Farming is labour oriented, no matter what latest technologies you have, you still need the labour.
Lets take two modern day examples,
open Field traditional farming scenario- we grow wheat, rice, moong, etc in our open field. we have all the latest technologies which includes, 55HP and 75hp tractors+ its implements, power sprayers, drip system etc.
but for wheat we cannot use drip, we have to go for traditional sprinkler irrigation for which we require at least two labour in each submersible for shifting the lines, a bore-well irrigates 20 acre of land, we cultivate 350 acre every year which has 18 bore wells
2 people each so that means 40 labour in that farm continuously for the whole year, then we have managers, watchman, tractor driver etc. point is that you cannot do farming without labour. I don’t know about other places but surely in my region their is a huge crises of man power.
polyhouse protected cultivation- it has foggers, drip, venturi for fertilizers etc. but still you need people to plant, you need people to spray insecticides/pesticides, reiki, harvest, pack etc.
you need man power everywhere.
due to govt. policies and many different reasons, their is no manpower available in this region.
If you are in the same stage, how are you coping up with this
Labour problem is a complex issue there is no single set of solution.
It depends on season, government policies, demand-supply, location, caste creed religion and social economic status of the employee And a whole bunch of other reasons, which are not under the control of the farmer.
The only way to go about is automate as much as possible.
there are various automations available for certain activities. if you are looking for something specific, lets find what can be done yea?
fortunately, my location is such, that i do not have transportation problems, labor problems etc.
the labor market is hardly 5 km from my farm, and there are thousands of people who come from near by areas to work on daily wage basis.
i also was always interested in automation, but at times, the whole setup cost is so high, that i can keep the same amount in bank, and get the same work done by labors on the interest i get
recently, i was getting my mango yard prepared for open farming, so i got carried away and thought why not buy a tractor myself? then again i though its foolishness, when i can rent services on a reasonable rates.
we have a society of of about 80 farmers here, and we have about 15 various high tech machinery and tools. eletrostatic sprayers, tractors with various attachments, harvesting machines etc. so we plan and book the machines and use them when needed.
same way is for labor. we are working out a centralized system for our society based on our needs.
so apart from automation, there are various methods to tackle the labor problem we all are facing.
hi aman
i do have experience in plantation,orchard,paddy & vegetable,fish ,Banana cultivation.
Labour problem is every where,we pay Rs 200/- for 4 hour work in odisha,u cant change it neither if ur not a working farmer u need to depend on manpower always.
Agriculture have become hiteck,example paddy or wheat
U hire a tractor to have dry plough,use a rotavator for levelling or puddling,use a transplanter for transplanting or use a seed drum for broadcasting pre-germinated seeds, soon after transplanting apply hervicide[grass supressing] mixed with sand than rain will take care of plant,after paddy ready use a rice cutting machine,or harvester to harvest and plan to sale away crop immidiately without storing,this will lessen manpower requirement,never buy machine always hire.
if not safest agro venture is eucalyptus [clone] plantation,watch for 1 year than u reap for 10-15 yrs without any further investment,provided u have buyer ie builder for roof casting frame or paper industries,OR
have a poly house earn handsomely pay handsomely.
unity is always helpful to fight problems and find solutions.
unfortunately in my area, i don’t see anything happening as such.
anup,
i have mostly all the equipments required for open field farming, but i still need labour. explained earlier in the post.
automation is one thing, m more interested in understanding the psychology of the labour and the their driving forces, i see govt policies as the major problem for all of us farmers, lets list out some more.
aman
u r right,govt for vote banks distributing rice at re 1/- per kg,so the labour do not want to do hard work,they have choice of working or not,but we people having land are compelled to cultivate,so we can only think of having mechanised agro venture or some profitable venture like fish with paddy,fish with horticulture which will require less labour,only 2 permannent manpower will do,and there is no time constraint.
automation is a good option, but the point here is at what cost ?
its all a big game anupam, they turn towards these people only at the time of elections but they do not think the after effects of these things, today as compared to old times man power has become lazy, they simply do not want to work, rates have gone high as anything but the productivity is decreasing at even faster rate.
please share about the ventures that you were talking about, paddy/horticulture and fish ?
Abhi
I agree with u I have also thought of similar option and surprisingly found some young boys of the locality came forward to form a group,I with few like minded farmer and few influential person of the locality called a village level meeting,we agreed to have a Vegetable grower soceity and jointly we will cultivate,soceity will have all equipment will be rented to members to grow & get benefit given by Govt ,which will be passed through soceity,now govt deals directly with village group,no more our running to their offices.I ll get u in detail later on
Why cant you use drip ventury for drenching? Like we give fertilizers, you can pass the chemical agents.
I am asking out of curiosity and have not tried it myself.
we use method of profit sharing with labour in our area.
land is ours and they maintain and what ever we get is shared in percentage.
we do this for our cotton, ground nut etc…
