The harvesting of sugarcane in Jajpur district has been badly hampered for the last two days as daily labourers, usually engaged in the harvesting job, have been diverted for the preparatory work ahead of Chief Minister’s visit to the town on Sunday.
Nearly 3,000 labourers hired not only from the district but also outside are engaged in cleaning roads connecting national highway to Kuakhia and district headquarters town of Jajpur.
Every year, thousands of farmhands are hired from Mayurbhanj, Keonjhar, Bhadrak and Dhenkanal districts, particularly for sugarcane harvesting by big farmers of this district.
“Every year, landlord Jugal comes to our village and hires hundreds of daily labourers like me to engage them in sugarcane harvesting work. While we were working in the sugarcane field on Friday, a contractor went to our landlord and forced him to spare us for road repairs for the Chief Minister’s visit,” said 26-year-old Rebati, a daily wager, hired from Rairangapur in Mayurbhanj district. He is working on the Kuakhia-Jajpur road stretch.
The farmhands are hired every year from the district and outside to speed up the harvesting work and prevent the sugarcane from drying. Dry sugarcane yields less and hence the farmers need to be careful in harvesting it at the right time. A two-day delay could lead to drying of the cane,” said Raghunath Jena, a lead farmer. “Our yield will be affected badly amounting to net loss, due to late harvesting,” he added.