Hyderabad: Youth on a running mission for farmers' cause

Hyderabad: Meet Phanindra, a 30-year-old and a resident of Appikatla village, Pedaparipudi mandal in Andhra Pradesh who has started an initiative called 'Run for Farmers' in order to bring awareness about the issues faced by the farmers.

The 'Run for Farmers' initiative was started in 2016. This is an initiative with an aim to bring awareness in the society, especially among youth about the hardships that farmers are facing and it is a reminder for every one of us about our forgotten duty to protect the backbone of our country.

'Run for Farmers' is to show the sign of gratitude to the farmers by doing whatever little possible from our end by putting the issues into lime light especially it's an alarm to our govt who turned a deaf ear towards the plight of farmers.

Phanindra said "Being a son of a farmer, ever since my childhood I have seen the problems of a farmer (my father) right in front of my eyes, But couldn't do anything except being a part and parcel of that poverty cycle and debt trap. I understood the reality that the one who feeds millions on this earth can't feed his own children at least twice a day."

He further adds, "It is rightly said that "Agriculture is the riskiest business done by the poorest man on the earth. Hence I decided to take forward the cause of farmers through my footsteps and started this initiative".

Most of the times he ran alone especially the one from Telangana state assembly to Andhra Pradesh state assembly, sometimes it's a collective event where in his friends and enthusiastic youth accompanied him. He ran in several marathons spreading the same cause and theme.

"Yes I did, but I personally feel that this difficulty is very little and negligible in front of the struggle of a farmer and from bottom of my heart I really enjoyed every moment of journey. I met many farmers, social activists, common man and political leaders who supported my cause for farmers expressed their happiness and Solidarity. I wish this solidarity should become more strong and everlasting till we achieve the goal of seeing a smile on the face of every farmer," adds Phanindra.

He has covered each and every village town and city in the way between Hyderabad and Vijayawada and many other villages in Andhra Pradesh. His longest run is from Hyderabad assembly to Amravati assembly spanning a total of 325 kms in midst of 42 degrees Celsius temp, completed in 5 days. In the past four years he has completed more than 2000 km.

Issues of farmers

• Rationalisation of Minimum support price (MSP) is very crucial not only for better price realization but also helps farmers to come out of the debt trap.

• Swaminathan Committee recommendations are yet to be implemented.

• Awareness about chemical-free farming and soil degradation

• Old age farmers to be provided with monthly pension and alternative income source

• Providing interest-free loans to tenant farmers

• Lack of physical infrastructure such as cold storage and warehousing, easy access to markets.