Seed drill introduced in Jammu to sow paddy

QUOTE: “Due to the coronavirus, we are facing a shortage of the workforce because a majority of the migrant labourers, who used to work in our fields during the sowing and harvesting seasons, have gone back to their native places,” Mohan Singh Bhatti, farmer

Dinesh Manhotra

Tribune News Service

Jammu, June 2

A number of farmers from the border Jerdha village in Samba district gathered in a field to witness the functioning of a seed drill, introduced first time in the region to grow paddy in the belt famous for basmati.

Earlier, farmers would practice traditional method of transplanting the seedlings in their fields.

“Due to the coronavirus, we are facing a shortage of the workforce because a majority of the migrant labourers, who used to work in our fields during the sowing and harvesting seasons, have gone back to their native places,” said Mohan Singh Bhatti, in whose field the farmers had gathered.

“This machine has been introduced to cope with the problem of lack of labourers,” he said.

Although farmers are apprehensive about shifting from manual to mechanical farming, they have no option in the absence of labourers.

“Due to the coronavirus, the entire paddy-growing belt, especially the plains of the Jammu province, is confronted with the non-availability of the workforce,” Bhatti said.

He said, “Locals have not been able to replace migrant labourers as far as work in the fields is concerned.”

As per a rough estimate, around 2 lakh migrant labourers, working in J&K, have gone back to their native places in the last one month. The migrant labourers were the main workforce during the sowing and harvesting of the paddy crop in the plains of Jammu, Samba and Kathua districts.

Farmers in the three districts recently adopted ‘community farming’ to harvest the rabi crop in the time of the pandemic. By maintaining social distancing, farmers helped each other during the harvesting season.

They had prepared rosters with the help of panchayat members to complete harvesting within a stipulated time by helping each other.

In some panchayats, ‘resourceful’ villagers had pooled money to hire a combine harvester from other areas to ensure that the crop of all farmers was harvested on time.