Labour shortage: Amritsar district farmers turn to mechanised rice seeding

Manmeet Gill

Amritsar, June 20

Despite the state government’s best efforts to promote the direct seeding of rice (DSR) technique among the state farmers over the years, an increasing number of farmers is turning to the mechanical transplanting method for rice, another alternative to manual transplanting.

The DSR is being touted as a water-conserving and less labour-intensive alterative as compared to manual transplanting. With the state facing shortage of migrant workers, especially for agriculture sector, most of the farmers are an inconvenienced lot.

Farmers complain migrant workers have stopped coming to the state for paddy transplantation as it is much more difficult than working in factories or cities. Even in villages, women and children constitute most of the workforce available for manual transplanting.

“Mechanical transplanting seems to a viable alternative as it does not require much labour. Moreover, large areas can be transplanted using a single machine within a short span of time,” said Kulveer Singh, a farmer, adding that at best five workers could transplant one acre on a single day. “On the other hand, even a walk-behind machine can easily transplant two acres per day and bigger machines can transplant up to 10 acres in a day,” he added.

The farmers stated that growing mat-type nursery, which is the foremost requirement for mechanical transplanting, was not that hard to master. “Controlling weeds in the fields sown with the DSR technique is much difficult,” said Harjap Singh, another farmer.

Agriculture Department officials said mechanical transplanting was growing popular even as farmers have to spend the same amount of money as on manual transplanting. “Many progressive farmers have bought these machines and these are available on rent. These farmers also grow their own nurseries and charge Rs 5,000 per acre,” said an official.