Why such severe agricultural labour shortage in kerala and tamilnadu

we find it extremely difficult to get or source agricultural labour in kerala and tamil nadu.in tamilnadu construction activities have become lucrative than agriculture and so most of the labour has been diverted from agriculture.in kerala we find it extremely difficult to get or source local labour for Rs one hundred and fifty per day.With the result that we have to import bengalis biharis,assamese jharkhand residents who are willing to work at very cheap conditions and rates. a local keralite wil not work for less than four hundred and fifty per day failing which he will go away to gulf.Why so much difficulty.Especially in plantations of rubber tea coffee we find it very difficult to source local labour at reasonable rates with the result that cost of cultivation shoots up and renders cultivation often unviable.why government has done nothing about this.Most plantations of tea in south india have gone bankrupt.This has become a chronic serious problem for more than three years now

These are going to do slavery (Just Obeying Bosses) & digging their graveyards at Pardesh.
One fine day the survivors may come, by that time others will be the owners of their own lands and again they forced to go for slavery till their end.
Serving mother earth is nothing but serving for you and sustaining for their better feature.

It applicable to those who are migrating to urban area too, if all earn money than who has to grow food for these earners? Will all can eat money? No. only food is eatable to live, not money. Earning a little amount in our own land is more than prestigious than earning handsome SALARY which cannot be saved up to end of the month.

Dear Uday/Swamy,

The problem has nothing to do with government.

Its mostly a local economic demand/supply factor.

Today Kerala enjoys highest per capital income and the states mentioned in the post have low per capita income. So Rs450 is common for a Keralite and Rs200 common for other states. In AP, its is 250 to 300.

The same situation exists not only in agriculture but also in all other industries.

For instance, heavy engineering companies like L&T, Steel, mining, auto companies used to blame IT companies for poaching their engineers to do accounting for american/european customer credit card bills. How can a government interfere here?
How come swadeshi comes into picture here ?

Its just opportunity at hand and maximize it for your self. No long term plan.

Who is thinking over long term say 10 years to 30 years when even company CEOs/chairmans are bothered about quaterly results.

There is even no institutes to teach aim of life…

Coming to bankruptcy of tea estates in south india, you cannot alone blame labour problem as people didnt stopped drinking tea.

You have to utilize local services and migrant people services in appropriate proportion to maximize ur returns. Going blindly with migrant people will in most cases backfires.

Good luck…
rajsekhar

I am not sure why people always point at labor shortages. I believe that farming like any other occupation is a skilled area and does require wages commensurate with other areas. Why would we expect folks to work at 100-150 rs per day ( hard physical work in hot sun) and pay them less than some folks pay the daily driver/cook/cleaner?

Shiv

This is a chronic problem and we have been a victim of it as well. Feel free to read out posting on it and user comments at :

techie2aggie.blogspot.com/2011/1 … lture.html

The main problem in Tamilnadu for agricultural labour shortage is due to govt. policies.
People do very minimum work under NREGS jobs and at time people don’t go to the work site at all . There is no quantum of work to be completed in a day. Add to this the low cost provision supplies available at ration shops . Add to this the union mentality of the labourers. For example 6 ladies used to transplant rice seedlings in one third of an acre in a day. Now they demand 10 ladies to be present to complete the work. Even if one or two doesn’t show up for the work , one can not reduce the wages but should give wages for the 10 ladies which will be shared by the ladies who worked. If one objects to this , nobody will come to work in his/her farm anymore. Such arm twisting methods make farming a non-lucrative job.

This is a practical problem I am facing, and I have bought a drum seeder and finger weeder so as to eliminate dependance on farm labour.
For harvest we are already hiring combine harvesters and for tilling we hire tractors / power tillers . And this works out cheaper too .

Gents,
Let us not mix up agricultural sector with others
Agriculture revenue is minimal in nature, and in many cases not even breakeven.
Does the Agriculturist get the better or increased price for their produce, incremental increase?
Even see the Govt buying price of various commodities
Whereas the agricultural labour demanding wages is disproportionate, partly due to Govt is assuring minimum 100 days work scheme and others, (What they do? what kind of result they have produced is in question?)
Also wages increase in other sector cause partial migration.
Therefore labour problem is intensive in many parts of India, it is time Govt agencies must look in to alleviate the situation.
Free electricity scheme is there, now there is no electricity in almost whole of TN, monsoon failing in TN, how anyone can expect a increased wage for the labour.

Regards, Siva

Free electricity is not available for every one.
Those who have registered with TNEB decades ago are still awaiting connection.
Those who have already got, are suffering from no voltage / low voltage , coil burning etc.
Of late agriculture has taken a beating from all sides.

There was a spot report in Eenadu telugu daily (during Jan 2013) on Drum Seeder advantages.

Highlights:
[list]far less labour charges
[
]30% less water requirement[/ul]

Note: The report attached is in telugu - which may not be readable to non-telugu friends.[/*:m][/list:u]
seeder.pdf (110 KB)