Lockdown: Absence of migrant labourers, contractors likely to hit litchi crop in Punjab

Absence of migrant workers and contractors who fled the state after the lockdown due to the Covid-19 pandemic is likely to hit litchi production at a time when Punjab

Absence of migrant workers and contractors who fled the state after the lockdown due to the Covid-19 pandemic is likely to hit litchi production at a time when Punjab seems set for a bumper crop.

A bulk of the produce, being expensive, is sold in Pathankot, which has a litchi processing plant; and in Chandigarh and Delhi, where it is in demand. (HT PHOTO)

Litchi (Litchi chinensis) lasts for about a fortnight after it ripens in the first week of May, so preservation and marketing it requires advance planning. This year, however, most growers, some of them well-heeled orchardists and big landlords, are wondering how they will fare as people who worked for them had left for their villages in Uttar Pradesh (UP).

The contractors take land on lease for two years after paying an advance to the landowners and then make the remainder of the payment after selling the fruit in various markets.

A bulk of the produce, being expensive, is sold in Pathankot, which has a litchi processing plant; and in Chandigarh and Delhi, where it is in demand.

Traders in these cities are also the financiers of the contractors.

Dilbag Singh Cheema Lali, owner of an 11-acre orchard in Ranjit Bagh village, says if the labourers and contractors do not return to Punjab the growers will face a total loss.

The growers have also submitted a demand charter to Gurdaspur horticulture deputy director, Dr Lakhwinder Singh, urging him to request the deputy commissioner to allow the labourers and contractors to handle the preservation and marketing of litchi grown in about 200 acres in the belt covering Dhariwal, Dinanagar, Gurdaspur, Sujanpur and Narot Jaimal Singh.

When contacted, Dr Lakhwinder Singh said he was confident that the growers with their experience in fruit production, would be able to manage things with local labourers. “If the migrant contractors or labourers are called from UP to Punjab, they will first be quarantined for 14 days and then it will be too late for them to do anything to market the crop,” he said

Meanwhile, Cheema demanded that the Punjab State Power Corporation Limited (PSPCL), which supplied power for only four hours at night to the orchards, should increase it for two hours more to allow daytime irrigation.

Two litchi varieties, namely Dehradun and Kalkatti, are grown in the state.

Cheema also said litchis attracted bats so nets were spread over trees and lights installed to keep them away as had been reported that bats were the cause of coronavirus.