Giridhari Khatua of Saranga village of Kendrapara block has been cultivating the Kharif paddy for generations together. Now, the farmer is a worried man thinking about how to reap his four acres of Kharif paddy as the daily labourers are turning their backs to working in paddy fields.
like Khatua, a majority of farmers are now worried thinking about how to harvest ripe paddy without labourers. Factors like mounting labour cost and introduction of Re 1-a-kg rice scheme discouraging people from doing manual work have to be blamed. “How would we afford the farm labour costIJ It has gone up to Rs 300 a day,” stated Khatua.
The Re 1-a-kg rice scheme has affected the agriculture operation to a great extent. Easy availability of rice at highly subsidized price has left the toiling sections complacent. Higher wages than last time even fail to encourage the labourers to go for harvesting paddy, alleged farmers.
Ironically, in this prominent agriculture belt the laborious people have gone idle after getting rice at Re 1 per kg. Hardly are they showing interest like past days to go for labouring in the field.
Earlier, the poverty- stricken people were struggling to collect their bread despite their daily labour. But as the people under BPl are getting rice at Re 1 a kg , the laborious people, who were spending most of their times in the agriculture fields, are now wasting away their days in playing cards and taking contraband items, alleged the farmers.
This year 1,23,700 hectares of agriculture land were proposed for paddy cultivation. But due to non-availability of labourers, an estimated 1,22,994 hectares of agriculture fields came under paddy crop this Kharif season. The rest lies barren providing fodder to cattle due to an acute shortage of labourers problem, informed Deputy Director of Agriculture (DDA) of Kendrapada Praffula Kumar Mishra.
First dry spell and then leda pest attack destroyed the paddy crops. However whatever is left now cannot be harvested due to artificial shortage of labourers. In many cases, the farmers are seen engaging the whole family to cut crop and do other related works. Paddy harvesting machines are also used at Rs 2,800 to Rs 3,000 per an hour in the field. But number of harvesting machines is not sufficient.
The district has only 8-9 paddy harvesting machines; so the farmers depend on the harvesting machines coming from other areas and also from other States. But a week back, a controversy was going on among the local paddy harvesting machine owners and outside machine owners.
To earn a good amount in the harvesting season, the local paddy harvesting machine owners restricted the outside machines to enter into the district. later, the matter was brought to the knowledge of the district Collector and SP of Kendrapada. Meanwhile, the matter has been settled, informed Mishra, the DDA of Kendrapara.
Though, the State Government has been providing rice at a subsidised rate with a noble aim that nobody starves, but it is seen that the rice has an adverse impact on farming. If such a situation continues, in coming years a majority of farmers would not take interest to grow paddy for factors beyond their control, opined intellectual masses.
Recently, Excise Minister Damodar Rout, while attending a national seminar, stated that Re 1 rice scheme may need review if it has an adverse effect on society. It is time, we thought over it.