Bihar farmers facing serious labour crunch due to lockdown

Relaxation in curbs for farm workers has not resulted in a solution

Patna: The prolonged llockdown due to COVID-19 has posed a serious problem for farmers in Bihar, as it has restricted their movement and led to a shortage of labourers to harvest their ripe Rabi crops.

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The situation has not improved despite the government announcing lifting of curbs in the movement of farm workers.

Earlier, the government lifted restrictions on movements of farmers and labourers for work in fields and gave necessary directions to the District Magistrates and other officials. It also asked farmers and labourers to take required precautions while working in the fields, in view of the spread of COVID-19.

“As this is the harvest season of rabi crops, the farmers and agricultural labourers are required to go to their fields for harvesting…they should go and do their work but following social distancing and taking all necessary precautions”, said Chief Minister Nitish Kumar.

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The Bihar Agriculture Department also issued advertisements in local newspapers about several dos and don’ts for famers and labourers during harvesting and threshing of standing ripened crops.

With the rabi crops ripened in agricultural fields, the farmers of the State appear a worried lot as “letting the ripened crops to stay for a longer time in the field is fraught with too many risks like damage of crops in fire supported by strong westerly winds blowing these days”.

“It also damages shine from the grains,” they said.

“It will be good if we can harvest our crops in the next few days; otherwise, the strong westerly winds and hailstorms from time to time would damage the crops”, Satish Kumar, a farmer of Punpun block in Patna district, told The Hindu over phone, while adding, “the quality of grains too would be impacted”.

The farmers also face the crisis of finding operators for combined harvesters that speed up the process of harvesting and thrashing of crops.

“We normally hire such operators from Punjab, Haryana or neighbouring States like Uttar Pradesh but due to lockdown they too are unable to come here”, Rajesh Singh, a farmer from from Sindhaulia of Gopalganj district, said.

State Agricultural Secretary N. Saravana Kumar recently announced that all such harvester drivers and operators coming from other States or districts would be issued passes by their respective District Magistrates office for their movement.

“There will be no constraints for farmers in harvesting their rabi crops”, he asserted.

However, several marginal and farmers with several acres of farmland The Hindu spoke to on Saturday rue the crisis of agricultural labourers and harvest operators due to the 21-day lockdown.

“Even we cannot move about for fear of COVID-19 disease or the police…nobody wants to listen to us in remote villages…how can the poor labourers and drivers or operators move about?”, asked Rameshwar Yadav, a farmer of Bidupur in Vaishali district.

“The migrants labourers who have recently come to their home State from outside are so scared that they don’t want to work in the field for harvesting”, he added.

More than 1.80 lakh migrants recently reached their home in different parts of the State from Delhi and other areas.

Ab upper wale ka hi bharosa hai (now only God can save us)”, said Rameshwar’s brother Dhananjay, also a marginal farmer.

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