Write about the journey of a shirt from the agricultural field to a retail shop
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Answer:
A shirt that is available for sale in the market has a long ‘journey’- right from the production of cotton to the buyer in the supermarket. There is a chain of markets involved in this ‘journey’ with buying and selling taking place at every step.
Majority of farmers have small holdings of land. They need to do backbreaking work to get a good harvest of cotton. Picking cotton from cotton farm is a tough task. It takes many days to harvest cotton because all the cotton bolls do not burst at one go.
Cotton farming requires high levels of inputs; such as fertilisers and pesticides. Farmers often have to borrow money from the local traders for meeting these expenses.
The traders charge a high rate of interest. They also put a condition that the farmer would sell cotton only to that trader and not anywhere else. This forces a farmer to sell cotton at a price which is lower than the market rate.
Traders are powerful men in the villages. A farmer depends on such traders for money in exigencies; like illness, education, marriage, etc. Moreover, farmers also need to borrow money in order to survive during lean season.
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