The Hindu : Andhra Pradesh News : Labour shortage continues

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Sunday, Dec 02, 2007
ePaper

Andhra Pradesh

Andhra Pradesh

Labour shortage continues

Staff Reporter

Ryots queuing up for the few harvesters available

–Photo: Mohd. Arif

Machine at work: Harvester-machine on hire at work near Kondapur.

Sangareddy: Mechanised harvester combines have taken over the responsibility of harvesting, threshing and winnowing of the paddy in the district.

Even though over 30 per cent of kharif paddy has been harvested in the district, the farmers continue to face the problem of labour shortage at the crucial time. The shortage of labour has been attributed to the demand from sugarcane crushing and the employment guarantee programme.

Farmers point out that daily wage of a labourer could be around Rs. 120 to 150 per day and it could be higher in the urbanised mandals like Patancheru and Sangareddy. Farmers have been queuing up for the few harvesters available with some land lords here and also ordering the services from far away States like Punjab and Haryana.

During the last two financial years the Agricultural department through the AP Agro Industries Development Corporation has funded 100 reapers in the district which are smaller in size and could only function as a harvester and not as a combine. This year it will be concentrating on funding the pesticide control equipment like the sprayers.

Printer friendly page
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Andhra Pradesh