Semi-mechanisation invites problems to Morang’s paddy farmers

By Hari Prasad Koirala

Urlabari, Nov. 9: Farmers in Morang are facing more problems due to semi-mechanisation in the agricultural sector.  

Young people have migrated to India after failing to get jobs throughout the year in the agricultural sector. Due to a lack of workers at the time of harvesting paddy, the farmers of southern Morang are now waiting for machines for their turn to harvest paddy.

Farmers who once used to own four or five pairs of oxen to plough the fields, now have tractors. However, tractors are used only for ploughing fields.

Young people from Santhal, Rishidev and Bantar communities who used to work as agricultural labourers all year round for livelihood have fled the villages after failing to get their traditional jobs.  They have gone to Punjab and Haryana in India for work. 

Technology for ploughing has been used widely, but the technology for planting crops is still not widely available. 

The use of machines for harvesting paddy in small fields was also not successful. Due to the lack of machines for entire agriculture work, farmers still depend on workers.

Farmers of Kanepokhari, Sunawarshi, Rangeli and Ratuwamai are waiting for the harvester (a big machine for harvesting rice) to harvest paddy as there are no agricultural labourers in villages. 

Binod Chaudhary of Tandi of Chitwan, who came with two harvesters after Tihar in Kanepokhari Rural Municiplaity-3 of Morang, is harvesting paddy in the village turn by turn. 

Chaudhary said that it was too late for farmers to plant mustard due to the delay in harvesting paddy in the absence of the required number of harvesters in the rural municipality.

He said that he was taking Rs. 7,000 as fare for using the harvester machine for an hour.

At this time, four harvesters from Birgunj have also arrived in Morang to harvest paddy.

Mohan Prasad Pokhrel, who waited for his turn for five to six days to harvest paddy, said that using a harvester was cheaper and faster than using human labourers to harvest paddy.

He, however, said that it has been too late to harvest paddy due to the unavailability of machines in the rural municipality. Still, harvesters have become a boon for the farmers when there is a shortage of agricultural workers, he said.

Not only Pokhrel, but many other farmers of the village are waiting for their turn to harvest paddy.

Naveen Dahal said that he was not expecting that his turn would come in seven days. 

Dahal said that farmers were hit hard by the lack of full mechanisation in agriculture during the harvesting season. 

If all the techniques of ploughing, planting and harvesting rice are not readily available, the paddy fields will be left barren, he said.

Hemchandra Bhandari, who brought the harvester to harvest the paddy of his 5-bigha field, said, “I had called the machine of Binod Chaudhary for me. However, Chaudhary did not get time to harvest the rice of the farmers of his village (Chitwan).”

According to machine owner Chaudhary, even if the two machines are running all day, it still takes 8-10 days to complete the paddy harvesting in the village. 

According to him, the machine takes one hour and 20 minutes to harvest paddy of one bigha of land. 

Leela Nath Shrestha, a farmer of Ratuwamai Municipality-5, said that a small machine which was brought to harvest his paddy was being used across the village.

“People are in a hurry to harvest paddy and to plant mustard. Most of the farmers' rice is still in the field,” he said.

He said that despite the increase in production, the lack of manpower has been a challenge to harvest agricultural products.