Agriculture operations in the grip of labour shortage

G. SATHYAMOORTHY

"I don't know Hindi and they cannot speak a word in Tamil. But, as I have no other option, I have started getting labourers from Bihar. They manage to understand what I say and are extremely honest . Now they have become part of my family," says Puliyur Nagarajan, State vice president of Bharat Krishak Samaj.

One man's meat may be another man's poison. This is the situation prevailing in the labour scenario of Tamil Nadu. Even as the labour shortage started crippling both agricultural and construction activities in the State with the advent of Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MNREGA), it has paved way for the influx of the labour from north, especially Bihar.

“I don't know Hindi and they cannot speak a word in Tamil. But, as I have no other option, I have started getting labourers from Bihar. They manage to understand what I say and are extremely honest . Now they have become part of my family,” says Puliyur Nagarajan, State vice president of Bharat Krishak Samaj. He employs about half a dozen Biharis in his banana fields and also rice hulling mill.

This reporter could see obvious shortage of labour - be it in the fields of paddy or sugarcane, banana or korai, betel vines or jasmine. Most of the owners have given their fields on lease to their erstwhile workers as carrying out farming on their own has ceased to be remunerative. “The strain and pain are more in involving ourselves directly,” they admit.

And MNREGA has created a silent revolution. With 100 days of employment and Rs.132 guaranteed a day, the bargaining power of labourers has shot up. Thus the daily wage for male workers has skyrocketed to Rs. 250 a day and for female workers Rs.150, virtually double that they have been getting in the early 2000.

Rajachidambaram, State deputy general secretary of Tamilaga Vivasayigal Sangham, laments that this programme has ruined agriculture by making the labour scarce.

He pleads for proper monitoring of its implementation alleging that hardly anything gets done. “It has achieved only the opposite. Even sincere workers have become lazy and are opting for far easier task of attending to the MNREGA works. Even districts like Ariyalur and Perambalur, known for their migratory labour force, are facing labour shortage. Though the workers are supposed to be paid only after measuring their works, it is rarely done,” he alleges.

Siva Suriyan, Tiruchi district secretary of Tamil Nadu Vivasayigal Sangham, does not find fault with the MNREGA per se.

At the same time, he admits that its implementation leaves much to be desired. “Whoever registers with the panchayats should be allocated hands from those seeking work under the MNREGA. While 50 per cent of the wages could be borne by the small and marginal farmers, the rest could be borne by the government. Big farmers can be asked to foot the entire bill.”

He also points out that the shortage of labour is also because even those who have studied only up to standard VIII have moved to urban areas for jobs or are unwilling to take up agricultural works.

These leaders contend that the specific stipulation that the MNREGA works be taken up only after attending to farm operations had been ignored by the Collectors.

The MNREGA has created a transformation among the farm labour of Tamil Nadu what the Land Ceiling Act of 1961 has done to landlords.

A number of persons with considerable land holdings were forced to downsize their property in 1960s because the Act permitted only 15 standard acres.

Thus a number of people, even in the delta, who were originally either tillers or lessee, had become the owners of the lands.

It led to further fragmentation of the property as most of the landholdings in the country are small and marginal which has been the major impediment for mechanising agriculture.

Is farming becoming family-dependent, or a cottage industry? Or will this pave way for corporate farming as S.Ranganathan, general secretary of Cauvery Delta Farmers' Welfare Association, foresees. Corporate sectors would have the wherewithal to deploy modern machinery and also manage the labour force paying higher wages.

Original Article Here

The AP Doesn't Usually Write About Viral Videos, But These Kansas Farmers Are Awesome

Kansas State University student Greg Peterson and some friends were unwinding at a drive-in restaurant when LMFAO's song "Sexy and I Know It" came on the radio. He groaned.

But as the chorus droned on, the 21-year-old found inspiration. He switched "sexy" to "farming" as he began rapping. Then he started coming up with lyrics. It would be fun, he thought, to do a video parody with his brothers when he returned home to the family farm in central Kansas.

Peterson said the brothers aimed the video at their city friends on Facebook because they "hardly knew anything about the farm." They ended up educating the world. "I'm Farming and I Grow It" video has become an Internet sensation with more than 3.2 million views since it was posted June 25 on YouTube.

Its success has been hailed by farm groups, documented by newspapers and even won the brothers a whirlwind trip to New York City for a television appearance on Fox News Channel's "Fox & Friends."

Peterson said he and his family have been a little bit overwhelmed by all the attention and he's doing "some normal things" now to keep sane. On a recent morning, he was out swathing — or mowing — the prairie hay used to feed the family's cattle.

"I am just trying to rest my brain a little bit and get back to, you know, this is reality," he said by cellphone. "This is something I can understand, whereas when I was in New York, everything was just hitting my mind, and it was kind of like, 'I can't believe this, I can't believe this.'"

The 21-year-old Kansas State University senior isn't the first to parody LMFAO's club hit. Spoofs include "Elmo and I Know It," which features the popular "Sesame Street" character, "I'm Average and I Know It," and "Santa and I Know It." Most have only a few thousand hits, although the Elmo version has garnered roughly 12.7 million hits in about seven months.

Peterson's 3:32-minute video begins at the break of dawn with him and his brothers, Nathan, 18, and Kendal, 15, walking across a field of golden wheat that sways gently in the wind. The scenes then shift rapidly to the song's beat, showing the brothers doing chores, driving combines and tractors and jumping on hay bales. It ends with the three walking off into the sunset across a field where the wheat has been harvested.

One scene shows Peterson feeding cattle as he raps, "When I step to the bunk, yeah, this is what I see: All the hungry cattle are staring at me. I got passion for my plants, and I ain't afraid to show it, show it, show it. I'm farming, and I grow it."

Peterson, who's majoring in agriculture communication and journalism and minoring in music performance at Kansas State, said the video was produced with iMovie and GarageBand software. His 11-year-old sister, Laura, shot some of it on the family farm near Assaria.

Steve Baccus, the president of the Kansas Farm Bureau, said what the Peterson brothers did on their own is exactly what agriculture groups have been trying to get other farmers to do — use social media to show consumers the real faces of agriculture.

Individual farmers and industry groups have started using Twitter, YouTube and other social media in recent years to counter the messages put out by tech-savvy environmental and animal rights groups concerned about everything from water quality to the size of cages chickens are kept in.

"We think it is a great way to communicate with the consumer and give them an idea of what exactly goes on in agriculture on the farm," Baccus said. "We are being painted by some different groups in a pretty nasty vein, and that is not at all true. I think we need to get the message out there is another side of agriculture."

He said he loved the Peterson brothers' video: "I liked the way they incorporated humor into it, and I just thought they did a fantastic job."

The Peterson brothers have posted other videos about the family farm on YouTube, and Peterson said they'll make more. He keeps his iPod Touch with him as he farms, occasionally pulling it out and filming things.

"That doesn't take any extra time, or really any extra thought," he said. "It is just like, 'This is what I am doing. So I will continue to make those kinds of videos.'"

Original article Here

From kitchen to stand

Photos by Samuel Hoffman | The Journal Gazette

Mary Rice sells homemade items at places such as the Historic 

West Main Street Farmers Market.

Law exemption lets home cooks sell some goods

Rosa Salter Rodriguez | The Journal Gazette

Rice credits an exemption in state food laws
with allowing her to set up a business,
which includes selling chocolate crinkle cookies.

Abby Hardy has loved being part of a family farm business her whole life, and she has also loved baking for about as long as she can remember.

Now she’s thinking about combining both – by selling homemade cookies at her family farm’s roadside stand on Knoll Road in southwest Fort Wayne.

“I’d like to make frosted sugar cookies in the shape of ears of corn,” the 27-year-old says, adding that the stand’s sweet corn is one of its most popular summertime offerings.

So, last month Hardy attended a Web-based seminar outlining a little-known exemption in state food laws. Since 2009, the exemption has allowed Hoosiers to prepare a limited array of food products in a home kitchen and sell them at farmers markets and roadside stands.

Samuel Hoffman |The Journal Gazette

Kalamata olive bread and berry cobblers 

are some of the baked goods 

Mary Rice makes and sells.

The event, “Cooking Up a Food Business in the Home Kitchen: Opportunities and Challenges of Starting or Growing a Home-Based Food Vendor Enterprise,” was hosted by the Allen County branch of the Purdue Extension Service, which has had similar programs around the state.

Roy Ballard, a Purdue extension educator in Hancock County familiar with the seminar, says the exemption was passed as a way to spur entrepreneurialism.

“I think people have been very reluctant until this law to produce foods for sale in their home. This does open it up for a lot of people to get their toe in the door for food production,” he says.

The exemption means that, unlike other food-selling or producing establishments, home-based food vendors don’t have to be licensed, permitted or registered nor have their kitchens routinely inspected by health officials.

While the lack of red tape may be appealing, “There’s a lot of limitations on what you can and cannot do,” says Steve Engelking, small farm coordinator and extension educator for Purdue’s LaGrange County office, which hosted a seminar in May.

Home-based vendors can sell only “non-potentially hazardous food products,” which must be labeled with their ingredients and that the products were produced in an uninspected facility, he said.

Producers also must test to make sure their food meets parameters for water content and pH, a measure of acidity or alkalinity, and kitchens must use proper sanitation, the LaGrange seminar attendees were told.

Animal products, non-baked dairy- or egg-containing foods, cut produce, “acidified foods” such as salsas and low-acid canned goods, such as canned green beans, are not allowed.

Jams, jellies and preserves can be made and sold under the exemption, but fruit butters and low- or no-sugar fruit spreads are out. Sauerkraut is okay as a fermented food.

Vendors can’t sell their foods at retail establishments, such as grocery stores or restaurants, or at festivals.They also can’t prepare non-hazardous foods and other foods that require more regulation in the same kitchen. “It’s one or the other,” Engelking says.

Still, the rules leave a lot room for home cooks, according to people familiar with the exemption.

Other products that can be sold include breads, cakes, cookies and dessert bars, nuts, honey, candies and confections.

Mary Rice of Fort Wayne says the exemption helped her set up a business baking bread, pies with locally grown fruit and her grandmother’s chocolate crinkle cookies.

“They’re a hot commodity,” says the 52-year-old woman, who sells at the Historic West Main Street Farmers Market on Fridays.

“I do fresh vegetables when they’re in season, and I do baking in between, and it has improved my business,” she says. “At the time when I started it, I was unemployed so it brought in more money to help pay the bills, and last year I did make a nice profit off of it.”

Engelking says local officials are somewhat split on the effect of the exemption. Some see it as a boon to the county’s many Amish farm families, while others believe all food producers should follow stricter regulations because of the large number of tourists who visit the county and its food-oriented attractions.

LaGrange’s health officials try to nudge home food producers into becoming regulated food establishments, he says.

Engelking says that many people who buy from roadside stands or at farmers markets may not know that some products come from uninspected kitchens and urges caution on the part of buyers and producers.

“My advice to buyers is look for labels. … My advice to (potential vendors) is get to know the local health (department enforcement) people. Get them involved early on, and let them know you’re interested in learning,” he says.

Gonzalee Martin, Allen County extension educator for agriculture and natural resources, says it’s in vendors’ best interests to care about food safety to protect their own and their markets’ reputations. He expects interest in home-vendor exemptions will grow as more farmers markets spring up.

About a dozen people attended Allen County’s seminar, and more than 175 signed up statewide, although some were not current or potential food producers, he said.

After hearing about the food restrictions, Joan Sumter of LaGrange decided against becoming a home-based vendor. Her idea was to sell slow cooker meals at lunch to local factory workers, but she found that wouldn’t be allowed under the exemption.

“I’ve been thinking about it for a long-time, but I think it’s not for me,” she said.

But Hardy says her idea is still on the front burner.

She says she may start small by selling a few dozen cookies only on the weekends after the stand opens the second week in July.

“I have to sanitize everything, so it’s going to be a process to get started,” she says. “It was a really useful seminar. And I think we’re going to give it a try.”

rsalter@jg.net

 © Copyright 2012 The Journal Gazette