Worried over the acute shortage of farm labour to work their fields, farmers in Punjab are offering incentives such as mobiles, liquor and toiletries to attract migrant workers from Bihar and Uttar Pradesh.
Harried farm owners are flocking railway stations in a bid to “win over” migrants arriving from the Hindi-speaking States.
Labour shortage in Punjab’s farms has assumed chronic proportions in recent years. Migrant farmhands from the poorer states of North India who had spurred the the agricultural prosperity in Punjab are coming in fewer numbers and as the paddy cultivation gets under way in India’s bread bowl State.
For, it’s a double whammy. Labour costs per acre have skyrocketed, and yet fewer farmhands are coming in. Free food, lodging, soap, oil and ration — at times even country-made liquor and mobile phones — to woo labourers are not enough to lure, but they are certainly doing the trick, at least for now. According to Ajit Rangnekar, the Dean of the Indian School of Business (ISB), the silver lining behind the “labour crisis” in Punjab is hard to ignore.
“This perennial crisis could well result in a new mechanised revolution of sorts in Punjab involving farmers with both medium and large land holdings. The progressive Punjab farmer is already looking at options that could bring down his dependence on migrant labourers for farm cultivation as a durable choice,” he said in a chat with Deccan Herald. But for now, the picture is grim. Farmers say they are paying through the nose to keep the farm labourers in good cheer.
“This year, the migrant labor is charging anywhere between Rs 1,600 and Rs 1,800 per acre for sowing paddy, up Rs 400 over the last season. Free add-ons of lodging et al add up to more cost. Even at these rates, there aren’t many migrants who could help matters,” Jagtar Singh, a farmer said.
Farmers, even officials and experts, attribute the ongoing recurrent labour crisis to a “usual suspect” – Bihar’s growth trajectory that’s increasingly being instrumental to hold back sons of soil from migrating to bread bowl states of Punjab and Haryana. Bihar has recorded a 13 per cent growth rate, the highest in the country. The Centrally sponsored job guarantee scheme in the state has provided work options at the doorstep at competitive rates. Bihar’s advantage is Punjab’s bane, at least when it comes to farm labourer.