Phulender Thakur reached Telangana without any certainty. At the age of about 40, he left Madhepura in Bihar for a vineyard in Medchal Malkajgiri district, where an elder brother, already working there, pulled him south. At that time the vines were heavy, viticulture was spread over large areas and labor was abundant. Phulender learned fast and the farm soon became familiar land.
However, the scene gradually changed. Grape acreage decreased, farms became smaller, and many growers moved out. But Thakur persevered, his skill overcoming the falling demand for the crop. Today, he leads a group of workers at a vineyard in Muduchinthalappalli, with his three brothers also working with him. The matter has even reached home; The youth of Bihar now call him for work, and hope to establish a foothold in the fields of Telangana.
He spends most of the year here and returns to his family in Madhepura once or twice a year. “I don’t even have to go home for Chhath Puja, one of the biggest festivals of Bihar, because that’s when we have to cut the stalks of grapes,” says Thakur, as a group of youths standing next to him nod in agreement. All these youngsters, from his native village, reached Telangana three years ago and learned the tricks of viticulture under his guidance.
Thakur’s story reflects a pattern increasingly visible across the state. Farmers, farmer welfare organizations and others associated with the sector point to a steady increase in the number of agricultural workers coming from other states.
The scale of this dependence is determined by the sheer size of the agricultural landscape here. With a geographical area of more than 276.95 lakh acres (112.08 lakh hectares), Telangana is the 11th largest state in the country. According to the Telangana Socio-Economic Outlook 2024, in 2022–23, 52.61% of it was under net sown area.
For farm owners and tenant farmers managing large tracts of land, it has become increasingly challenging to find local labor for planting, sorting, harvesting and post-harvest work. Workers from Bihar, Odisha, Chhattisgarh and elsewhere have stepped in to fill the gap, coming with families or in groups, staying on farms and keeping the farms running.
Migrant farm workers are usually provided shelter, food, and electricity on the farms where they are employed. Furthermore, they are paid wages which vary depending on the nature of the work and the skills required.
Their monthly remuneration generally ranges from ₹9,000 to ₹11,000 per person. In other cases, payment is linked to the crop or work – ₹16 to ₹25 per bag of paddy, around ₹10,000 per acre for plum picking, or a lump sum for labor-intensive work like plucking red chillies and other crops.
Toiling in the afternoon in a papaya field at Keesara in Rangareddy district, Dulkar Chand from Bihar says each worker is paid about ₹9,000 per month, apart from providing accommodation, food and basic amenities. While the men at the site are busy picking up manure and spreading it in the fields or tending the papaya crop, the women work in the adjacent ivy gourd farm.
Farm caretakers and owners say migrant workers usually reach them through context-based networks. People who have worked on a farm before usually connect them with people seeking employment.
Declining interest of local youth
Farmers, farmer welfare organizations and government officials note that the presence of workers from other states in Telangana’s agricultural sectors has been observed for many years. And at the same time, the number of local youth choosing agricultural work has also declined. Those tracking the trend say no single factor is responsible. Several reasons include the availability of alternative livelihood options, greater access to education supported by the Telangana government, people preferring to work on their small lands and growing preference for gig work.
Farmers also say that increased irrigation resources in recent years have increased the area under cultivation, increasing the demand for farm labour, while many workers remain on their own farms.
According to the recently released Economic Survey 2025-26, key initiatives like the Kaleshwaram Lift Irrigation Project and Mission Kakatiya in Telangana contributed to increasing the area under cultivation from 1.31 crore acres in 2014 to 2.21 crore acres by financial year 2023.
Ravi Kanneganti, state committee member of Rythu Swarajya Vedika, says a combination of factors such as monocropping, mechanization, use of chemical inputs and rapid urbanization have led to a steady reduction in the number of working days for agricultural workers. The availability of migrant workers from other states, willing to work at lower wages, has also contributed to this change.
“This led people to seek alternative and reliable sources of income, even if the earnings were low. Many were left completely without work. The government needs to address this issue. People need to be equipped with relevant skills for other sectors like services and MSMEs to generate local employment. And this needs to be the focus,” says Kanneganti.
He points out that crops like cotton and paddy are harvested at the same time, increasing the demand for labour. “When adequate labor is not available locally, there is a clear dependence on labor from other states. Shifting from monocropping to multicropping every month can ensure regular income for farmers and increase availability of workdays. Other crops such as pulses, millets, vegetables and oilseeds need to be supported through incentives,” he says.
Echoing some of the comments, Y., Associate Professor, Center for Economic and Social Studies, Hyderabad. Srinivasulu says his team has also found that most youth show little interest in taking up agriculture or allied activities. He further said, a study is underway to better understand their aspirations and the factors driving this separation.
Donthu Rambabu, joint secretary of Telangana Rythu Sangham, says that migrant laborers from Maharashtra, Chhattisgarh and Madhya Pradesh are generally employed in red chilli fields. Each acre requires approximately 400 mandays. “Most of the people engaged in paddy sowing here come from West Bengal and Bihar,” he says.
to level
Rambabu says some agricultural laborers in Telangana have turned into tenant farmers by taking out large tracts of land on lease. Also, landowners who once owned extensive land have had their children migrate to other states or countries, leaving no one behind to continue farming. Those lands are being given on lease rapidly.
He says, “If there is a small farmer who has two to four acres of land, the family itself takes up ploughing, sowing and other work. But a tenant farmer who has taken 20-30 acres of land on lease cannot do all the work alone and has to hire labourers.”
In some areas, small farmers still practice the barter system, working on each other’s farms in exchange for labor on their own land.
Y. Balaiah, who has three acres of land in Adraspalli village in Muduchinthalappalli mandal, says even farmers with very small landholdings – one acre or less – are now dependent on farming, a change he says was unusual earlier. He moved from paddy to vegetable farming, as it requires more investment and gives comparatively lower returns. He says, “Vegetables ensure regular income. We can sell directly to customers in vegetable markets and avoid paying commission to agents. Those who have small land now prefer to cultivate vegetables instead of working on others’ fields.”
To keep costs low, Balaiya and his wife harvest the vegetables themselves, as there is little margin for profit by hiring labourers. “I can’t expect anyone to work for ₹300 or ₹400 a day. Prices of essential commodities have increased,” he explains.
This trend reflects the structure of land holdings in the state. According to the 11th Agriculture Census (2021-22), the total number of operational holdings (agriculture units) in Telangana was 70.60 lakh, covering an area of 63.12 lakh hectares.
Marginal and small farmers, who have less than two acres of land, own 91.4% of the land and cultivate 68.2% of the total area or about 43 lakh hectares of land.
Semi-medium farmers (less than two to four acres), medium farmers (less than four to 10 acres) and large farmers (10 acres and above) together form a small part of the landholding, accounting for 7.1%, 1.4% and 0.1% respectively, while operating 20.5%, 8.7% and 2.6% of the cultivated area.
from the other side
However, experienced farmers point to the IP side. Some families who have been farming for decades have gradually developed specialized skills and now travel to Telangana and even other states in search of work.
A laborer harvesting broccoli in a field in Muduchinthalappalli. | Photo Courtesy: Nagara Gopal
One of the earliest practitioners of viticulture in the area, K. Chandra Mohan Reddy says that many workers who were once employed on his farm have mastered tasks such as setting up trellis systems. He says, “Some of the people working in our farm had learned trellis work earlier. The same happened with workers in other farms. Today, there are teams in Muduchinthalapally who are constantly demanding to install trellis.” Thakur continues to work in his field.
Digital media platforms are enabling such skilled teams to expand their reach and receive work orders. Chinna, from Peddapur village in Sangareddy district, started pruning mango, guava, pomegranate and other fruit trees at the age of 19 after learning the skill from another worker. Soon, he started working independently. Today, the 28-year-old leads a team that travels across districts and even other states for work.
He says that after a video interview containing his phone number was widely circulated among farming communities, farmers from different districts and states started contacting him. Since then the team has also started work in Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh. “We are involved in pruning, grafting and plantation work of mango, guava, custard apple and other crops,” he explains.
Similar pruning teams from Andhra Pradesh also travel to Telangana for seasonal work. Since different fruit trees require pruning at different times of the year, such teams are able to find work in different areas for much of the year.
Even as skill-based agricultural labor becomes more dynamic and in demand, concerns remain over the absence of basic social protection. B. Kondal Reddy, state committee member of Rythu Swarajya Vedika, says landless workers, including agricultural labourers, remain outside formal safety nets such as insurance. “At present, migrant workers have no social security. If someone dies while working, workers collect money among themselves to take the body back to their native place,” he says.
