Sambalpur: Gopal Mirdha, a 45-year-old paddy farmer from Sambalpur district, is a worried man. Although there was rain last week amid an overall shortfall of rain this year in this region, he is forced to defer key farming activities such as transplantation and weeding. Reason: He is unable to find labourers to work in his field.
Gopal is not alone. Most farmers are faced with a similar dilemma even as labour shortage has started crippling agricultural activities in the region. This could well be a double whammy for the state’s agriculture sector because farmers have already complained of urea shortage.
A severe shortage of labour, at a time when key farming activities like post-transplantation work and weeding are being carried out, has doomed the prospects of paddy crop in the region. Hundreds of acres of paddy crop are lying unattended to owing to severe lack of labourers.
The problem existed more or less in past several years too. But, this time around farmers are facing the worst labour crisis, said Brundaban Dash, a farmer from Maneswar block of the district. Dash has taken up farming over 20 acres this year. “Earlier, we struggled with poor rainfall. Now that there have been a few good showers, they are of no use as we have no labourers,” Dash said.
Usually, farmers in Sambalpur get a bulk of their labour force from nearby districts like Bargarh, Bolangir and Nuapada. People from these areas take advance money and show up for work when they are needed. There are even generations of labourers from these areas who are attached to respective families here.
“Labour is a critical input in farming. We, therefore, give advance to labourers in other districts who invariably show up at right time even though sometimes there are dropouts. But this year, they did not show up,” said Ashok Pradhan, convener of Western Orissa Farmers’ Organisation, who is himself a farmer. Pradhan has cultivated paddy in Jujumura block and nearby Burla.
Migration issues, MGNREGS and availability of cheap rice among others were not new things. “They were there in the past many years. People who took advance turned up at our doorsteps albeit their numbers came down. However, this year they did not turn up,” Pradhan said.
Some local NGOs and labour associations have decided to visit these areas in Bargarh and Balangir districts to find out the reasons for such mass dropouts.
Sisir Mishra, OP