A farmer in Canada

The first farmer I meet is Laurie Schonfield. The market is not treating him well. There was a day when the Canadian farmer would go to his cooperative bin and sells his grain. The railway would pick them up and they would all get the same price. The world was how changing. Different agents would buy their grain. But the prices were different, since the same grain would get a different rating, from the coop, as compared with a large trading combine or other traders. The railways were rationalising their operations and the bins were becoming fewer and larger. The number of farmers was also declining. They had to hire trucks and go around trying different purchasers. It was frustrating and at the end of the day, he was not sure if he got a fair or a good deal.

Schonfield tells me that he is not feeling too good about his coop also allowing non-farming interests to join. It was supposed to help us, but it doesn8217;t because they push the coop on lines different from the farmers8217; interest. I tell him that a committee working with me drafted a new legislation allowing coops to form companies, but outsiders8217; could not be promoters and in India we also said that each shareholder would have only one vote in the coop company, even if he had more shares. We agree to communicate through email. He wants the Indian thinking, so that he can use it in their own debates. These are big farmers and they are intensively individualistic, but they cooperate on specific requirements and have been doing so for decades.

The prairies are miles and miles of flatland with good soil. At some places it is like our black cotton soil, about a metre deep. In geological time the melting of glaciers led to deposits and the formation of this rich soil. At other places it is the alluvium. When the rivers cut through the prairies, they create canyons and valleys. There are interesting formations of a stark kind called hoodos. The scouring of flatlands by either the warm or the arctic winds leads to undulating formations, accentuated by some of the intense drought years. Apart from the rivers, water tends to accumulate in some of these formations called sloughs pronounced sluz. This land can then not be farmed and the farmers get together to build drainage systems to minimise the loss of land. This is much like at home, because they know that if they do not cooperate they will all suffer together.

They grow only one crop a year. In spite of all my prodding they are impressed with the possibility of doing more. There is too much of land. A good farmer grows two sections, where one is a square mile. The Canadians have half moved to metric systems. They use centigrade and miles. In spite of the monotony of the prairie, they are considering more crop options.

Wheat is the big thing, but apart from oilseeds they also are now growing pulses. They had picked up some technologies from our pulse research and are excited at the thought that India is importing pulses and think of it as a market. I tell them that their prices seem high, as compared to our imports from East Africa, but they are not discouraged. They are very bullish on technology.

Farmers are nostalgic about becoming a vanishing breed. Villages with schools and churches and a way of life have disappeared. Land rentals are low. Near a city, the rent for an acre of agricultural land can be as low as five hundred rupees a year. But the ones who are there persist, even though some know that they can make more money elsewhere. We are so few that we are not heard anymore and they have the same complaint about the rich countries subsidising their farmers and competing unfairly with them. We always invent the other8217;.

The affection for India is genuine. It is seen as a land of immense learning opportunities. Younger Canadians of Indian origin are very keen on 8220;roots8221; and arrange caucuses around me. They are an asset for us and their own country.