Why I became an organic farmer in rural Tamil Nadu – Reason 1 – Water

Both Noushadya and I get asked this question often. I usually don’t get into personal details. Awareness about anthropogenic climate change, groundwater depletion, improving farmer incomes are the reasons, I usually quote. But these are the answer that most people who are turning back to villages from cities for the purpose of decolonising their lives give.

I am sure there are unique conditions in one’s upbringing or career or personal situation that result in only a few making such drastic changes. In this series, I will try to come up with some of the explanations that i have been contemplating over the years that made me take the plunge. There is hindsight bias at play. But do keep in mind that if these are good enough reasons for me, they might be good enough reasons for you to make the switch.

My Bombay upbringing

My father had moved from Kadayam, a quaint village in the newly split Tenkasi district, to the city of dreams in the 1970s in search for jobs. I was born and raised in Bombay, now Mumbai. Despite being blessed with 3000 mm rainfall, the megapolis often faces water shortages. Not everyone faces this ,of course, and definitely not throughout the year. It is a distribution problem, rather than a supply problem.

But, the 7 storey apartment, I spent my childhood in, had and still has limited water supply. So all the 40+ households have 500 litre water tanks in their individual flats. The apartment building also has a common reservoir which is used to store water as a temporary hold and commercial establishments in the lower floors. The morning duties have to be completed and water tanks have to be filled up within a 1-2 hour window every morning.

So even though water was not as scarce as that in a lot of underprivileged chawls and slums relying on tanker water mafia, there was always a sense of urgency in the household. Even artificial scarcity breeds a sense of judiciousness.

Agriculture : Disproportionate water consumer

In my entire childhood, most of the emphasis on saving of water taught in schools and by parents was how to make impact in the household. But agriculture consumes more than 80% of fresh water that we use in India. Whereas domestic requirements need only less than 10%. I know that there is where complete control of our actions lie. I also now know that choosing water intense crops

But, the resulting changes in water consumption because of upgrade in individual diets (from rice to millets, more veggies and pulses, less meat & dairy etc.) take much more time to be affected – from several decades to several generations.

But shouldn’t the purpose of a centralized education system be to make young minds think beyond themselves and the society at large?

This disconnect between what I learnt in my childhood and what I learnt after I took break from my corporate career is what made me disillusioned with a lot of modern systems. And water is one of the many factors which made me switch to a farmer’s life.

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