<p>At some stage in our careers and lives, many of us have fantasised about giving it all up and retiring into a rural setting and spending the rest of our lives farming. The gap between fantasy and reality includes the hard work, the dependence on the weather, the shortage of labour, and the vagaries of the market. I come from an agricultural family which practised farming till two generations ago. Even today, a cousin grows paddy on the banks of the Krishna on fertile wetlands. Several of us have come from similar backgrounds and hence have a visceral connect with agriculture. In fact, our language, culture, and festivals are still replete with our agricultural past.</p>.<p>As humans, we have practised agriculture for at least 12,000 years. In India, wheat cultivation dates to 6500 BC. Wetland rice farming in the Gangetic plains dates back to 6000 BC and reached South India by 2000 BC. Also, wetland farming of rice was being practised in the Indus Valley from around 2000 BC. In South India, the crops traditionally cultivated have been millets and rice as the weather is not suited for growing wheat.</p>.<p>Given that we have been agriculture-based all our civilised lives, it is to be expected that our languages are influenced by agricultural terms. The words for rice and paddy, as an example, occur in over 4% of Dravidian root words. In contemporary use, arici is rice in Tamil and vari is rice in Telugu. In all Dravidian languages, some variation of ari is also used for tax/tribute. Many of our measures also have agricultural roots. A prominent measure in South India to date, especially for wage payment, in the form of rice given to farm labour, is the Marakkal, which was also used for household measurements. Even the names of our villages typically have suffixes indicating the type of farming land they provided.</p>.<p>It is the festival season now, and we enjoy the various stories of gods and local deities. In the past, entire villages would gather around for storytelling and dance dramas of our great mythologies.</p>.<p>The fact is also that most of our festivals are related to agriculture. The two main cropping seasons in India are associated with the monsoon crops (sown with the first monsoon rains) and the winter crops (sown in winter). The harvesting season of the monsoon crops begin with a prayer to Ganesha (Ganesh Chaturthi) for good yields in the month of August/September, this is followed by actual harvesting activities starting in October on Vijayadashami (after nine days of festivities) and continuing through Deepavali in October/November. Some of the monsoon crops are harvested even as late as December. Sankranti in January is a farmers’ final harvest celebration for the season as they also welcome upcoming warmer days.</p>.<p>The winter crops are harvested in spring and hence the spring festivals (Ugadi, Baisaki, Holi, etc.) of India are also harvest festivals and mark the new year. This is true not only of India, but across the world -- that most festivals have agricultural origins and brought together people in celebration.</p>.<p>The last couple of years have been difficult the world over, with the pandemic and with climate change events. As we come out of the pandemic and understand the impact of human activities on the planet, this is the time to reflect, change, and celebrate the goodness of life like a farmer – individually and with the community; with traditions and with change; with prayer and with hard work!</p>.<p><em>The former CTO of Tata Group and founder of AI company Myelin Foundry is driven to peel off known facts to discover unknown layers. </em>@Gkatragadda</p>
<p>At some stage in our careers and lives, many of us have fantasised about giving it all up and retiring into a rural setting and spending the rest of our lives farming. The gap between fantasy and reality includes the hard work, the dependence on the weather, the shortage of labour, and the vagaries of the market. I come from an agricultural family which practised farming till two generations ago. Even today, a cousin grows paddy on the banks of the Krishna on fertile wetlands. Several of us have come from similar backgrounds and hence have a visceral connect with agriculture. In fact, our language, culture, and festivals are still replete with our agricultural past.</p>.<p>As humans, we have practised agriculture for at least 12,000 years. In India, wheat cultivation dates to 6500 BC. Wetland rice farming in the Gangetic plains dates back to 6000 BC and reached South India by 2000 BC. Also, wetland farming of rice was being practised in the Indus Valley from around 2000 BC. In South India, the crops traditionally cultivated have been millets and rice as the weather is not suited for growing wheat.</p>.<p>Given that we have been agriculture-based all our civilised lives, it is to be expected that our languages are influenced by agricultural terms. The words for rice and paddy, as an example, occur in over 4% of Dravidian root words. In contemporary use, arici is rice in Tamil and vari is rice in Telugu. In all Dravidian languages, some variation of ari is also used for tax/tribute. Many of our measures also have agricultural roots. A prominent measure in South India to date, especially for wage payment, in the form of rice given to farm labour, is the Marakkal, which was also used for household measurements. Even the names of our villages typically have suffixes indicating the type of farming land they provided.</p>.<p>It is the festival season now, and we enjoy the various stories of gods and local deities. In the past, entire villages would gather around for storytelling and dance dramas of our great mythologies.</p>.<p>The fact is also that most of our festivals are related to agriculture. The two main cropping seasons in India are associated with the monsoon crops (sown with the first monsoon rains) and the winter crops (sown in winter). The harvesting season of the monsoon crops begin with a prayer to Ganesha (Ganesh Chaturthi) for good yields in the month of August/September, this is followed by actual harvesting activities starting in October on Vijayadashami (after nine days of festivities) and continuing through Deepavali in October/November. Some of the monsoon crops are harvested even as late as December. Sankranti in January is a farmers’ final harvest celebration for the season as they also welcome upcoming warmer days.</p>.<p>The winter crops are harvested in spring and hence the spring festivals (Ugadi, Baisaki, Holi, etc.) of India are also harvest festivals and mark the new year. This is true not only of India, but across the world -- that most festivals have agricultural origins and brought together people in celebration.</p>.<p>The last couple of years have been difficult the world over, with the pandemic and with climate change events. As we come out of the pandemic and understand the impact of human activities on the planet, this is the time to reflect, change, and celebrate the goodness of life like a farmer – individually and with the community; with traditions and with change; with prayer and with hard work!</p>.<p><em>The former CTO of Tata Group and founder of AI company Myelin Foundry is driven to peel off known facts to discover unknown layers. </em>@Gkatragadda</p>