Haryana farmers stare at labour crunch as paddy transplantation begins

{Monsoon’s arrival}

With monsoon’s arrival in northern India, the transplantation of paddy has also gained momentum in the rice-growing belts across the state.

Most parts of Haryana received heavy rainfall in the past 24 hours as the Indian Meteorological Department (IMD) has announced the arrival of the southwest monsoon.

But with a majority of growers in the state opting for transplantation in view of the rainfall, paddy growers stare at a shortage of labour for transplantation of paddy.

The conventional and labour-intensive method of sowing the crop requires massive manpower and farmers say around 90% transplantation is done by migrant labourers.

This year, however, a drop was witnessed in the number of migrant labourers coming to the state. The shortage of labourers has also led to an increase in the transplantation charges, with the farmers now paying ₹3,500 to ₹4,000 per acre against ₹2,800 to ₹3,000 last year.

Also, some farmers had hired local women labourers for the work. “We could not get required labourers for the paddy transplantation our 38 acres, now we are taken help of local women labourers to complete the task but they are very slow and also they will take ₹300 more than the migrant labourers,” Raghubir Singh of Karnal’s Nilokheri said.

Farmers turning to DSR

Amid the labour shortage, more farmers shifted to direct seeding rice (DSR) technique. Notably, the state government had earlier revealed that over 44,000 farmers have opted for the DSR methods on around 3 lakh acres.

Officials in the state agriculture department, meanwhile, predict that the acreage under paddy cultivation in Haryana may increase above 14 lakh hectares this year, of which around 50% will be under Basmati varieties.

Weather joy

According to IMD reports, Haryana received 17.40 mm rainfall from June 25 to June 26 morning with a maximum 48.4 mm in Panipat, 44.2 mm in Sonepat, 42.8 mm in Jhajjar, 35mm in Sirsa, 31.1 mm in Rohtak, 29.1mm in Yamunanagar, 23.7 in Kurukshetra, 22.9 in Karnal and 15.9 mm in Ambala.

The rainfall came as the much-needed respite for farmers, who had been eagerly waiting for showers to prepare their fields for the transplantation. Farmers limited resources for irrigation need not spend on the diesel.

“We needed rains as the paddy transplantation was already delayed and now, we have started puddling to prepare fields for the paddy transplantation”, Sandeep Kumar of Karnal’s Gharaunda, who is planning to sow paddy on around 18 acres, said.

Echoing the sentiments, Suresh Kumar of Kurkshetra’s Ladwa said, “Rain is good for small farmers like me as we don’t have tubewell irrigation and borrow water from our neighbour at 50 per hour. With the help of this rain, we will be able to begin the transplantation.”