With weather showing much improvement and fields gathering knee deep water, farming in Bastar has picked up. While the division experienced crunch of male labourers, farmers, in their bid to take advantage of the weather, employed a large number of female workers to forge ahead of others in paddy transplantation.
A farmer of Usribeda in lohandiguda block Krishna Thakur said ‘‘Due to good rains in the beginning of the monsoon season fields are opulent with water and if the paddy transplantation is done quickly, by the grace of lord Indra good harvest can be reaped this year as well.’’
Favourable weather condition and spurt in farm activities can be seen in a number of village in lohandiguda block as female workers are employed in large numbers to complete paddy plantation quickly.
Another farmer Chandrabhan Kashyap says “In rural areas farmers are facing shortage of male labourers for farm work. To cope up with the problem farmers are employing large number of female labourers at a time to get their work done quickly.’’ According to him sensing the crunch of farm labourers, many farmers had given advance money to labourers booking them to complete the paddy plantation on contract basis and now reaping the benefit as many of farmers are left with no labourer to work in their fields.
Notably, Bastar division was witnessing incessant rains for better part of last fortnight as also fields had received water in access which hampered their farming activities very much. But during the last few days not only weather improved but water level in fields also receded making condition favourable for paddy transplantation which considered as main crop in rain fed Chhattisgarh.