The shortage of migrant labour for paddy transplantation in Punjab has started telling on the symbiotic relationship between farmers and labourers, with the money factor apparently driving a wedge between them. The strain in relations came to the fore in Herike village on Sunday when the farming class announced a social boycott of labourers for seeking enhanced rates for trasplanting paddy. Though the village sarpanch admitted that he had asked...

Facing an acute shortage of migrant labourers for paddy plantation, the peasants of Punjab Thursday demanded to run special rains from Bihar to enable labourers reach Punjab. The paddy season in Punjab has started today. However the paddy plantation is expected to be delayed due to shortage of farm hands. Thousands of labourers reach Punjab every year for paddy plantation to make fast buck. The decline in migrant labourers has been...

Punjab farmers have been struck a double blow on the eve of the paddy transplantation season, which starts tomorrow. Reliant on migrant labour to transplant paddy on 26 lakh hectares, they are witnessing a few arrivals on trains coming in from Uttar Pradesh and Bihar. Farmers also do not have the option of falling back on mechanised transplantation with the experiment launched with full fanfare by the state government last...

Dr U Jaikumaran is breathless with excitement over the phone. “The next five days will be hectic and crucial in our war against hunger. We have to transplant rice on 300 acres in just five days.” Dr Jaikumaran, a professor at the Kerala Agriculture University (KAU), has been building a Food Security Army (FSA) – men and women in green uniforms organised into nine regiments and 24 battalions – who are...