Shortage of workers, higher wages force farmers to shift to less labour-intensive crops
The Kerala government recently announced a cash prize of Rs 10 lakh to anyone who can manufacture user-friendly machines that can make climbing coconut tress easier for women and senior persons. The reason for this novel announcement was simple: Male members of the Vettuva community are simply refusing to work as tree climbers, their traditional livelihood.
They now prefer to work in other sectors such as construction where wages are much higher. The average daily wage of an agricultural labour in Kerala has been increased to Rs 250, but that’s hardly a draw as the salary in construction, plumbing and painting is Rs 350. In some sectors, such as rock foundation work of buildings and carpentry, it’s even higher at Rs 450-500.
Result? Coconut farms in God’s own country wear a desolate look these days due to acute worker shortage.
Coconut farms aren’t alone. Kerala’s agriculture labour pain has worsened, forcing many landowners to stop paddy cultivation in the Palakkad and Alappuzha districts. The latest casualty is natural rubber where the number of expert tappers is decreasing every day.
Shortage of workers and higher wages have also forced spices farmers, especially pepper growers, to shift to other less labour-intensive crops like cocoa.
There are enough job opportunities in other areas. The booming fishing harbours, for example, pay a loading worker on an average Rs 1,500 a day. Workers at the trawling boats get Rs 6,000 to Rs 7,000 per week.
Then there are the state government-initiated projects like Kudumbashree and micro-finance schemes of various caste associations like the Sree Narayana Dharma Paripalana Yogam. It’s difficult to find women workers in villages too as the average wage of sales girls in Kochi is Rs 3,000 per month.
It’s not that the going has been smooth for other high-paying sectors. Leading construction companies have started providing two to three weeks’ advance wages in order to ensure regular labour supply to their work sites.
Some of them have solved a part of the problem by bringing workers from other states. Migration of workers has always happened in Kerala, but the pace has increased in recent years from West Bengal, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and Assam. According to unconfirmed estimates, the state is host to 500,000 workers from other states.
Migration is something that has also partly rescued the farm sector. For example, most rubber plantations now engage workers from other states for tapping trees.
While higher wages in other sectors is one reason for the farm labour shortage in Kerala, the other is the higher literacy rate in the state, which has seen even children of traditional worker families getting admission to professional courses like engineering, medicine, healthcare, and information technology.
While not many of them get the job they want due to the not-so-high standards of education that mushrooming private institutes offer, the students do not want to work as farm labour any more.
