Few years ago while visiting my in-law’s place, I had a chance to visit their ancestral village (Bargaan, in rural India). There I saw most of their agricultural lands were bare with no crop. With curiosity, when I asked my father-in –law about this, he explained me that the soil  had turned  “Khara” (meaning acidic) so the crop productivity went down and they needed  to use more Urea. Overall it was uneconomical to continue cultivation and better to leave lands vacant. The same thing was echoed by a neighbor farmer who said “kharua jami pare agyan chas nai hebar‘’ meaning  'the soil is so acidic that it’s no more cost-effective for  cultivation'. He then narrated how they were forced to leave uneconomical farming and look for other professions. His depressed words ,struggle for livelihood and helpless face made me think about it.

A similar thing was experienced while we were on a durian farm visit in Taiping, Malaysia. This was a family outing trip to understand   'Durian farming'. The owner of the farm took us around and explained the process of durian farming . At the same time, he also pointed out few problems related to durian farming like, less number of durians per tree, smaller size compared to Thailand  and usage of more and more fertilizers every year to sustain the production. I could able to relate  this durian owner’s  concerns  with the problems of farmer from Bargaan India,  the struggle  of both the farmers and the reason behind it were almost same .