Labour shortage hampers procurement in Palwal

Bijendra Ahlawat

Tribune News Service

Palwal, April 25

With an acute labour shortage plaguing all mandis of the district, commission agents have asked the farmers to either delay or temporarily stop bringing produce to the market.

This has put farmers in a fix as they do not have sufficient storing facilities for the harvested crop.

“Though my turn to sell the crop had been fixed for Saturday, I was asked by the commission agent to hold back the produce for two or three days,’’ said Raju, a farmer of Aurangabad village.

Claiming that the procurement process in the Palwal market remained suspended on Saturday due to the labour shortage, Dharmender, a farmer from Kishorepur village, said he was told that his turn to sell produce might get delayed. “The question is where should I keep the harvested wheat as there is no space in my house,” he said.

Notably, an online token system has been introduced in the mandis for staggered arrival of the produce.

Expressing concern over the glitches in the online system, Devesh Kumar, a commission agent at Hodal, said the procurement process had been badly affected not only by the labour shortage, but also due to the mismatch of record of the crop in the online system.

He said most of the labourers, who were migrants, had returned to their home states due to the lockdown. This had left only 10-15 per cent of the required labour, Devesh said.

Claiming that procurement had been going on smoothly, Narveer Singh, secretary, Market Committee, Palwal, said 50-60 farmers were being allowed to sell their produce daily in each mandi. He, however, admitted that farmers were advised by some commission agents to delay bringing the produce due to unavailability of labour.

A total of 4.34 lakh quintal of wheat and 2,099 metric tonnes of mustard has been procured in the district so far.

Farmers in a fix

• Commission agents ask farmers to either delay or temporarily stop bringing produce to the local grain markets
• Farmers in a fix as they do not have sufficient storage facilities for the harvested crop at their homes
• Glitches in the online system too affect procurement process