Thaindian News

New Delhi, Oct 20 (IANS) In order to deal with shortage of farm labour, which shifts to a rural job plan during the sowing season, the agriculture ministry is focusing on mechanisation in the Twelfth Five Year Plan 2012-17.

“There is pressure of Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS) on farm labour during sowing season,” said a senior official of the agriculture ministry.

“We are focusing on mechanisation of the farm sector to deal with this problem in the Twelfth Five Year Plan,” he said.

Agriculture ministry sources said farm labour usually shifts to MGNREGS during the sowing season as it gets better wages under the rural job plan.

“This is a good trend. We have no problem with the poor people benefiting. The answer is mechanisation of farm operations to deal with labour shortage and push the farm sector,” he said.

Under MGNREGS, minimum wages of Rs.100 per day are assured to unskilled labour for a period of 100 days in a year.

Sources said the agriculture ministry is now attempting to utilise MGNREGS for augmenting activities that directly add to farm productivity to deal with scarcity of labour.

Earlier, it had asked the rural development ministry to suspend MGNREGS during the kharif sowing season to deal with farm labour shortage. But the proposal was turned down by the rural development ministry.

With the rabi (winter) sowing season on, the agriculture ministry is expecting food production to surpass the record 241 million tonnes achieved in financial year 2010-11.

To achieve this objective, the ministry has asked the states to substantially expand the rabi crop area.

Backed by a good monsoon this year, the first advance estimates of kharif (summer) crop indicate that production of rice in the country should reach 87 million tonnes, an all time high, the officials added.