Sickles in hand, palm-leaf hats on their heads, lungis on and gamchhas over their shoulders, countless men aged 18 to 50 sit in small groups. They are farm labourers, waiting for farmers. When a farmer arrives they will settle a price, then go off to cut paddy.

This scene is seen every harvest season at Nurbag, next to Noapara railway station in Abhaynagar, Jashore, a place known as the labourers' market. Labourers and farmers come at dawn, and the market stays busy until 8am.

Hundreds of labourers come to Abhaynagar from the north of the country to harvest paddy. They start work once a per-person rate is agreed with the landowners, and after about a month they return home.

According to the upazila agriculture office, boro paddy has been grown this year on 12,738 hectares in the upazila's 8 unions and one municipality. Paddy on 7,643 hectares has been harvested, and harvesting of the rest is continuing.

A visit found scores of paddy cutters sitting on the railway line beside the Nurbag level crossing, aged between 18 and 50.

A labourer named Abdur Rahim said he had come to Abhaynagar from Chapainawabganj the day before. His group has 6 members. They had not been able to go to work that morning because a price had not been agreed.

Kazi Arafat Hossain, a paddy cutter from Rajshahi, said: "Over the last three days we finished cutting paddy on a few bighas for two farmers in Dhopadi village. There are 6 of us in the group. We have come to the market hoping for new work, and we are bargaining with someone new. I asked for Tk 1,000 in wages; the owner is offering Tk 850. If we agree on a price we will go and cut the paddy."

Sirajul Islam, a farmer from Noapara village, said: "Paddy on my 6 bighas has ripened. There is a shortage of harvest labour locally, and it could rain at any time. So I have come to Nurbag market to hire labourers. We take labourers from here every year. This year wages are higher. Even after I offered Tk 850 a head, the labourers will not come. They want Tk 1,000 each, and will work from 6am to 1pm."

Upazila agriculture officer Lovely Khatun said Abhaynagar had a bumper boro crop. About 70 per cent of the land has been harvested, and if the weather stays favourable the rest will be cut within the next 10–12 days.

She said Nurbag in Abhaynagar has a market for paddy harvest labourers, something not seen in many upazilas. Because fair wages are paid, paddy cutters come to the market from different parts of the country.

Source: Jagonews24. First published in Bengali on The Agro News.