JEYPORE: State Government schemes for welfare of the poor seems to have yielded a lopsided result. While it has ameliorated the economic condition of the marginalised population, lack of any mechanical measure to replace the physical labour has landed the farming community at a receiving end in Koraput district.
The farmers particularly those cultivating paddy in Jeypore sub-division have been facing hardship in hiring the labourers to do the farm work in time for the past few years. With a flood of Government schemes in the tribal villages, subsidised food and other facilities, the labourers seem to have spurned the arduous farm work and prefer other jobs in around 60 per cent of the area. According to an estimate, 40,000 farmhands are required per day during rabi harvesting season from April third week to June first week. But the figure of available labour has been steadily dwindling during the period.
Earlier, while the small farmers managed to do their farm works with local labourers, now they have to hire them from outside. In such case also, they have to wait for several weeks to get required number of labourers. Taking advantage of the situation, some labourers are demanding daily wages which are more than developed States like Punjab and Haryana. “Besides giving chicken and liquor, we are forced to arrange vehicles for carrying the labourers to crop fields”, said J Ramesh, a farmer of Jaganthpur.
As the Government does not seem to be willing to set any norms for farm labour wages or come up with any scheme to provide machines to replace the physical labour, the farmers have started switching to other professions. According to reports, around 5,000 farmers give up cultivation or give their land on lease every year. “I sold all my land due to labour problem only,” said Susant Panda, a farmer of Ekamba village.
