As the agriculture sector in Pakistan transforms, so does its labour dynamics. Rural labour in the country has historically been an informal exercise, serving an exploitative feudal system and surviving in a legal vacuum without a wage system or formal working hours and conditions.
Things have begun to change: the rural labour force is getting organised. Farming groups are strengthening their social power, negotiating both the cost as well as the time for a particular job. The labour contractors aware of workers aspirations are assuming the role to formally articulate their demands.
Their efforts have yet to get a legal framework but these are not causal exercises. Slowly, but surely, the power of choosing work, its timing and cost, is shifting to farm labour. The trend may be slow and week in some areas and strong and relatively fast in others, but it is certainly underway throughout the country.
The food department had procured 855,934 tonnes of wheat 21.29 per cent of its target of 3.5 million tonnes by Thursday. Dawn/File
LAHORE: By Thursday, the food department had procured 855,934 tonnes of wheat 21.29 per cent of its target of 3.5 million tonnes and distributed gunny bags for around 1.8 million tonnes.
According to the departmental record, the daily arrival of wheat reached around 133,000 tonnes on Thursday, up from 90,000 tonnes a day earlier. Once this rain spell is over in the next few days and harvesting picks momentum in the central Punjab region, the daily arrival would pick up pace.
With the pace of procurement, reports of administrative highhandedness also started emerging on Thursday. Flour Mills Association President Asim Raza said the district administration, in its enthusiasm to meet targets, is overacting or reacting.