Question

Who provides labour for farming activities in village Palampur? Write about them in short

Answer 1

(i) Farming requires a great deal of hard work. Small farmers along with their families cultivate their own fields. Medium and large farmers hire farm labourers to work on their fields.

(ii) These farm labourers come either from landless families or families cultivating small plots of land, They do not have a right over the crops grown on the land. Instead they are paid wages by the farmer for whom they work. Wages can be in cash or in king e.g. crop. Whatever they get as wages is always less than the minimum wages fixed by the government i.e. Rs $60$ per day.

(iii) Sometimes labourers get meals also. Wages vary widely from region to region, from crop to crop, from one farm activity to another. There is also a wide variation in the duration of employment. A farm labourer might be employed on a daily basis, or for one particular farm activity like harvesting for the whole year.