Difficulties in deploying harvesting machines and engaging of farmhands for manual harvesting as an alternative is said to have pushed a section of marginal farmers into a tight corner.
Prior to the mechanisation of agricultural operations in the State, marginal farmers, particularly those having less than an acre of land, did not find it difficult to carry out harvesting.
The local farmhands, majority of them holding an acre or less area of cultivable lands in their names in the same locality, would complete harvesting of crops raised in such type of landholdings first.
At some places, they would put on hold harvesting in a bigger landholding citing that the crop raised in a smaller area was to be harvested immediately to avoid loss for the marginal cultivator.
“During this period farmers with medium landholding had to undergo an agonising wait for farmhands to complete the harvesting process”, pointed out a progressive farmer, L.Renganathan of Tiruvarur.
Things have changed after the steady mechanisation of agricultural operations where the role of farmhands was brought down considerably. Mechanisation of tilling, sowing of seeds, transplantation, weeding, and harvesting has virtually kept a major chunk of farmhands off the fields.
However, shrinking employment opportunities in agriculture sector due to mechanisation did not snowball into major crisis in the delta districts, thanks to the implementation of rural employment guarantee scheme, official sources said.
But now, according to G. Selvam of Pudur near Tiruvarur, some of the marginal farmers who wish to take up harvesting manually are finding it difficult to comply with the demands put forth by farmhands.
“They demand ₹250 and above per day with snacks and tea in the morning and afternoon citing the amount of wage disbursed to them if they get `jobs’ under MNREGS. Some of them even demand lunch,” he added.
The justification of their demand for higher wages by comparing the ‘nature of work’ and the ‘process’ they used to adopt to complete the work allotted to them under MNREGS scheme rules has really annoyed the farmers, he added.
Though the number of farmers having landholding of less than an acre would not be considerably high in the Delta districts, such category of landholdings do exist in a scattered manner in both Thanjavur and Tiruvarur districts.
Generally, such farmers plan their cultivation and harvest coinciding with the period of cultivation opted by ryots of nearby fields. When it comes to harvesting, bigger machines are deployed on consecutive days.
But, this time, Mr. Selvam pointed out that Gall Midge and other pests attacks in some places such as Pudur had necessitated quick and timely harvest forcing the ryots of affected fields not to wait till the completion of harvest in the neighbouring fields. Thus, their attempt to complete the harvest manually met a dead-end in view of the demands put forth by the farmhands, he lamented.
A progressive farmer, S.Sundaram of Maharajapuram near Thirukattupalli, suggested that the State government should encourage farmers or farmers groups to purchase lightweight mini-paddy or medium size harvesters that were available in the global market, by extending subsidies or through loans with back-ended subsidy.
This would help farmers to avoid production loss in view of delayed harvesting due to various factors, he pointed out.