Demand for Bullocks Rises To Raise Alternative Crops Due to El Niño
Deficit rainfall revives traditional farming as bullock owners earn up to Rs 3,000 a day
Nalgonda: The demand for bullocks has increased with farmers opting for alternative crops instead of paddy due to the deficit in rainfall because of El Niño.
Farmers generally hire tractors for preparing their lands for cultivating paddy. However, with authorities now asking farmers to opt for alternate crops, farmers have the choice of growing cotton, red gram, chilli, jowar, and other crops.
Farmers believe tractors are not perfectly suitable for preparing the land to grow these crops. They insist on hoes drawn by bullocks, so that weeds are removed at the primary stage itself for growing dry crops.
However, the availability of bullocks for agricultural work in villages can be counted on fingers. Thus, with heavy demand for alternative crops, bullocks and farmers who can till lands using the hoe are in great demand for weed removal.
Many farmers for whom bullocks had once been essential stopped rearing them after successive governments started extending them loans to buy tractors under the farm mechanisation schemes. The same farmers are now forced to hire bullocks on an hourly basis from those who own bullocks and hoes.
The rent for a pair of bullocks is Rs 1,000 per acre for weed removal. A bullock-drawn hoe can remove weeds from three acres in a day. With this, farmers owning bullocks are getting an income of Rs 3,000 per day. The demand for bullocks could last for two months during this crop season.
Farmer Siga Ramachandru, who has five acres in Jajireddygudem, said he has been cultivating paddy for the last 10 years. He has switched to red gram due to deficit rainfall as per the suggestion of agriculture officers. He never bothered about bullocks while cultivating paddy. With the majority of farmers taking up cultivation of alternative crops due to insufficient rainfall, Ramachandru is finding it difficult to hire bullocks, as there is an unprecedented demand for them.
Another farmer, N. Yadaiah, who has four acres of land in Gattu Singaram, says only eight farmers own a pair of bullocks in his tiny village. They are hiring out their bullocks on a first-come-first-served basis. Yadaiah said he needs to wait for five days before a pair of bullocks arrives for tilling and removing the weeds from his land.
