Corona pushes Haryana agriculture back by 50 years, farmers begin Dangwara farming

The combined effect of the disaster by Corona and the of the lockdown have forced farmers to use methods that were used half a century ago. Due to the non-availability of labourers for cutting their harvest, many farmers have been forced by circumstances into adopting the practice of Dangwara farming, which had been in vogue around 50 years ago.

Rohtak (Haryana):The standing crop which is ready to be harvested in the lush fields of Haryana was at the brink of getting destroyed due to the impact of the Corona pandemic. Both the state government and farmers were worried about the destruction of their ripe crop, however, to combat the situation the farmers decided to adopt their old practice of cutting the crop. The practice called Dangwara which was in vogue in Haryana 50 years ago.

What is Dangwara?

Dangwara is an old practice, which was prevalent in Haryana, where people used to help each other in the spirit of social brotherhood, especially in agricultural activities. At that time too, the supply of labour was almost non-existent so farmers used to lend each other their help in the harvest. In this form of agriculture members of one family used to help the other family in harvesting the crop. First, the produce of one farmer was harvested, after that everyone used to harvest the produce of the other farmer together. This was known as Dangwara lena (to take dangwara) and Dangwara dena (to give dangwara), this method had been used a lot earlier but since the last 5 decades the easy availability of machines and cheap availability of labour had seen the existence of dangwara lost in the flow of capitalism, but like many other things, the lockdown has breathed life into the discarded agricultural practice.

The farmers from Rohtak district in Haryana are using the same old practice of Dangwara to harvest their fields. The advantage here clearly is that not only does everyone’s crop gets harvested, no one suffers from needless loss too.

"Farm labour was short in supply, even those labourers who are present are choosing social distancing and not coming out to work, as a result, the farmers have all come together and have begun the Dangwara farming", said Dinesh, a farmer.

Another elderly farmer said that dangwara farming was the mode of operation in Haryana, many years back as that time labour was scarcely available. Then such farmers used to help each other. Due to the lockdown, once again we have to resort to dangwara, so that our crop is not spoiled in the fields without labourers.

Former Chief Minister Bhupendra Singh's appeal:

Former Chief Minister and the leader of opposition in the Haryana state assembly Bhupinder Singh Hooda had already appealed to the farmers to adopt Dangwara in the face of acute labour shortage in the state. He had said that in this period of pandemic farmers should help each other in harvesting and storing the crop efficiently because due to the lockdown both machinery and labour is short on supply.