Migrant exodus leads to labour shortage at farms

For the past one week, Sukhbir Dagar, a farmer in southwest Delhi’s Dhansa village (Najafgarh area), has been trying to arrange labour and a machine to harvest mustard

For the past one week, Sukhbir Dagar, a farmer in southwest Delhi’s Dhansa village (Najafgarh area), has been trying to arrange labour and a machine to harvest mustard and wheat crops.

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But to no avail, as a large number of migrant labourers in the area have left for their hometowns after the 21-day national lockdown was announced by Prime Minister Narendra Modi last week.

“We prefer to manually harvest the mustard crop, as there is a 15-20% loss of crop if harvested by a machine. But there is a shortage of labour,” Dagar, who owns 10 acres of land in the village and has rented 80 acres for farming, said.

“Now, I’m looking to hire a machine, as we have to harvest the mustard crop (spread over 30 acres) in the next 3-4 days. I also have to harvest wheat from the first week of April. But even the machines we usually get from Punjab are not available in adequate numbers due to the lockdown. This time just 2-3 machines are available till now due to the lockdown as against 10-12 which were available till last year,” he added.

Farmers in villages located in the Najafgarh area largely grow wheat, mustard and vegetables. According to the Economic Survey of Delhi 2019-20, the total cropped area in Delhi is 34,750 hectares. The production of wheat in the national capital in 2018-19 was 82,876 metric tonnes.

Another major concern of the farmers is taking the crop to the mandis and getting the right price. “There is no labour available. Small farmers don’t have adequate space for storage and due to the lockdown, there is not much business in the mandi. I don’t know how will we sell it,” Pradeep Dagar, another farmer who owns four acres of land in Dhansa, said.

Due to the fear of the spread of Covid-19, a majority of traders at Agriculture Produce Market Committee at Najafgarh have decided to close their businesses till March 31. “Our families don’t want us to go out. So, a majority of traders are not going to the mandi. We will take a call on whether to restart work in a day or two,” Sushil Mittal, head of the traders’ association, said.

But Naresh Sharma, chairman of APMC Najafgarh, said, “The mandi is open. Though whoever wants to do business can come. There were problems in the initial days. Though the business is affected, we are hoping it will recover in the next few days. Now we are issuing passes to people.”

The area where food-grain crops are planted has decreased over some time, as more farmers are taking to vegetable farming. However, the shortage of labour has adversely affected all farmers, including those who grow vegetables.

In Dichaon Kalan, a large number of farmers are involved in vegetable farming, mainly of cauliflower. But farmers say that taking their produce to the market has become a real challenge for them.

Similar problems abound in Narela. Bhupinder Bazad, a farmer who owns 42 acres of land in Hiranki village in Narela, said that farming is a labour-intensive job and apart from harvesting, labour is needed to clean the produce, store it and take it to the food grain or vegetable markets. But the work is adversely affected due to shortage of labour.

“On 50% of the land, I grow vegetables. For this, we need labour. In the initial days of the lockdown, we were not even allowed to go to the farms. Even the temporary mandis in the village were not allowed to be held. The labour started leaving fearing job loss due to the lockdown. I’m working with 50% of the labour staff,” Bazad said.