At a second meeting, one week later, I was able to convince them that they had nothing to lose. They would receive irrigation water, fertilizer, seeds, and insecticides without any up-front payment. They only had to agree to give me one-third of their harvest. The poor sharecroppers greeted my proposal with enthusiasm. The relatively well-off farmers reluctantly agreed to give it a try. This was a difficult period for me. I would often lie awake at night, anxious lest anything go wrong. Every Tuesday evening I visited the farmers and held a formal meeting with the four student “block leaders”
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