Click to play videoChandigarh: Jarnail Singh is a worried farmer. It’s the paddy season and he needs labourers to plant crops but this time there's an acute shortage of farm workers in Punjab.
The Central government has implemented the National Rural Employment Guarantee scheme in Bihar and labourers in the state no longer want to move to Punjab.
As a result labour rate in Punjab has shot up. The rate was Rs 700 for sowing per acre—it’s Rs 1200-1500 per acre now. Jarnail says even farm owners have to get down to sowing corps themselves.
Punjab's labor scenario changed when local farm labourers moved to industries which paid them better. Now seeing the high rates being offered for paddy plantations these laborers are moving back
“Due to the shortage of migratory labor and handsome income we have again come to the fields and agreed to work for the land owners," said farm labourer Gurdeep Singh.
Agriculture officers agree that the labor problem is turning acute for Punjab. The Punjab government has compounded the problem by banning early transplantation of paddy—move it says is intended to conserve water.
However, the Bihar government is delighted that labour no longer needs to travel away from home. Bihar Agriculture Minister A N Singh called it a positive development.
Bihar’s gain has become a loss for farmers in Punjab though.
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