Paddy season begins,labour pangs hit farmers

On the other hand,the wait is getting longer as nearly 29 lakh hectares of land need to be sown.

Sarbjeet Dhawan,a landlord from the Malwa district,is short of 35 hands. He said: “I give them Rs 2,500 per hectare. I have also constructed huts for them and their families. I have been in Rajpura for the last four to five days and still don’t have the numbers to take back home.”

Farmer Kulwant Singh from Samana rued that he had three sons,none of whom were ready to work on the fields with him. “The same is with the other boys in the village. They will sit idle or take up a peon’s job in the city,but it is beneath their dignity to work in the fields,” he said.

Sources in the Agriculture department said Punjab needs an average of seven lakh labourers on its fields and in other areas. Punjab depends almost entirely on migrant labour for 90 per cent of its work.

Meanwhile,dozens of labourers who got off at the Rajpura station are not ready to work for anything less than Rs 2,400 per acre and free food. A group from Samastipura echoed: “Very few of us are coming from Samastipura this season. We demand what is justifiably ours.”

Ram Lal from Purnia said: “Many of my friends and relatives are happy to stay back home to avail of the state’s poverty-alleviation schemes and the NREGA. I don’t plan to stay long either. I need to go back after August to work under NREGA.”

Chief agriculture officer B S Sohal claimed the shortage of migrants would increase every year due to the improving opportunities in their states. “The Punjab government has started giving subsidy on machines that sow paddy but labour pangs will continue for a few more years till farming is totally mechanised,” he said.

In Doaba region,many farmers are still waiting to begin transplantation due to shortage of labour. The paddy transplant machine,too,has received a lukewarm response.

According to a report of the agriculture department,paddy transplantation could not start in 100 villages of Doaba today.

In Puranpur village,near Rama Mandi,Mangal Singh,who owns 25 acres land,said he could not start paddy transplantation today because the labour was available at a very high rate. They are demanding Rs 2,200 to Rs 2,500 per acre,while last year it was Rs 1,200- 13,00,he said.

“I will have to pay 35-40 per cent more labour charges than last year for my 25 acres,” he said. Most of the farmers of the village had gone to other villages today in search of cheaper labour.

“One of my relative in another village has employed 5-6 labourers. I am waiting for them as they will charge Rs 1,800-2,000 per acre for paddy transplantation. The rates in our village are as high as Rs 2,500 per acre,” said Komal Singh,owner of 13 acres in Mujaffarpur village.

The paddy transplanting machine was not available in either of the villages.The Punjab Agriculture department had recommended the use of these machines to overcome labour shortage.

To use these machines,the paddy saplings are prepared in a manner which is different than the traditional method,said Jagtar Singh of Bhakhriana village,adding that neither the government,nor the villagers was interested in using the machines.

Chief agriculture officer,Jalandhar,Dr Kulbir Singh Deol said there is shortage of labour and the rates are high as well. There are around 22 transplanters available in the district of which 16 are owned by coperative societies and six are owned privately.

“There were 25 transplanters available with us but only two were purchased by farmers because the government reduced the subsidy on them from Rs 1.5 lakh to Rs 75,000,” said a senior agriculture officer

A paddy transplanter can sow three fields in a day in a cost of about Rs 500 per acres,said the Chief agriculture officer. Carefully prepared saplings can be transplanted in uniform way,he added.