Lahan, September 7:

There is a lack of farm workers in Siraha district as most of the local youth is going abroad in search of employment. Paddy plantation has been severely hurt this year due to lack of farm workers, locals said.

According to District Agriculture Development Office, Siraha, paddy plantation has covered about 72,300 hectors of land in the previous year, but paddy plantation has been dropped by 15 per cent, this year. Sikandar Yadav in Siraha municipality-1 said, “Paddy plantation has been halted due to the lack of farm workers. I failed to plant paddy in 30 katthas of land this year.” He added, there is a lack of male workers in the district. The shortage of male workers is making farming difficult. There is no accurate statistics on how many people have gone abroad. But, Siraha-based Rastriya Banijya Bank is providing about Rs 6,000,000 remittances daily to families of those who have gone abroad. Similarly, Lahan and Mirchaiya branches are also providing great amounts of money to locals as remittances. Most of the poor people are forced to go abroad to earn money due to poverty in the area.

District Agriculture Development Officer Dwarika Dahal said, farmers are facing difficulty, as there is a lack of farm workers. Farmers are also suffering due to lack of irrigation.

There are about 100 Dalit families in Hanuman Nagar-6 and Belaha VDC of the district. In the monsoon season, there used to be competition among locals for luring dalits to work as farm workers.