Cautiously optimistic Haryana farmers say local workers available in plenty

Farmers may have to manage the show largely with the local labourers if the Bihar and UP workforce decides to rush home due to the fear of coronavirus before paddy transplantation begins

Even the hardy Haryana farmers lavishly admire the paddy transplantation skills of Bihar and Uttar Pradesh labourers.

A group of migrant workers head back to their native place during the lockdown in Kharak village in Bhiwani, Haryana. (Manoj Dhaka /HT)

For example, five labourers from Eastern India can transplant paddy in one acre in a day. It is this back-breaking capacity to work from dawn and beyond dusk of the migrant labourers that used to be at the core of paddy transplantation across 32 lakh acre in the state.

But this year, Haryana farmers may have to manage the show largely with the local labourers if the Bihar and UP workforce that is still staying back decides to rush home due to the fear of coronavirus before paddy transplantation begins on June 15.

“We will take a call on this issue one month later as by that time, picture will be clear. Paddy transplantation picks up momentum in the first week of July. By then, hopefully, the situation might improve,” Jai Parkash Dalal, agriculture minister, said.

“Let’s remember that there was shortage of labourers during the wheat harvesting, which is a much bigger operation. It has been managed very well. Paddy transplantation labour is different that comes in middle of June. Koi naa koi intjaam karenge (We will arrange something).”

Paddy is largely grown in Karnal, Kurukshetra, Kaithal, Yamunanagar, Panipat, Ambala, Fatehabad, Sirsa, Sonepat , Hisar, Rohtak, Faridabad and Palwal districts.

The paddy growers admit that absence of labourers from Bihar and UP will cause problems, but it will not hamper the activity completely as local landless labourers and daily wage earners are available in abundance due to lockdown.

“It is too early to start worrying if labourers will come or not,” said Nirmal Singh, a farmer from Karnal’s Indri. He quipped, “Earlier, people were worried how wheat will be harvested. There was no labour shortage as local workers were out of job and they played a crucial role in manual harvesting and management of wheat chaff.”

Endorsing Nirmal’s views, Raj Kumar of Kurukshetra’s Ladwa said, “There was no shortage of labour due to lockdown during wheat harvesting. This year, we paid ₹1,600 per acre for the management of wheat chaff against ₹1,800 paid last year.”

However, a leading paddy grower, Mahavir of Tohana in Fatehabad, disagreed. “In my region, labourers from Bihar are not available. We will face serious issues. They are expert in transplanting paddy,” Mahavir, who owns 22-acre land, said.

However, according to Balbir Singh of Fatehabad’s Daulatpur village, local labourers cannot match paddy sowing skills of those from Bihar and UP.

Most of the farmers HT talked to said labour shortage was not as serious an issue as it appeared. “Local labour is available in plenty,” was the common refrain of the farmers.

They said large number of migrant labourers, who come for the harvesting of sugarcane, are still staying back. Also, local landless workers, who are jobless due to lockdown, could play a bigger role the paddy transplantation. “We don’t depend entirely on the migrant labourers for the paddy transplantation. Local brick-kiln workers also do the job in our area,” said Jagmal Kamboj, a farmer from Ratangarh village in Yamunanagar.

And, an elderly farmer, Prithvi Chand of Yunispur village of Karnal district, agreed. “If labourers from Bihar are unable to come, the out-of-job local labourers are available in plenty. Haven’t we harvested wheat?”