Labour shortage affects tea garden in Ilam

Ilam, Dec 30 – Tea sector is facing shortage of laborers due to increasing attraction to foreign employment and the increasing number of tea gardens in Ilam district.

 

Local laborers are rarely found in the sector unlike a decade ago. Tea farmers say one can earn more than Rs 10,000 per month in tea gardens.

 

Laborers are in short supply after tea gardens were started in the each house of eastern part of the district.

 

In the past, laborers were kept by giving housing and food but now we cannot find even if given proper remuneration, says Netra Pokhrel of Kanyam.

 

We cannot find manpower even if better facilities are provided, says Kajiman Kagate, a resident of Kanyam.

 

Now the farmers of the eastern part of the district have been searching for workers with a slogan ´Go to the east if you need job.´

 

Sharmila Rai of Fikkal says she is called from many places and cannot reach everywhere. Gyanu Rai of Panchakanya comes out for work herself for lack of workers for her 50 ropanis of tea farming. The district has some 8,000 tea farmers.

 

The number of workers is coming down in seven gardens of Ilam and Jhapa under the Nepal Tea Development Corporation as well and not only in the private gardens. The no of workers in the gardens hired by Tribeni Sanghai Group was 2,340 in 2057 BS, but now it has come down to 1,040.

 

There is a shortage of workers in agriculture as it is only subsistence-oriented, says Senior Agriculture Development Officer of Agriculture Development Office, Prakash Kumar Dangi.

 

RSS