| Paddy sowing begins today, but labour nowhere in sight by riteshexpert on 10 June, 2012 - 12:00 PM | ||
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 riteshexpert | Paddy sowing begins today, but labour nowhere in sight on 10 June, 2012 - 12:00 PM | |
Chandigarh : Paddy transplantation will begin in Punjab tomorrow, but farmers are spending sleepless nights at railway stations hoping for the arrival of labourers from Uttar Pradesh and Bihar.But the early signs are not good as so far few labourers have arrived in the state. The labourers are being snapped up at Rajpura and Sirhind railway stations, the entry points for major trains coming to Punjab. This has resulted in nearly 40 per cent increase in labour rates as compared to last year.Farmers in Punjab will be transplanting paddy over 27 lakh hectares mainly within a period of 20 days. The state needs a workforce of around seven lakh to do this job. Four labourers sow paddy over one acre in a day. There is no alternative to this labour intensive operation as the four-year-long drive to mechanise paddy transplantation has failed.The next 15 days will be crucial and in case farmers fail to get sufficient labour, they will be forced to take up basmati transplantation which is traditionally done a fortnight after the coarse varieties. Basmati cultivation has gone up in Punjab and now covers around 7 lakh hectares of the total 27 lakh hectares available for paddy cultivation. However, there is less enthusiasm for basmati cultivation this year due to a reduction in the open sale price of the popular 1121 variety. This is expected to add to the labour pangs as paddy transplantation will not be staggered. Amarinder Singh of Mahalon village in Ropar said migrant labour was available in towns and cities at major stations. The rates this year had increased to Rs 2,000 to Rs 2,200 per acre as compared to Rs 1,500 to Rs 1,700 per acre last year. He said competition between farmers had made the situation worse. “Labourers are being wooed with liquor, ‘dunlop’ mattresses, air coolers and in some cases even drugs,” he adds.State Agriculture Adviser BS Sidhu said shortage of migrant labour could affect the industry in Ludhiana in the coming days. “It is a matter of daily wages. In case transplantation rates go up as they have, labour force working in the industrial sector will shift to paddy transplantation”.The introduction and success of NREGA in Bihar is touted to be one of the reasons why migrations to other states have reduced. In the past 10 years, Bihar has become a food grain surplus state. Sharecropping rates in Bihar and also in Uttar Pradesh have increased, binding labourers to their land. Labourers from these states are also going to Maharashtra and even Karnataka, said progressive farmer Inderjit Singh Sekhon of Fatehgarh Channa in Sangrur district who has given advance money to a contractor for this paddy season, but is still awaiting workforce. | ||