Karnal: Paddy sowing begins; price hike, labour shortage worry farmers

Parveen Arora

Karnal, June 16

With paddy transplantation in full swing, increase in sowing cost, a labour crunch and power cuts have left the farmers high and dry. Many of them have even prepared paddy nurseries.

According to growers, the number of migrant farmers this season is low as compared to last year. Apart from this, local and migrant workers have raised labour charges, too.

“Last year, the average rate for transplantation of paddy was Rs 2,700-3,000 per acre by migrant labourers and now, they are demanding Rs 3,200-3,700 per acre. The local labourers this year are demanding Rs 4,000-4,200 per acre as compared to Rs 3,100-3,200 last year,” said Yashbir, a progressive farmer.

Vijay Pal, a farmer from Modipur village, they are facing a shortage of migrant workers, due to which the local workers have raised labour charges. No local labourer was ready to sow paddy for less than Rs 4,000 per acre.

“We are not getting power supply as per the schedule and there are multiple outages. As the power cuts during specified time are not being adjusted, we have to struggle with the paddy cultivation,” he added.

Another farmer, Sumit Chaudhary, complained of an increase in input costs.

“Paddy is sown within a stipulated time period and the government should ensure sufficient power supply so that the cultivation can be done in time,” said Vijay Kumar, a farmer.

The state government has fixed a target to cultivate paddy on around 30 lakh acres. Out of this, in order to conserve water, it is targeting 2.25 lakh acres to be sown using the direct seeded rice (DSR) method. The government has restricted the transplantation of paddy till June 15 except for the sowing under the DSR technique.

An official of the Agriculture and Farmers Welfare Department hoped that the farmers will sow the PR varieties of the paddy by June 30 and Basmati varieties by July 15.