Farmers sow seeds for prosperity but reap hunger

HYDERABAD: Travelling through metalled tracks surrounded by lush green, vastly spread mango orchards, and sugarcane, cotton, sorghum and maize crops in agriculture-rich Tando Allahyar district, one cannot imagine how this foliage covers the vulnerability of farmers facing hunger and poverty.

These families have been facing such conditions for generations. Women pick the exquisite chilli and bhindi (okra) for markets, but do not get even a little of these vegetables for their own consumption. Traditionally, labourers have to obey restrictions set by their landlords, who pay wages for their work but do not allow them to take a little quantity of vegetables to maintain their nourishment levels.

Picking cotton, peeling sugarcane and harvesting wheat are some other tasks they always take to earn a little to ease their families’ needs.

Only a few families are sharecroppers, taking some share after harvesting the crops, while a majority of the peasants work as daily wagers and get a little to just stay alive.

The wages for women workers range from Rs150-Rs180/day for six to eight hours. Similarly, men can earn a maximum Rs200/day. All family members, women, men and teenagers contribute to run the domestic kitchen jointly.

They have their own livestock to get milk and yogurt, which they mostly they sell to buy daily rations. Studies have revealed undernourishment in the new generation because of being deprived of proper diet.

Many of the women who work the fields are also deprived. They survive on very little food. One of their staple is fried green chilli, which have zero nutritional value. Even pregnant women do not have access to sufficient nutritious food, which also results in malnutrition in babies.

Despite owning milking animals, the families do not consume even a drop of milk and sell the entire produce to bear their survival cost. Women work till it is time to deliver, which also strains their already poor health.

Meeran Bheel, mother of three children, who was married at the age of 16 years, said, “I go to work after having a cup of tea on an empty stomach and after returning home eat fried green chilli with a loaf to quench hunger.”

Persistent poverty, lack of access to food sources has increased stress among poor labourers.

A 65 years old traditional midwife, Zaini Menghwar, herself mother of 10 children, five sons and five daughters still goes to work, picking okra and green chilli for the market. She earns Rs150 daily.

She claims to have conducted safe deliveries of more than 100 pregnant women of her community, residing in the cluster of villages known as Sajan Halepoto in Tando Allahyar district.

Zaini is among a few community women, who understand the harmful side-effects of getting chemically tainted grains and vegetables because of excessive use of pesticides.

“When a pregnant woman intentionally or unintentionally consumes unhealthy food, how can somebody expect she will give birth to a healthy and normal baby?” she asked. “It seems as if we all are vulnerable as we face one or another disease, mainly because of our own unawareness towards the need of diet and utilising available food sources like milk and yogurt.”

These women work in agriculture fields in scorching heat even when mercury touches 42 to 48 Celsius during the months of May, June and July.

Despite prolonged lockdown due to COVID-19, these women workers did not rest and continued working in the fields. They come back the same way and start their domestic chores.

It has been witnessed that all-age women, including pregnant and lactating mostly sustain on fried green chillies or wild vegetables. Hardly a few families consume yogurt to feed their children.

Padma Manghwar, another working woman said that hardly 15 to 20 years ago, pregnant women did not prefer taking medicine or going to the hospital for delivery.

Kaveeta Manghwar, a community health worker (CHW) associated with an NGO Thardeep Rural Development Programme (TRDP), which is working on nutrition and food security, observed that there was a need for behaviour change about diet. She observed that these women do not have a safe and balanced diet, because of their own illiteracy.

They rely on dietary supplements after losing natural sources like milk and yogurt for gaining nutritional needs. They work for longer hours in agriculture fields, but do not consume nutritious food to maintain their health, she responds.

“Eliminating dairy products, like milk and yogurt, from the diet of these working people always creates challenges in gaining proper weight,” she observed.

Tando Allahyar district population is 684,810. Nutritional profile of the district shows that 64.2 percent of the population lives below the poverty line. About 84.2 percent do not own any cultivable land.

According to a survey conducted under a European Union funded Programme for Improved Nutrition in Sindh (PINS), 75.9 percent households in the district have monthly income of Rs10,000 or below.

Shamim Akhtar, a nutrition expert at TRDP said, “We responded to have specific nutrition components to these farmer women, who otherwise are unaware about consequences they may have due to carelessness.”

The purpose of intervention was to have a sustainable improvement in the nutritional status of pregnant and lactating women and children under five, defining the second target indicator of the Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) No 2.

“We have taken an initiative through community health workers to sensitise pregnant and lactating mothers about the benefits of usefulness of animal milk in children,” she said, adding but the women had their own reasons like poverty to justify selling the produce.

Lifelong impacts of poor nutrition include stunted growth and impaired cognitive development. Shamim said dietary diversity should be promoted through awareness raising among community people.