Suresh Yadav, of Sangrampur VDC, has four bighas of land, where he mostly grows paddy. He has been doing rounds of about half a dozen villages in his vicinity to look for the laborers for the paddy plantation-- but to no avail. [break]
Most of the youths of the district go to the Indian cities in Hariyana, Punjab , Delhi, Maharastra, among others, to take up the menial jobs after celebrating Holi festival , known as the festival of colors, which generally falls on the second week of March.
As per the District Agriculture Development Office (DADO), so far, the paddy has been planted only in 25 percent of the total 50 thousand hectares of arable land in the district.
Raj Narayan Yadav, the chief at the DADO, said that the cost of the laborers have skyrocketed due to a high demand and low supply.
Even as the farmers are willing to pay higher price, the laborers are not easily available at this pick hours as all the farmers are desperate to complete the plantation before the monsoon ends.
Given the situation, the farmers cannot but mobilize their family members.
"There is sufficient water in the field. But we don´t find laborers," complained Ramdev Raut, a farmer from Sangrampur. He also informed that the farmers were competing to get hold of a few laborers available in the villages.
Krishna Chaudhary, a farmer from Bairiya Garuda, said that the labor shortage has been a perennial problem as more and more youths are leaving the districts for India or aboard in search of the greener pasture.
According to Bramha Dev Yadav, of Madanpur Baluwa, a farm worker is paid from 200 to 250 rupees per day but a laborer can earn more than 500 rupees a day in India.
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