Paddy growers sweat it out in fields as labour in short supply

Aakanksha N Bhardwaj

Tribune News Service

Jalandhar, July 5

To overcome the problem of shortage of labourers, many farmers switched to direct seeding of rice and many others persuaded the farm labourers to return from their native lands. However, two farmers of Randhawa Barota village in Hoshiarpur sowed and transplanted paddy in their fields on their own.

Unable to find labour, Bahadur Singh (34) and his younger brother Naajar Singh transplanted paddy on 6 acres with the help of their family members.

“We took help of our cousin Gurmeet Singh to transplant paddy in our fields. Thereafter, we carried out the same process on Gurmeet’s land, who owns approximately six acres. It was a difficult process, but we were able to transplant the crop on four acres,” Bahadur Singh shared.

He said: “The remaining work is being carried out by labourers, so we are relaxed. Since direct paddy sowing is a relatively new concept, I feared the results.”

Bahadur said: “We worked day in and day out to transplant the paddy. However, we never complained.” Manjit Rai, president, Bharti Kisan Union, Doaba, said back in the day farmers transplanting the crop on their own was a rarity. However, given the labour crunch because of the pandemic, such incidents were being witnessed.