Planters send out SOS to govt over labour shortages

The plantation sector in south India has asked the government to extend several concessions and allocate higher funds to bail out the sector that has been facing several challenges and obstacles in the recent years. The sector also sought government help to increase mechanisation and reduce production cost as well as tackle labour shortage.

“While the price situation is comparatively better compared to what it used to be till recently, the ever-escalating cost of production is of great concern to all of us. The prices of essential fertiliser have more than doubled in the last one year and most of them are not available when required. The government should make necessary arrangements to supply fertilisers and also help the plantation sector in overcoming labour shortage,” United Planters’ Association of South India (Upasi) President D Hegde said at a conference here.

He requested the government to restore the concessional duty on import of all machinery and equipment used by planters and growers in order to increase mechanisation in the plantation sector.

“The government should provide concessional duties till domestic suppliers develop competent machinery through research and development (R&D),” Hegde said in his presidential address at the 119th annual conference of Upasi, said here.

The government last year limited the concessional duty to the import of specified machinery used in coffee plantations.

Though the sector comprising coffee, tea, rubber and spices (cardamom and pepper) provides employment to around 1.4 million people in the three southern states of Karnataka, Kerala and Tamil Nadu, socio-economic factors are forcing them to migrate to greener pastures.

“Labour shortage is acute, especially during plucking season in coffee plantations and during peak crop period (May-June and Oct-Nov) in tea plantations. In spite of substantial increase in wages with social benefits, we are unable to attract the required workforce, forcing us to go for increasing mechanisation,” Hegde stated.

Runaway inflation, high interest rate, doubling of fertiliser price and increasing overheads such as logistics are making the capital-intensive sector unviable due to mismatch between production cost and selling price of the plantation commodities, he said.

“Production costs have shot up seven times in the tea plantation sector due to increasing wages and overheads while prices have only doubled during the last two decades,” Hegde said.

Referring to the recent amendments to the Employees Provident Fund (PF) scheme, which mandates planters to deduct the PF amount if an employee is engaged even for a day, he said migrant labour employed for seasonal operations object deduction as they do not stick to one estate.

“Though we appreciate social security measures for workers, there should be a minimum days (60) of employment for PF deduction as it was before the scheme was amended,” Hegde added.

He also pointed out that the government’s flagship programme — Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act — is not mandated to provide PF to the labour engaged to work for 100 days in a year.