“There weren’t many moneylenders when I was growing up, but now a lot of farmers are taking loans because today they need money for machines, pesticides and fertilisers,” says Sukhlal Suliya, of Badgaon village (Madhya Pradesh). "We used cow dung, which was good for the soil and didn’t cost us any money. But then the government started advertising urea and pesticides by saying it will give you more crops. Now, 40 years later, these are still used by most farmers and they spend so much on fertilisers and pesticides, which are destroying the soil. And then they sell in the markets for very little profit, through middlemen, who buy the produce for far less money than what they sell to customers. So farmers make very little money,” he adds, with sadness.
Nia Chari and Akil Ravi, '‘I like the village, but there is no life left here’', People's Archive of Rural India (PARI)