The grain drain in Uttar Pradesh

Struggle, farming challenges, and market control in Shajahanpur, Uttar Pradesh, impacting wheat production and farmers' livelihoods.

Struggle is not new to Shajahanpur, a district in the Terai region of Uttar Pradesh that has produced young martyrs — Ram Prasad Bismil, Ashfaqulla Khan, and Thakur Roshan Singh — in India’s freedom movement. It is also known for the hardships of its farmers and the vast tracts of arable land that play an important role in feeding the country and its most populous State. Today, U.P. produces a little less than 30% of India’s wheat, more than any other State, as per government data.

Powayan Taluk, less than 30 kilometres away from Shajahanpur, is known as Mini Punjab, as most farmers here are descendants of those who came from the land of the five rivers in the late 1960s and early 1970s, in search of cultivable land.

Avtar Singh, in his 70s, was one of them. Now bed-ridden, he arrived in 1972 from Gurudaspur with his family. Balwinder Singh, 38, his 6-foot tall, well-built son, remembers the difficult times his family had when crops such as wheat and paddy were new to the region. 

Avtar was one among about 37,000 Sikhs (as per the 2011 Census) who brought modern ways of farming wheat and paddy from Punjab to Powayan. Balwinder, proud of the family’s achievement, cultivates wheat on more than 100 acres of land, most of it leased from his neighbours. There’s a brand-new high-power Sonalika tractor in front of the house. As he surveys the land under cultivation, he says, “Ours is one of the first families in this area to purchase this huge vehicle. We also have a harvesting machine that can easily be fitted to the tractor.” 

All nine members in Balwinder’s family work the fields. “From the beginning we, as children, helped our father. There was a jungle here. With his hard work, he made this land fertile,” he says, silencing his German Shepherd with just a whistle. 

Costs and prices

In 1972, there were no markets in Powayan, and no good fertilisers, seeds, or machinery available close by. Farmers like Avtar went to Shajahanpur to sell their produce. Now, they have one and the district has about four food grain markets. Mechanisation has become the norm. The problem that persists is the prices for the produce.