Ramadan Abdullahi is 60 years old and resident of Tajan village. In his younger days, he worked in Feyzabad and Mashhad, but he went over to agriculture and farmed in his agricultural land in the Tajan village and around it, "Kalate Sheikh". He has two sons, both married, one in Tajan, a heavy-duty driver, and two children, the other working in the Kheidra Relief Committee and still has no children. Ramadan is currently working on a saffron, which is the product of most farmers in the region, whether it is to be picked up or not, but still hopes for its work.
A day with Ramzan in his farm
As a farmer, you faces many problems, Ramzan is no exception. He also suffered from the water crisis. Before the drought, the water in the qanat of his village was relatively abundant and he was able to irrigate his farm. But now it has been 3 years that he was forced to bring in water tanker in order to irrigate his farm. According to him, if it wasn’t for the drought, he would have owned two cows now. One bull to plough the land and a cow for the milk. Now he need to borrow the bull from someone in order to plough his land.
He however own 8 sheep, he fatten some of them in the house and some in the pen in the village. Additionally, he also has a donkey which he uses to lug the goods and plough the saffron farm. The donkey is his only farming tool (for ploughing the land). Sometime, when it became too difficult, he pays someone in the village who has the tilling tools to come do the job for him. He and his family harvest the saffron themselves, but to fill the flower ?? he paid 6 thousands toman per kilo to one of his relatives or neighbor to do the job for him.
Ramazan Abdullahi is a 60 year old farmer from the Tajan village. He has two sons, and both are now married. One of his sons lives in Tajan and has two children. His newly married son lives in another town called Khidra. Ramezan has agricultural lands both in Tajan and another village that is close to Tajan called “Kalate Sheikh”. He chose to purchase land in Kalate Sheikh because of the abundance of water resources in the land years ago. Unfortunately, it has been three years that there has been severe drought in the town and it has become necessary for Ramezan to transport water via tankers to his farmlands to water his lands. Presently, he plants only saffron and barley and because of the water crisis, it is not clear if yields in crops will ever revert back to the success that he had previously. In the past, Ramezan also served as a worker on the side of his farm work. This was something he would resort to when there was not enough farm work in his village. He would travel to neighboring towns such as Feizabad and Mashad and work in masonry. However, now he only works as a farmer.
Mr. Abdollahi owns eight sheep, some that he keeps in the village herd, and several that he keeps at home for fattening. He also owns a donkey, which he uses for plowing his land.
Ramezan says that if there was no drought, he would have purchased two cows; one to help plow his lands with and the other for supplying milk and yogurt for his family so that he would not have to rely on others for assistance.