No workers to pick cotton

Shortage of agriculture labour hit the cotton picking and hundreds acre of cotton fields are seen with plants full of cotton bolls with flowering in the villages in the Adilabad district of Telangana.

The cotton bolls are remained in the agriculture field and being dropped due to inordinate delay in picking.

There is a huge demand for agriculture labour for cotton picking and farmers engaging them offering extra money. The price will go up Rs 7 per kg cotton picking based on demand and price increases from first picking to last picking.     

Recently, two farmers fought over taking labourers with them for cotton picking at Adilabad railway station. Farmers provide free transportation to the agriculture labor and sometimes even free lunch. These Maharashtra labourers come for cotton picking in mostly bordering mandals in Nirmal and Adilabad divisions.  

A farmer Jangil Dashrath of Ichoda said Rs 6 per kg is paying for cotton picking comes to Rs 6,000 if yield is 10 quintals cotton in one acre land and observed that there was huge demand for the laborers due to their shortage.

He said they engaged Maharashtra labour as there was huge demand for labourers for cotton picking as cotton crop reached harvesting stage at a same time in the Agriculture fields in the villages.

Farmer L.T Chandrakanth Reddy of Bellur in Jainad mandal said it was seen farmers waiting at bus stations and Adilabad railway station for the Agriculture labor arriving from bordering Maharashtra every cotton season for cotton picking and this was every day activity for some of the farmers due to shortage of labor.

He said total 20,000 laborers come in season peak to Adilabad division alone from the bordering Maharashtra for cotton picking every season and added that every day nearly 500 labourers come to Adilabad and some of them go to their villages for some days and again come back and this migration will begin in October and will go on till March every year. 

Majority of the farmers do not get profits due to high labor charges, low cotton price in the market and increased investments costs in cotton cultivation, pest attack and low yield due to prolonged dry spell. Each laborer picks 60-70 kg per day and earning an average Rs 350.

One can find nearly 100 labourers of Maharashtra in each major village in Tasmi, Talamadugu, Bela, Jainad and Adilabad mandals during cotton season and their numbers will decrease gradually from January onward.

The local agriculture labourer will not work during festival days like Pola, Dasara and Diwali and this coincide with the cotton picking period.