Shortage of labourers: elderly farmer gets support from college students to harvest paddy

35 Farook Training College students gathered to assist the 78-year-old farmer with the project.

On Saturday, a group of 35 Farook Training College B.Ed. and M.Ed. students—mostly female—walked in with assurance to the fertile rice field of a 78-year-old farmer who desperately needed workers to harvest the crop.

The students put in a lot of effort harvesting the grain from 8 am to 12 pm to help the farmer on leased land in his quest to preserve ancient rice varieties.

“When we offered to help out to cover for a labour shortfall, Chinnettan, the hardworking farmer from Ramanattukara, was really happy. We were all excited to participate in the project as National Service Scheme participants, according to Nourin Sharaf, a master’s student in education who organised it with her 4-year-old daughter. Many people in the group were fatigued after the five hours of work, but they learned a completely different lesson, she continued.

In Kuttoolangadi, the majority of the students who went to work in the field had no prior experience. Most of them, according to student coordinators, came from metropolitan homes and had never had the chance to participate in such a massive harvesting operation.

“It’s encouraging to see children involved in farming activities, and I hope they continue to support the preservation of traditional farming methods. To save agriculture from extinction, a great deal of learning is necessary, the farmer Thottoli Chinnan said. In his interactions with the children, he reminisced how his love of farming and the lessons he learned from his ancestors greatly aided him in saving over 10 distinct rice species from extinction.

After practising manual threshing and cleaning techniques, the team left the field. They claimed that mechanised farming was not practised there in order to preserve traditional farming. They also pledged to continue supporting the elderly farmer’s initiatives to spread awareness of rare rice varieties.