What Attitudes, Values, and Behavior Held by Farmers and What Is Difficult about Farming - Essay Example

A farmer no doubt lives an extremely tough life; today India is still almost 75% agrarian with people completely dependent on crops for their lives. Such dependence makes it very difficult for farmers to do something out of the farming sector. Moreover, they settle for a means of livelihood that may be much lesser than what they may be potentially able to earn. Farmers hold very strong attitudes because their work timings are from day to night, sometimes, even more, depending on the type of crop they are harvesting.

Right from watering the crops and plowing the fields, they need to work extremely hard, putting in a lot of physical labor. Thus they hold strong values for both the soil as well as their means of production; most farmers make use of some of the other technology to assist them in the fields and they may employ some labor to work on the field depending on the size of the field. However, they are aware that the job does not pay as much and is menial as compared to the other sectors, yet they hold the value for producing food grains and contributing to the rest of the economy. Their work involves an entire process of harvesting till delivering and selling the crops at the marketplace. They understand that despite their hard work the crops have a chance of going bad or not selling and thus are prepared for such a setback as well. 

This may be the most difficult part – to not be aware of the seasons or any natural calamities about to strike, or not be able to sell the crops and thus every bit of hard work goes to waste. However, they train themselves to not let it affect them. Also, the hard work that they put in wears out their bodies after some time and this leaves them weary and prematurely old. Most poor people engage themselves in farming as it requires manual and physical strength and no other resources as such. Farmers need not have work experience in order to join a farming business; they need to have a strong will and sense of hard labor. Most farmers however are young and mostly men; young men have the perfect physical strength to undertake tough jobs of harvesting crops, cutting them, sowing, and cleaning the soil. However, in many countries where tea, coffee, chocolate beans, etc are grown, women also engage themselves in farming and picking these seeds to sell in the market.