Cotton pickers go scarce as heat dries up farm labour market

HYDERABAD: Cotton picking has become a challenging task for farmers in Sindh province as the workforce,

mostly women, seems reluctant to work under difficult conditions, mainly scorching heat, pesticide exposure, and low wages.

Workers have to walk for eight–nine hours in the field daily to pick cotton and in return they are paid little, according to reports gathered from the area.

Cotton picking in the advanced cultivated areas is gaining momentum, engaging a large number of workforce, mostly migrant workers, hailing from Thar desert and Kohistan (mountainous) areas.

Altaf Mahesar, who leads a farmers’ network in Dadu district and keeps a close eye on the changes in agriculture sector, said women of the farmer families previously used to help them in fields for picking cotton, harvesting wheat, and collecting fodder for animals. He said farmers never faced problems hiring migrant workers as their own workforce was easily available and they had to mobilise them whenever needed.

“But now workers not only for harvesting cotton but also tomato, chilli, wheat, rice, and sugarcane are not easily available in local areas and farmers have to hire migrant workers through bargain agents, who get commission for the purpose,” Mahesar said.

At that time wages for women workers were quite low, he said adding that compared to the present situation they were considered high and the workers were happy.

“Anyway, these traditional workers have switched to alternatives like stitching clothes, doing hand embroidery, and other needlework to earn some income at homes owing to too frequent heat waves and effects of pesticides,” he said.

Migrant workers hailing from Thar desert and Kohistan areas travel long distances for picking cotton and other farm jobs in many areas.

“It is not only cotton, we have to face problems to hire workers to work in extreme weather conditions for other harvests and at low wages.” He said in fact finding workers would become even more difficult in the future.

“The government has introduced laws, but their implementation always remains a big challenge for this larger workforce.”

In these larger groups in the field women do not feel easy to even voice their plight, especially regarding their share in the low wages they earn. It is because their male family members decide about the work and the labour cost. Families stay near the fields under makeshift abodes for one or two months and work from dawn to dusk to meet the task and then return back to native areas.

This year, the rates for cotton picking range from Rs500-700/kg. Workers can work as long as they want. Normally, each worker has a capacity to pick 20-30kg daily and earn as per the set criteria about Rs200-300.

The cotton prices in open markets range from Rs5,000 to Rs6,000/per maund.

Dr Hyder Malkani, who works for the rights of peasant families, said despite hue and cry by neglected cotton picking workforce in Sindh province, there was no compensation to take care of their health and ensure the better wages as per the minimum wages set by the government.

“Bad seeds, water scarcity, land degradation, high input and labour cost, unavailability of workforce, and decreasing per acre productivity, are forcing farmers to switch to sugarcane and other crops.”

In Sindh province Sanghar, Matiari, Hyderabad, Mirpurkhas, Nawabshah, Ghotki, Khairpur, and parts of Dadu, Umerkot, Badin, Tando Muhammad Khan, Thatta, Sujawal, Tharparkar and other districts produce cotton. This year farmers could not get desired productivity, compared to previous year, mainly owing to water scarcity, growers said.

The visible problems the cotton picker women face include scorching heat, exposure to pesticides and skin problems while handling the rough cotton bolls.

Traditional farmers say due to receiving new varieties of cotton seeds they have changed harvest patterns.

Previously they used to receive two-three harvests in which each cotton picker would pick 40-50kg daily, receiving wages.

Compared to that now the farmers have to harvest four–five times in which each woman worker hardly picks 20kg or little more daily and earns Rs200-300 as per set wages.

Farmers realise the social bindings in the society coming through generations in which women workers never showed willingness to write their names in a register kept to record daily input of each worker so they may get their wages.

Though some non-governmental organisations claim to have registered unions of cotton picker women in Sindh, practically it was a futile attempt as the female workers do not participate in the bargaining for wages and talk for their rights.

Trade union activists recall the attempts by International Labour Organization (ILO), which hired leading women activists to mobilise this informal workforce engaged in agriculture, livestock and fisheries but all went in vain.

It is because the women themselves seem reluctant to violate the traditions and join any campaign.