“Laptops or mobile phones will not aid farmers.. Our crops mean the most to us.. We do not need anything beyond the means to have a successful farming season” –Ramprasad, a farmer from Gonda.Based roughly 300 km from the foothills of Nepal, Gonda’s Terai region in Uttar Pradesh has remained sensitive to flooding for some time now. This made ‘water logging’ a recurring issue for farmers toiling hard in the nearby fields of the district. Most of these farmers aren’t as lucky as their counterparts in Haryana or Punjab, who get a basic Minimum Support Price (MSP) for their produce from the government. Mandis in Gonda are located far away from farms and middlemen eat out most of the ‘price-induced profit margins’ on their produce.Farmers in Gonda have to take their produce long distances to sell them at Mandis.The farmers of Gonda aren’t even compensated for the crops insured for (and lost) to poor monsoons or geographical consequences and as a result, their discontent with the current administration is quite clear. “The lekhpal (government clerk) should maintain proper records of our crop losses so that we get compensated, but that is not always the case,” said, Dashrat, a farmer from Gonda.“We are not reimbursed for loss in crops due to floods, despite registering complaints… I am not sure if the government authorities pocket the money, but it does not reach us,” confirmed Surya, working at a field near Dashrat’s in Gonda. A group of Gonda farmers that the researchers spoke to.In a recent field report for The Wire, we argued how during the current assembly election, issues of joblessness, education and communalism were anchoring the discourse wherever one would visit or whoever one would talk to. For the farmers of Gonda and Ayodhya, their concerns go beyond these. Farmer respondents told our team that they were promised a siphon (water pipe) that would help divert excess water away from the fields to the local river nearby. This didn’t happen. Most of them have been holding on to this hope, but little was done for them by the government.Stray cattleThe most critical challenge for farmers over the last five years has been the increasing population of stray cattle in rural areas; a population which exploded under chief minister Yogi Adityanath’s regime. While the total number of stray cattle in the country decreased by 3.2% from 2012-2019, the population of stray cattle in Uttar Pradesh increased by 17.34% during the same period. There were more than 1.18 million stray cattle reported in the state in 2019 alone, according to the livestock census. The problem of stray cattle is prevalent across Uttar Pradesh.“Inhone (stray cattle) humara jeena mushkil kar diya hai… Hum subah se shaam kisani karke mehnat karein aur raat bhar kheton mein baith ke apne kehton ki raksha karein (‘Stray cattle have been a nuisance for us… We toil all day long in our fields, working hard, and then guard these fields at night to protect them’),” said RamprasadMany non-farmers in the areas around Gonda and Ayodhya, where our team conducted its field work, held farmers accountable for the stray cattle, accusing them of abandoning the animals and causing the problem in the first place. However, it is necessary to investigate the issue further.Stray cows can be seen wandering everywhere in the region.Also read: Next to Adityanath’s Rally Ground in Rae Bareli Is a Shelter Where Cows Die Every DayIn line with Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s right-wing Hindutva agenda, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-led government made cow slaughter illegal in 18 states, including Uttar Pradesh. After coming to office in 2017, Adityanath shut down multiple supposedly unlawful slaughterhouses, even though this is a substantial business in Uttar Pradesh, which has been a major exporter of buffalo meat (buff). Thereafter, buff sellers, many of whom are Muslims or Dalits, have been attacked and killed by (Hindu) vigilantes associated with the BJP or other local right-wing organisations. As a result, most working in the trade have left the business because they are too afraid of purchasing or transporting cattle. Subsequently, the economy of the bovine industry took a hit and farmer owners (those who would sell ‘non-essential cattle’ once they had outlived their milking value) began dumping their cattle in nearby areas, on the streets, and in open fields, far away from their settlements rather than selling them to slaughterhouses.After slaughterhouses in the state were forced to shut down, cows which can no longer produce milk are released into the world.“We guard our fields all night. It is a tiresome cycle of putting barbed wires and fences all around our fields. Still, the cattle wreak havoc on the fields if the wiring or fencing is weak somewhere. They are also get stolen sometimes. Aside from spending on food, shelter and clothes, all the money that we earn is spent in this process,” Dashrat said.Farmers putting up barbed wire fencing to keep cattle out of their farms.Small and marginal farmers who we spoke to said they were particularly affected by this crisis since they lacked the financial means to hire more workers to help with fencing or assist them in defending their fields from the roaming cattle at night.Small and marginal farmers can often not afford to hire people to help with fencing.Poorer farmers in the poverty-ridden areas of Purvanchal (Eastern Uttar Pradesh) and Bundelkhand are forced to remain on guard all through the night or risk losing their food grain, which is meant for their own subsistence, as opposed to their wealthier, more resourceful counterparts in Western Uttar Pradesh, Haryana and Punjab.In the past, the Uttar Pradesh government had constructed gaushalas (cow shelters) to house stray cattle and keep them out of farms. Farmers, however, believe the move was insufficient. According to the state government’s records, there are only about 6,000 cowsheds for over a million cows roaming free in the state. Moreover, there is a lack of transparency in the operational functioning of gaushalas. Farmers from across the state claim that village chiefs in charge of their upkeep engage in widespread financial mismanagement, besides doing little to help.More stray cattle sitting by the side of a road.Many (farmer) respondents from rural Ayodhya and Gonda argued that inordinate focus on the ‘cow’ affected the welfare of the state. The Adityanath government, according to a few farmers, should have spent more money on creating jobs for the youth and on schools, healthcare and so on rather than “wasting” it on gaushalas, which didn’t even help in tackling the crisis. It was also interesting for our team to see how many Hindu farmers were hesitant to directly comment on the poor state of gaushalas, or comment on-the-record about the stray cattle issue, fearing government action against them. This was a significant break from the past, as Ramprasad pointed out to us, saying that the issue of stray cattle, despite being a widespread problem in the state, was never a poll issue like it is now. A farmer taking a break from loading his tractor.When asked if farmers in Uttar Pradesh could protest like those from Haryana and Punjab did; as a united force in their fight against the three farm laws last year, most respondents said that it would be a fruitless exercise which would do no good for the poorer farmers of the state.“It is pointless to even put forward our needs and demands to the state government. No one in the government office listens to us. They would rather use lathis to drive us out, or worse, put us in jail,” says Surya Prakash, who farms on a highly cultivable, six-acre piece of land in his village near Gonda.Farmer respondents said that while the cattle problem has long since been an issue in the state, it has never assumed the kind of electoral significance as it has now.With the counting of votes in the assembly elections to take place on March 10, it remains to be seen whether the perceived angst among the farmers translates into a higher share of votes going to the opposition Samajwadi Party as opposed to the incumbent BJP. Names of respondents are changed to protect their identity. All photo credits belong to Jignesh Mistry.Deepanshu Mohan is Associate Professor of Economics and Director, Centre for New Economics Studies (CNES), Jindal School of Liberal Arts and Humanities, O.P. Jindal Global University. Jignesh Mistry is Senior Research Analyst and Visual Storyboard Team Lead, Centre for New Economics Studies, Jindal School of Liberal Arts and Humanities, O.P. Jindal Global University. Vanshika Mittal is Senior Research Analyst and Visual Storyboard Co-Team Lead, Centre for New Economics Studies, Jindal School of Liberal Arts and Humanities, O.P. Jindal Global University. Rajan Mishra is a Video Editor with the Visual Storyboard Team at CNES and works at Amity University, Lucknow. Krishanu Kashyap is Research Analyst, and Mohd Rameez is Senior Research Analyst with Centre for New Economics Studies, Jindal School of Liberal Arts and Humanities, O.P. Jindal Global University. Tavleen Kaur, Isha Khurana, Ruhi Nadkarni are Research Assistants with CNES. This story is part of Centre for New Economics Studies’ (CNES) Visual Storyboard initiative. Part I of the story was published earlier. For more on team’s fieldwork, please see the initiative’s website here.