Unable to afford oxen or a tractor, a 65-year-old farmer from Maharashtra's Latur district has been tying himself to a traditional plough to till his dry patch of land in the drought-prone region.
Even as the government and political leaders continue to talk about modernising farming and promising loan waivers year after year, for farmers like Ambadas Govind Pawar, these assurances remain just on paper.
The farmer from Hadoalti village has been tying himself to a traditional plough to cultivate his land, unable to afford oxen or a tractor.
Pawar, who owns just 2.5 acres of dry land, has been engaged in this back-breaking exercise for the last seven to eight years.
In a video that has surfaced on social media, Pawar appears exhausted as he drags the plough on a dry patch of land with his wife by his side.
"I can't stop. My arms tremble, my legs buckle under the weight, and my neck gets tired sometimes, but life hasn't given us a choice," says the sexagenarian, whose son does odd jobs in Pune and his daughter is married.
With no means to hire oxen or tractors that cost nearly Rs 2,500 per day, Pawar and his 60-year-old wife have turned into human ploughs.
The couple have been braving physical exhaustion and age-related limitations to carry out this gruelling activity to provide for their daughter-in-law and two grandchildren.
The cost of preparing the land for cultivation, seeds, fertilisers, and ploughing has become unaffordable for farmers like Pawar, a harsh reality that can't be ignored.
