RS Pura, May 22: Facing a grave shortage of labourers for the Basmati sowing season after drone and artillery attacks by Pakistan following Operation Sindoor, farmers are making urgent appeals for their return to resume agriculture work.
Farmers are highlighting the return of normality after India and Pakistan agreed to stop military actions on May 10.
India’s Basmati-rich agriculture fields in Jammu and Kashmir’s RS Pura border belt are deserted, forcing locals to begin paddy work with domestic help.
About 1,000 to 1,500 labourers from various states fled the area along the International Border after the start Pakistani firing and shelling since May 8.
“We returned home after 10 days. It was a war-like situation due to firing and shelling. We have started agriculture with domestic help. There is a shortage of labourers,” Abdulian village farmer Garmeet Singh said.
As the season for raising Basmati paddy begins in the hamlet located barely 400 metre from the Zero Line, he said they did not want to delay sowing.
As a result, farmers have started the work themselves with help from villagers.
Scores of families were seen engaged in agriculture work in various hamlets along the International Border in the Arnia and the RS Pura sectors.
Like Singh, Skinder Kumar of Gulabgarh Basti close to the International Border has made a call to labourers from Bihar, Uttarakhand, Uttar Pradesh, Jharkhand and Rajasthan to return and join the agriculture work so that the paddy season is not delayed.
“The firing has stopped. A ceasefire has been announced. Peace has returned. We urge all labourers to return and join us in agriculture activity,” Kumar said.
Kumar, who has begun preparing his fields near the Octerio Border Out Post (BoP) with his tractor alone, also raised the concern of mortar and artillery shells fired by Pakistani troops that sunk into farmlands along the International Border.
“There is also the danger of these unexploded shells. They have claimed the lives of farmers in the past during agriculture activity. But this time, the army is clearing the areas,” he said.
Army engineers and bomb disposal squads detected and defused over 100 unexploded shells from agriculture fields and villages during the past week as part of an ongoing operation.
In the three districts of Jammu, Samba and Kathua, about 1.25 lakh hectares of agriculture land falls within Pakistan’s shelling range. Villages such as Treva, Mahashe-de-Kothe, Gulabgarh, Suchetgarh, Abdulian, Chandu Chak, Gharana, Bulla Chak and Korotana Kalan are witnessing agriculture work, with families beginning sowing early in the mornings and evenings as daytime temperatures soar to 45 degrees Celsius.
Avatar Singh of Abdulian village is happy that agriculture has resumed. “I hope labourers will return as most villagers have come back following the restoration of peace.” “Due to the shortage of labourers and high temperatures, locals are undertaking agriculture work in the mornings and evenings,” he added.
Farmers sow several varieties of Basmati on 17,742 hectares in the RS Pura and the Arnia sector areas.
The region was witness to heightened artillery shelling about two weeks ago following the rise in tensions with Pakistan after India carried out precision strikes on nine terror hubs in Pakistan and Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK) on May 7 in response to the Pahalgam attack.
A wave of artillery shelling, and missiles and drone strikes by Pakistan in the Jammu region killed 27 people and injured more than 70 between May 8 and 10 after India launched Operation Sindoor to target terror infrastructure in the neighbouring country and PoK.
Thousands fled from the Line of Control (LoC) and International Border areas to seek refuge in government-run relief camps.
India and Pakistan reached an understanding on May 10 to end the military confrontation after four days of intense cross-border drone and missile strikes. (Agencies)
