Let's #HelpTheFarmer
What can be more ironic than this tragic fact: the hands that feed millions have so little to feed their own families that death seems easier than staying alive. In India, over 58% of rural households depend on agriculture as their principal means of livelihood. Unfortunately, agriculture is still vulnerable to climatic fluctuations as farmers are neither technologically-abled nor aware of the availability of free & accurate weather forecasts. So, often, after months of toiling, the crop gets destroyed due to unforeseen weather changes pushing the farmer into the dungeons of debt and poverty. Since 1995, nearly 300,000 Indian farmers have ended their lives. News channels report these grim stories of farmer suicides. But, sadly, farmer suicides have become a blind spot for most people. Therefore, farmers’ plight never finds its way into everyday conversations, and a farmer’s hardship goes unspoken, unheard, and unaddressed. As India's largest weather monitoring and agri-risk solutions company, Skymet Weather wanted to spread awareness about how the free and easy availability of accurate weather forecasts can make a big difference. But, the challenge was how to reach out to such a large number of farmers despite the language barrier and a small budget. The idea was to turn people's apathy towards the plight of farmers into empathy. Hence we decided to make such a heartrending film that it moves people and they start seeing helping the farmers as their responsibility. Released with #HelpTheFarmer as a rallying cry, the film touched hearts across India.
