Subdued festivities for Punjab farmers

Tribune News Service

Moga, November 2

In Punjab, particularly the Malwa belt, Diwali fervour is missing. The crop loss due to the vagaries of weather has added to miseries of farmers, farm labourers and labourers.

Rajinder Singh, a marginal farmer of Baghaurana in Moga, says he was still to harvest his paddy crop, which has been delayed due to the recent rains. Normally, farmers get free after harvest and sale of crops before Diwali, but, this time, he would have to spend nights in the grain market.

To meet the humidity content criteria, it sometimes takes days to dry the grains in the markets to make them fit for sale to procurement agencies. Nearly five lakh labourers and transporters across the state are engaged in the procurement process. This time they, too, will festivities.

On the other hand, even as the price of cotton was fetching attractive rates, the income of thousands of farmers in Malwa has decreased this with the lesser yield, owing to bad weather and bollworm attack. “We have not been able to meet even the input cost this time,” said Gurcharan Singh a cotton grower of Ramgarh village in Fazilka.