Agriculture in India depends, inter alia, on the availability of labour force for various operations on the farms. Of late its supply is on the decline, thanks to migration of labour towards urban areas. Whaterver labour is available now in the countryside gets engaged in Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme due to its reasonable wage with less work or no work at some places. One or two rupees a kilo rice scheme too has made the labourers very lazy.
Who is there to assist the farmers for cultivation? The children of farmers also gradually bid good bye to the farming. In the absence of mechanisation of farming in totality the dependence on the labour can hardly be dispensed with.
The telling example is the condition of farming in Tamil Nadu. The cultivated land has come down to 48 lakh hectares from 60 lakh hectares in the last ten years. The state will have to import more than 50 to 60 per cent of its requirement from other states very soon.
The farm lands are becoming barren and housing plots very fast in all parts of the state. Who is to blame for such a sorry state of affairs?
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