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Ensure cultivators get benefits of schemes

MORE than 3 lakh farmers have committed suicide in the country in the past over two decades, largely due to indebtedness caused by agrarian distress.

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Sucha Singh Gill
Honorary Professor, CRRID, Chandigarh

MORE than 3 lakh farmers have committed suicide in the country in the past over two decades, largely due to indebtedness caused by agrarian distress.

The 59th round of the National Sample Survey Office (NSSO, 2002-03) revealed that 40 per cent of the farmers expressed the desire to quit agriculture, provided an alternative was available to them. The 70th round of the NSSO showed that the household income from all sources of farming families, especially those belonging to marginal and small categories, was deplorably low. It was the highest at Rs 18,059 per month in Punjab for all categories of farmers, followed by Haryana (Rs 14,434). In case of marginal farmers, the monthly income in Punjab was Rs 14,219 and Rs 11,096 in Haryana. The low income of the farming families has pushed them to the brink. This led to protests by the farming community in various states. In the wake of these protests, two schemes have been rolled out. The loan waiver for small and marginal owners of land has been implemented in Uttar Pradesh and Punjab with results not so satisfactory for the farming community. 

Another scheme, recently initiated by the Union Government, is Pradhan Mantri Kisan Samman Nidhi Yojana. Under this scheme, families owning less than five acres are provided income support of Rs 6,000 per annum in three equal instalments to be paid through direct bank transfer (DBT) into the accounts of small and marginal farmers. Any landowner holding a constitutional position or a government employee or a pensioner with a pension of Rs 10,000 per month or above or any farmer who pays income tax is excluded from this scheme. The Telangana and Odisha schemes provide Rs 8,000 and Rs 10,000, respectively, in two equal instalments to the small and marginal farmers.  Both schemes — loan waiver and income support — are supposed to provide support to mitigate distress of poor farmers. Although the schemes have been launched to woo the farming community ahead of the forthcoming polls, these are expected to continue beyond the elections. It is, therefore, necessary to examine their working in the light of existing land records. 

There are two types of landholdings in the country: Ownership holdings, in which the name of the landowner is mentioned in the record with the revenue department of the state government; and operational holdings, for which data is collected about the status of actual cultivators. The cultivators can be landowners, owners-cum-tenants or tenant cultivators.

Operational holdings are not reflected properly in the record of the revenue department. A large number of owners of the land themselves do not cultivate their land. They lease out their land to other cultivators, who own some land or are landless. The leases are largely verbal. These remain unrecorded because the landowners do not enter into written leases for fear of losing their land if the tenant continues to cultivate it for certain number of years (six in Punjab and Haryana) on account of the Occupancy Tenancy Acts of the states. In the revenue record, these landowners are recorded as self-cultivators. The tenancy is largely underground. As per the NSSO survey’s 70th round (2012-13), 24.42 per cent of land in Punjab and 14.82 per cent in Haryana is under tenant cultivation. In the country, 10.41 per cent of the land is under tenancy. When the absolute number of landowners is compared with actual cultivators, the difference is big. For instance, the number of actual cultivators (operational holdings) in the country was 10.59 crore compared to ownership holdings of 14.68 crore. Thus, 27.86 per cent of the owners of land are not involved in cultivation, livestock farming or other agricultural activities. They are engaged in non-agricultural enterprises or salaried employment. The majority of them belong to small and marginal categories of landowners.  In Punjab, out of 25,73,700 land ownership holdings, the NSSO has reported 9,32,300 as actual cultivators (operational holdings) in the form of cultivators etc. The rest (63.78 per cent) are doing non-agricultural activities.  The same is the story in other states.  Those owning land but not cultivating it largely belong to the category of small and marginal owners. Many among the non-cultivating small and marginal owners can access agricultural credit as well as receive income relief as they are not in high-ranking jobs or receiving pension over Rs 10,000 per month or have paid income tax during the financial year.

Since the revenue department does not have a record of actual cultivators/ operational holdings, it uses land ownership data for the distribution of benefit of loan waiver or income relief. Consequently, many non-farmers get benefit, while farmers who cultivate land are left out. As per the NSSO data of 2011-12, over 93 lakh landless tenants are out of the ambit of these schemes in India. The income support scheme rolled by the Union Government in February cannot be availed by tenants. The loan waiver  schemes of state governments also exclude such tenants from the benefits but include non-cultivating landowners.

It is imperative that benefits of these schemes must go to the deserving families. This requires that the land records of the revenue departments of the state governments are updated.  The names of the actual cultivators should also entered in the revenue record.  This can be done if tenancy is recorded systematically and compulsorily. This would require a campaign of registering tenants on the pattern of Operation Barga launched in West Bengal in 1978 and changes in the existing tenancy laws. This would require sensitisation of revenue officials with administrative and political support and adequate provision of financial resources.

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