Farmers across Alwar and Khairthal-Tijara districts in Rajasthan are racing against unpredictable weather to bring in their bajra crop before rain sets in. With the millet harvest ready across fields at the same time, the sudden surge in demand for farm labour has left many growers short-handed, delaying the movement of the crop to local mandis. To get around the bottleneck, farmers in the region have increasingly turned to machines, cutting their dependence on hired hands.
Nearly 1,000 tractor reapers arrive from Tonk
Around 1,000 tractor-mounted reaper machines have arrived in Alwar from Tonk district and are now working through the bajra fields. The machines are cutting harvesting time sharply while also bringing down costs. Sanjay Gurjar, who brought his tractor from Malpur in Tonk district, said close to 1,000 tractors travelled from Tonk to Alwar district and are currently engaged in harvesting bajra. He charges farmers between ₹1,300 and ₹1,500 per bigha to cut their crop quickly.
One bigha an hour, doing the work of ten labourers
Rajendra Chaudhary said that with the rainy season underway, farmers are rushing to finish cutting their bajra, and the tractor-mounted reaper is clearing one bigha of field in a single hour. He said hiring 10 labourers for the same job the conventional way would cost farmers around ₹10,000, whereas the machine alone gets it done faster and within a smaller budget.
That is helping farmers save both money and time. A single reaper machine can harvest one bigha of land in an hour, and this speed and efficiency has considerably eased the pressure farmers were under.
Not just bajra, the machine works across several crops
The biggest strength of the reaper machine is that its use is not limited to bajra alone. It works just as effectively on kharif crops such as jowar, guar and sesame, as well as on rabi crops like wheat. That versatility, combined with its affordable cost, has made it increasingly popular among farmers, and demand for it looks set to keep growing.
