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Kharif sowing: Labour shortage in Punjab, abundance in UP amid Covid-19

The first of a two-part series looks at the problems cultivators are facing during the pandemic

farming, farmers, kharif, wheat, crops, sowing, agriculture, rural

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For millions of farmers, the kharif season holds a lot of hope after the disruption seen in the rabi season.

4 min read Last Updated : Jun 25 2020 | 6:13 AM IST

Nirmal Singh, a large farmer in Nabha district of Punjab, owns around 10 acres of land and grows wheat and paddy in rotation, rarely experimenting with any other crop.

Normally, as the monsoon enters India in June and starts its journey through the mainland, Singh begins transplanting paddy seedlings by growing them in nurseries and then replanting them in water-logged fields to get uniform height and yield.

However, the situation is vastly different this year.

Singh said Covid-19 has led to such large-scale migration of labourers from his village that he is being forced to employ locally available labour, which

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