Workers from West Bengal, Uttar Pradesh help Godavari farmers

Rajamahendravaram: Many farmers who have been facing problems for various reasons and mainly due to input costs, now heave a sigh of relief as their investment during paddy transplantation season has come down.

The farmers are able to make use of agriculture labourers from West Bengal and Uttar Pradesh to reduce their input costs. The farmers were earlier facing shortage of agricultural workers and with the arrival of migrated coolies the problem was solved to some extent.

The investment for paddy transplantation per acre, came down significantly to Rs 3,200 or Rs 3,500 from Rs 7,000 and Rs 7,500 due to use of coolies from Uttar Pradesh and West Bengal. Six to ten workers form a team and complete paddy transplantation in an acre in about two hours. About 2,000 coolies are working in the mandals of Rajamahendravaram Rural, Rajanagaram, Jaggampeta, Kirlampudi and Ravulapalem.

The labourers are taking care of the farm work and there is no need to farmers to visit the field. Local coolies used to plant 60 saplings bundle as one unit, whereas UP and WB coolies are only planting 10 saplings in one bundle. Many are engaging the migrated coolies who are completing the work for lesser rate. Slowly, the migrated coolies are spreading to other parts of the district to earn their lively hood and they stay here for two to three months.

A farmer Kandula Rama Rao of Torredu village has said that the investment came down significantly in transplantation period because of the migrated coolies. Another farmer A Durgaiah of Gandepalli said the farmers were facing problem to get agricultural labourers for works and it is inevitable to engage the coolies of other states. Because of the migrated coolies, the scarcity problem of coolies solved.