E-pass hurdle for workers, onion growers in tears ahead of harvest

S Palanisamy, president of Tamil Nadu Farmers Association, said that crops, particularly onions, were ready for harvest in about 25,000 acres in Coimbatore. “Usually labourers from districts like Namakkal, Erode and Salem will be engaged in harvesting onion at this time of the year. But due to lack of e-pass, workers from other districts are unable to reach Kovai,” he said.

 Because of this situation, farmers were concerned that their investment might go waste. They claimed to have spent up to Rs 1 lakh per acre to raise onion in Thondamuthur and its neighbouring areas. It has even become difficult to harvest crops like banana and tomato due to lack of farmhands.

 There is also scarcity of workers to pluck coconuts in hundreds of acres in Pollachi. Hence, the farmer’s body has appealed to Collector K Rajamani to allow movement of farm workers to carry out farming activity without any hassle. They also sought to ease the norms towards marketing their produce.

 Also, those employed under MNREGS should be utilized for farm work like in Kerala and Karnataka state to overcome the issue of labour shortage, said Palanisamy.

 On hearing their grievance, the Collector had promised to do the needful to overcome the labour shortage issue.