Raja, a Paddy-harvester Operator

Muhammed Hasnujjaman Raja, the youngest of twelve siblings, is a professional combine-harvester operator. Raja’s story dates back to 1998, in West Bengal. Before then, his father used to be another traditional farmer with more than a dozen mouths to feed. They had 18 bighas (roughly 3 Bigha=1 Acre) of agricultural land and a submersible pump to farm with irrigated groundwater. They earned a little more by selling the excess water to smaller cultivators. But the plot of the story began to change when his father bought a tractor that year. Their financial condition gradually developed over the years and, in 2000, he joined the service, dropping out of school. Since then, for eighteen years straight, from furrowing fields to transporting hardware, Raja drove that tractor before switching to a brand-new John Deere combine harvester three years ago.

Machine harvesting is nothing new in first-world countries. In India also, five decades have elapsed since its first introduction in Punjab. But in the fields of Birbhum of West Bengal, a combine harvester is still afresh. It is only three or four winters this locale has witnessed these machines operating. And Raja was one of the first people to realise the business prospect of combined harvesters in the region.

For the initial one and a half years, Raja had to hire professionals from Punjab. But it did not take much to learn the basics. Today this man can harvest more than 30 bighas of rice a day. And three seasons a year- the wheat, winter and summer rice harvests- he with his machine is on hire.

But these combined harvesters have not only displaced a massive number of agricultural workers but posed a serious threat to the environment with stubble burning. The ripened crop plants previously used to feed the livestock, now get chopped and wasted by the giant fossil-fuel-powered machines. Farmers burn those residues to clear their fields for the next course.

However, this man of 36, thinks the crisis lies not in machine harvesting. After each harvest, if the crop butts are ploughed enough to go into the soil, that not only keeps the environment clean, but a bio-manure can help yield better, too. But farmers do not want to put that much effort, as traditional agriculture has become less-and-less profitable over the years and turned into a profession in the deputation. Agriculturalists can no more rely solely on agricultural produce to make ends meet. Besides cultivating, they need to work elsewhere to have a steady income. He also gives an insight that farmers cannot retreat from their current stand as it is no more possible to make a significant profit by harvesting manually with human resources. On each bigha of the rice harvest, preferring a combine harvester over the manual methods saves 1700 Indian bucks.

And for an already debt-ridden farmer, though it is not in good for all, there is no way to move back.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5yWDRtOA86Y