Lockdown: Hamirpur farmers in dire straits due to shortage of labourers

Farmers in Himachal Pradesh are struggling to cope with a lack of labourers during the harvest season that has come about right in the midst of the nationwide coronavirus lockdown. ETV Bharat has reached Gasauta village, nearly 7 km away from the district headquarter and asked the farmers about the challenges they are facing while harvesting of the Rabi crops.

Hamirpur (Himachal Pradesh): Amid novel coronavirus lockdown, the agriculture sector here is facing an acute shortage of labour these days.

Hamirpur, a farming-based district of Himachal, has 30,000 hectares of agricultural land and more than 76,000 farmers are dependent on the agriculture for their livelihood.

As this is the peak time for harvesting of wheat and sugarcane, peasant here need a number of daily earners to reap the crops.

Despite the centre revised its lockdown guidelines, providing exemptions to the agriculture sector, but the shipping of the daily wage earners still remains difficult.

ETV Bharat reached Gasauta village, nearly 7 km away from the district headquarter to enquire the farmers about the challenges they are facing while harvesting of the rabi crops.

Ravi Sharma, a native farmer said, "It is not possible to harvest the crop alone or even with the help of 2-3 people in the village. Everyone is worried about their own crop."

Farmland at Hamirpur village

Gasauta village Pradhan Darshana Devi said, "Since this is the peak time to harvest the rabi crops, farmers need a plenty of labourers. Amid lockdown no labourers can reach our village due to the unavailability of the transport system."

She further maintained that the local administration has assured the villagers that the problem of the labourers will be solved soon as they are now providing curfew passes to the workforce involved in the agricultural sector.

Speaking to ETV Bharat, Dr Kulddep Verma, Deputy Director in the Hamirpur agriculture department said, "Online curfew passes are being made available to agricultural labourers. The problems of farmers are also being resolved on priority basis. Agricultural curfew passes are being issued to labourers on WhatsApp number."

Meanwhile, farmers, who were already worried about a significant loss of crop after unseasonal rain and hailstorms in February and March have to now contend with labour shortage to harvest the remaining crop until and unless the government take some serious steps to curb the shortage of labourers.