Farmers Movement Archive

Farmers clutching at straws

Punjab’s farmers are grappling with labour-related issues during the ongoing paddy-sowing season. Their losses are likely to go up this year as a sharp rise in the input cost is imminent.“This time, paddy-sowing is quite challenging in view of the pandemic and the lockdown. We have to welcome returning migrants with garlands and sweets. The Central and state governments, besides farmers, should learn a lesson to counter such problems in future effectively,” says Rajpal Singh, a farmer from Mangwal village in Sangrur district.Though many other farmers have brought migrants back on special buses from Bihar and Uttar Pradesh, Rajpal hired local labour at higher rates. Taking advantage of the exodus of migrants from Punjab to their native states, the local labourers have increased their rates for paddy-sowing.“Till last year, the per-acre rates of local labour were between Rs 2,500 and Rs 3,000, but this year these have increased to Rs 4,500-6,500 per acre,” said Darshan Singh, a farmer from Majhi village.Panchayats of many villages across the state have passed resolutions to fix wages of labourers, causing resentment among Dalit organisations.“It’s wrong on the part of the panchayats to pass such illegal resolutions as labourers have the right to demand higher wages. It has become an ‘upper caste vs Dalit’ situation in many villages. The Punjab Government should take action against the panchayats which have passed such resolutions,” says Mukesh Malaud, zonal president of the Zameen Prapati Sangharsh Committee.Some farmers hired rickshaw-pullers, rehriwalas and labourers who work in the non-farming sector as they charged less than the local labour.But the shortage of labour has worked to the advantage of the Punjab Agriculture Department as a significant number of farmers have shown interest in the direct seeding of rice (DSR) this year. A cross-section of the farmers admits that earlier they did not prefer DSR as labour was available easily and they had opted for the conventional technique of manual sowing of paddy.“Officers of the Agriculture Department have been trying to promote DSR for the past many years. Despite knowing that it is cost-effective and helps in saving water, I did not use it. But this year, I have tried it as I did not want to get blackmailed by local labour,” says Karnail Singh, a farmer from Sunam.“I tried to opt for DSR, but did not get a machine. The state government should address the shortage of machines,” says Deep Singh of Kanoi village.The shortage of labour and DSR machines has delayed the sowing of paddy in many villages. At some places, farmers have take loan at higher rates to pay to the local labour. But there are many farmers who could not arrange money from banks or private lenders and they had to borrow it from their relatives.“Covid-19 has made things worse for us. Though earlier also we faced financial problems, this year the situation is alarming. To arrange money for paddy transplantation, I had to borrow money from two of my relatives, who are doing government jobs. But they will also charge interest,” says Gurmeet Singh, a farmer from Bhawanigarh.The hike in the value-added tax (VAT) on retail fuel has raised petrol and diesel prices. It has further angered farmers of Punjab and they have demanded immediate rollback.“Punjab’s farmers were already under a huge debt and Covid-19 has been back-breaking. But the government still wants to earn more by increasing VAT. The latest hike shows that the government has no sympathy for farmers,” alleges Sukhdev Singh Kokri Kalan, general secretary, BKU (Ugrahan).“The labour shortage created problems for farmers, but we provided them DSR machines on subsidy. We are redressing farmers’ complaints,” says Sutantar Kumar Airi, Director, Agriculture.

The Tribune

2020-06-22