Farmers Movement Archive

Amid labour crunch, Punjab agriculture dept faces herculean task ahead of paddy sowing season

With less than a month left for the paddy sowing season to start in Punjab, it is going to be a herculean task for the state’s agriculture department to arrange all logistics in time.Amid an acute shortage of migrant labour due to the exodus triggered by the Covid-19 outbreak in the state, the department has to arrange transplantation machines and local labour for farmers this Kharif season.The state government has already advanced paddy sowing season by 10 days — from June 20 to June 10.Kahan Singh Pannu, agriculture secretary, said work has been divided into phases to deal with labour shortage. “First, the department has decided to reduce at least 3 lakh hectare area under paddy cultivation from 29.3 lakh hectare last year to 26.3 lakh hectare this year,” he said. “Second, the target area under direct seeding of rice has been set at 4 lakh hectare, which is 20% more than that last year.”By shifting around 7 lakh hectare area from traditional paddy, the department is now making other arrangements, including transplantation machines and labour for sowing paddy over around 22 lakh hectares, he said.Pannu said the government has already roped in “best manufacturers” of farm implements to meet the demand of transplantation machines.“Manufacturing has been slowed down due to the lockdown, but we are hopeful to get 200 such machines before the start of the season. The state is already equipped with more than 300 such machines,” he said.Meanwhile, the agriculture department has estimated 12.5 lakh labourers will be required to sow paddy in 30 days.On labour crunch, Pannu said they are going to engage local labour to augment the permanent agriculture labour working with farmers. 10% paddy area to be shifted to cotton, maizeSutantar Kumar Airi, director, agriculture, Punjab, said that of the 10% area to be shifted from paddy cultivation, the department is expected to divert 1.6 lakh hectare to cotton, one lakh hectare to maize and the remaining to basmati varieties. “We are reviewing the ground situation on daily basis and are preparing district-wise requirement lists. We have been appealing to farmers at block level to go for crop diversification so as to compensate for the labour shortage,” Airi said. Meanwhile, an official, who did not wish to be named, said pushing farmers towards crop diversification is going to be a major challenge for the department.“Farmers have always been reluctant to stop the cultivation of water-guzzling paddy in the past. To promote diversification, the government needs to ensure remunerative prices for maize and cotton,” the official said.Sowing cost to increase with limited resources Jagmohan Singh, general secretary of Bhartiya Kisan Union (Dakaunda), said the cost of sowing paddy is going to increase as farmers have to shell out more money to arrange local labour.“The migrants charge between ₹2,500-3,000 per acre for sowing paddy while Punjab’s local labour demand between ₹ 5,000-5,500 per acre for the same job,” he said.Singh said the Centre and state government should announce some financial support to farmers beside providing the required logistics.“Though the state government advanced paddy sowing by 10 days, the collegium of 10 farm unions have demanded to start the season from June 1, so as to meet the demand of local labour and transplantation machinery. The farmers also want the Centre to increase the minimum support price for paddy,” he said.

Hindustan Times

16-05-2020

City