During the labor crisis, students are cutting farmers’ paddy, earning extra income
Photo Collected
Titon Hasan, Nazmul Hossain and Alamgir Hossain—none of them farmers; They are students of different schools and colleges. In addition to studies, they have come down to the fields due to the labor crisis during the paddy harvesting season. On the one hand, he is standing by the farmer in the labor crisis by cutting the paddy of the land, and on the other hand, he is earning some extra income in his free time.
About 50 percent of ripe paddy is still in the field in six upazilas of Jhenaidah. Farmers could not survive. Farmers are forced to leave ripe paddy in the field due to rain and labor shortage. At such a time, the school going students of farmers’ families in Harinakundu Upazila of the district are helping the farmers to solve the labor crisis by harvesting paddy. Both students and farmers are benefiting from this.
বিজ্ঞাপন
Rabiul Islam, a farmer of local Ghordah village, said that he has one and a half bigha of paddy land next to the Kapahatiya river. Paddy is ready to harvest four to five days earlier. But could not cut due to lack of workers. It would have been dangerous if the rain started again at any moment. Workers could not be found even after searching the surrounding villages. Later the school and college going boys of the village came forward. After talking with them, he made a deal of 5 thousand rupees for tying hay bales and stacking cut rice. Four of them finished the job in one afternoon.
Khaibar Ali, another farmer of the same village, said that it is a matter of luck to get workers as the rice ripens in all the fields. Workers are demanding higher wages. Each worker has to pay Tk 1,100 to Tk 1,200 with three meals a day. Still workers are not available. During the crisis, the school-college going boys of the area have started harvesting paddy under contract. It has benefited them a lot.
বিজ্ঞাপন
Titon Hasan, a 10th class student of Valki Secondary School, who was tying hay bales on the land of Rahim Mandal in the area, said that he is a son of a farmer family. Usually hangs out with friends in the afternoon. Seeing the lack of workers during the harvest season, some of them decided to work in the fields. After that they did the work of some farmers.
Nazmul Haque, an eighth grade student of the same school, said that since he was a child of a farming family, he was used to such work. There is no difficulty in working for this. Things are being done with joy together with friends.
According to the information of the Jhenaidah office of the Department of Agricultural Extension, Boro rice has been cultivated in 90 thousand 291 hectares of land in the district this year. Despite some difficulties due to shortage of electricity and fuel, the production of paddy this season has been good.
Jhenaidah Deputy Director of Agricultural Extension Department. Kamruzzaman said, farmers have started harvesting paddy almost two weeks ago. But about 50 percent of the ripe paddy is still in the field. A few days ago, due to rains, farmers delayed harvesting and waited for better weather. Now due to paddy ripening all over the district, intense competition for labor has been created. Many are demanding higher wages.
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