equitable incomes as well.
   
     

The day was filled with interesting and memorable experiences that we hadn’t anticipated prior to the start of our field days. Some experiences were a little unfortunate because of unforeseen circumstances, but in hindsight, they were hilariously comical. For example, we misconnected with our translator and research assistant, Deekshith, and he actually ended up following another group, so we were without a translator for our first farm visit. However, we were accompanied by Deepaja Madam, the Joint Director of Agriculture for Ramanagara District. She ended up translating the farmer’s responses for us, this lady who holds a substantially high rank in the government. She was very gracious about it, and we appreciated her efforts, but we were especially relieved when Deekshith managed to find us again.

 

The places we visited were unbelievably beautiful. For the first interview, we surveyed the farm area with the farmer and his family, who described for us the different crops they had started growing on the land, which was completely barren prior to his availing of the Krishi Bhagya Scheme. He had a regular-sized farm pond on his 2-acre lot which has started growing mango trees, beans, green chillies, cowpea, and tomatoes. 

We precariously climbed up a low stone hill for the interview, the top of which provided a captivating and enthralling bird’s-eye vista of the surrounding villages. To our delightful surprise, representatives from the local news and media had followed us, apparently upon the behest of Deepaja Madam, and they recorded the proceedings of the interview. After the completion of the conversation (between two of our team members, the farmer and his family, with the assistance of Deepaja Madam), we hesitantly climbed down the hill, after which our team received our own interview from the news reporter! We hope we were able to represent well our entire American University practicum. :D

As the morning had such interesting surprises, we weren’t sure what the rest of the day had in store for us. For our second interview, we walked through verdant fields for what seemed like miles to find the farm pond. We conducted the interview under the shade of a large mango tree, and we were delighted to witness a demonstration of their methods of irrigation with the farm pond. The shooting stream of water from the heavy hose was a glorious sight to behold. And we laughed in glee as the sprinklers showed no mercy to anyone around them who happened to be unfortunate enough to stand within its target radius of water dispersal. (But in reality, we loved the gentle jet of cold water hitting our backs breaking the heavy heat of the mid-day sun!) 

After the second interview finished, our JDA guide Deepaja Madam mentioned we would then have lunch. We readied ourselves to walk towards the car, but again to our surprise, two blankets were spread under another mango tree, and steel containers of food magically appeared out of nowhere. We eagerly ate the rich and delicious rice, egg, and chicken curry mixture on our plates with our hands and washed it down with the equally delicious water (the heat had brought our thirst levels to the extreme!). The simple but sufficient meal gave us energy for the rest of the interviews for our day, all of which were conducted under minimal shade from the sun. They went like routine clockwork afterwards, but given the surprises of the morning, we were fine with that!