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 6.

Bitter Story of Sugarcane ‘Journey of a thousand miles begins with the first step,’ Russian revolutionary Lenin had famously said. Soon after the struggle of onion growers at Chakan Joshi realized how true that statement was. The spark struck there soon spread like wild fire. Letters were pouring in from far off places from farmers who wanted to meet him to discuss what could be done with their problems. After all, the ordeal that farmers everywhere were going through was the same. Tukaram Nirgude Patil of Nifad in Nasik district was one of them. As they sat in Joshi’s Aundh house to talk, Joshi saw how keen he was to do something for the farmers in his area and realized that this conversation might lead Shetkari Sanghatana (SS) to the next step. Nifad is a taluka in Nashik district famous for its fertile land. Farmers there were closely following the developments in Chakan. Nirgude had his family farm but he also worked in a large cooperative sugar factory in Nifad, as did many other farmers. It was fairly common for one person in the family to take up a job so that the family could have some regular income. Nirgude had come all the way from Nifad to meet Joshi. This was the first time he had gone somewhere other than his factory, farm and village. Joshi was trying to understand from Nirgude the problems faced by the farmers in Nifad. The conversation continued till late at night. As suggested by Joshi, Nirgude agreed to spend the night with Joshi family. 118

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Sharad Joshi : Leading Farmers to the Centre Stage