GUNTUR: Deficit rainfall and lack of tobacco cultivation are forcing 30 farmer families from Machayapalem of Bellamkonda mandal to leave for Godavari and Nellore districts every year in search of livelihood.
These farmers, whose expertise lie in growing tobacco, go to the above-mentioned districts every year from December to March. During these months, their children are forced to stop going to schools as they accompany their parents to places they migrate to.
Tenant farmer Gunti Samuel says he goes to Nellore to work on contract basis for three months. He says the farmers who hired him for tobacco curing provide his family with toddy leaves and bamboos to erect temporary thatched houses near the fields for them to stay.
Every family gets Rs 45,000 for 90 days’ work in 10 acres of tobacco field, he says, adding he, his wife Nagamma, 13-year-old Kavita, 11-year-old Mounica work in the fields to earn the said contract amount.
Kavita and Mounica are students of Classes 7 and 6 in a government school at Machayapalem village. They haven’t been able to attend school for a few months now.
Samuel says he had leased his two-acre land in his village a decade ago to grow tobacco. As there was no tobacco cultivation in the district, he is forced to temporarily migrate to Nellore, Kandukuru of Prakasam, and other places.
There are many others like him. Farmer-turned-worker Somabathini Moshe says that he and his relatives had gone to Buttaigudem, Koyyalagudem, Ramannapalem of West Godavari district as the farmers there grew tobacco on thousands of acres in and around Kamavarapukota and Devarapalli mandals.
The farmers are ready to give curing work on contract basis, but pay less than the Nellore district farmers, he explains.
Left with little choice to provide for his family, he prefers to go to West Godavari district. He says 30, of 60 families that live in his colony, go to West and East Godavari in search for work.
“Lack of alternative livelihood and skill development resources in Bellamkonda mandal is the reason why we go to other districts.”These ryots temporarily migrate every year from December to March. From May, they get work in Bellamkonda but are paid a meagre `200 per day. Somabathini says the contractors show less interest to give work to women in the fields, forcing him and his family to work on contract basis.
Other migrant workers Gadipudi Samuel, his wife Meramma, Koteswaramma, Jagadesh, Sowamma and others generally go to Nellore, East and West Godavari. Some even find work in Mysore’s tobacco fields.
According to available information, the crop is cultivated in 65,000 hectares in light soil, and 30,000 hectares in black soil in Prakasam and Nellore districts. These districts are suitable for growing good quality tobacco as a semi-monsoon crop, people in the know say.