Now, a bank to overcome farm labour shortage

Planning to cultivate paddy? Wondering where to look for farm hands? No worry. A group of social entrepreneurs in Palghat district of Kerala have joined hands to establish a labour bank.

This bank has a pool of over 30,000 rural womenfolk, who have gained some expertise in rice farming.

“The effort is aimed at economic upliftment of rural women coupled with tackling shortage of farm hands,” says Vinod Kumar, Chief Executive, Palakkad Coconut Producer Company Ltd (PCPCL) and member of Little Tree, a training centre established in partnership with Maithri, a Non-Governmental Organisation.

Little Tree is located at a distance of about 30 km from Palghat at Urkulam, Muthalamada.

“Basic training in rice cultivation is being imparted at this centre. It is a residential programme. Women from Palghat, Malappuram and Thrissur districts are being identified for the training. They are trained in batches of 60, and this includes field training/practical orientation,” Padmanabhan Bhaskaran, Vice-President, PCPCL, said.

The women are empowered under the government-supported Mahila Kisan Sashaktikaran Pariyojana (MKSP) scheme in Kerala, he said, and pointed out that the trained women do not go as farm labourers but contractors.

“These people do not work like daily labourers or coolie. They are contracted for a fee and this depends on the acreage of the field. The cost of transplanting an acre of paddy works out to ₹7,000-8,000 an acre when done manually. These women are trained in mechanised farming practices. This not only brings down labour cost but also in greater coverage of area. While they are assured of employment for at least 50 days in a season, the manpower requirement (for say transplantation) would just be 2-3 per acre and they can easily cover up to 3 acres in a day,” Vinod Kumar explained.

Little Tree is partnering with Green Army (said to be the first Labour Bank in India) is building labour bank to tide over paucity of farm labour.

COMMENT NOW