The Hindu : Andhra Pradesh News : Farm sector undergoing a sea change in Warangal

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, Nov 07, 2007
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Andhra Pradesh

Andhra Pradesh

Farm sector undergoing a sea change in Warangal

Gollapudi Srinivasa Rao

Farmers opt for mango as it requires less maintenance

WARANGAL: The agriculture sector appears to be heading for crisis if the fast changing pattern of cultivation is any indication.

The farmers are increasingly opting for raising mango gardens owing to severe shortage of labour and increased wages.

The State Bank of India, Wardhannapet branch, alone extended loans to more than 250 farmers to raise mango garden in an extent of over 1,500 acres.

As the mango garden requires less maintenance, according to G. Venkateswarlu, a farmer of Ramaram village, it is easy managing the labour. “The price for agricultural produce is not remunerative to pass on some of it to labour.

A woman labour paid Rs. 40 per day until recently is now demanding Rs. 90 per day.

As the labourers are earning more money under the National Rural Employment Guarantee (NREG) scheme, they are demanding the same from farmers too,” he said, describing it as too much.

Restricting NREG to lean periods of agricultural operations would have been helpful to both farming and wage earners.

D. Jagadish, SBI Wardhannapet manager, said: There are farmers who stopped cultivation altogether and opted for mango orchards in 30 to 80 acre stretches, he said.

Though predominantly, the farmers in the district grow paddy, cotton and chilly, the production of maize, pulses and oil seeds is also considerable, which is now likely to come down drastically.

Another contributing factor being talked about in rural areas is people from urban areas are buying land considering it an investment.

They are getting it fenced and planting mango trees, waiting for the land price to get manifold.

Wage structure

As such there is no fixed wage structure for agricultural labour. Until recently, the labourers were at the receiving end.

But, slowly they gained the bargaining power due to various reasons.

According to Sankineni Jayaveer Rao, former seed certification officer, many people who were hitherto full-time labourers are cultivating their own lands and that too more efficiently and profitably - thanks to BT cotton and the good pricing of the chillies in recent times.

Migration of some of the marginal farmers to cities and towns, leaving their small holdings in the hands of new labour turned farmers is yet another factor adding to the shortage of labour force.

And a scenario is certainly emerging where in agriculture is going to be some what remunerative irrespective of the size of the holding only if it is done by the farmer and his family contributing the work force, he observed.

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