CUTTACK: It’s harvest time for winter crops. Else, farmers will end up with heavy losses. Acute labour shortage due to lockdown has already brought troubled times for farmers of Damapada in Cuttack dstrict. But they are not the ones to give up. Faced with government-imposed norms like social distancing and shortage of labour, the Damapada farmers have taken the help of neighbours to carry on their harvesting as well as post harvesting work while maintaining social-distancing to keep the virus at bay.
Hundreds of farmers of Karabara, Mukundapur, Charigheria, Ramachandrapur and Similipur villages in the block depend on groundnut cultivation for livelihood. During harvesting time in April, they dig up groundnut plants and carry crops in tractors and trolleys from their farmlands to threshing floors near their houses where the pods and vines are dried, cleaned and separated.
Since it is a labour intensive operation, shortage of labour is often experienced during peak harvesting seasons which is why farmers involve their family members. However, with lockdown period on, the groundnut farmers initially faced tough time to carry their crop to threshing floor in absence of tractors and trolleys.
To overcome the problems of labour shortage and transportation unavailability, the farmers have taken up harvesting process at their farmland involving family members as well as neighbours. “Since I could not transport crops to my threshing floor, I took help of my neighbouring farmer family’s help and started harvesting. We adhere to the guideline to prevent the spread of coronavirus and maintain at least two meter distance from each other while harvesting groundnut,” said a farmer Raghab Behera.
While, the government is creating massive awareness for maintaining social distancing, the initiatives of these farmers will no doubt be a noble example for others in urban areas where people are violating social distancing, mostly at market places.