Recently, the Government of Odisha has taken two major steps to change the informal status of the sharecroppers of the State by drafting the Odisha Agricultural Landleasing Act, to be passed by the State Assembly and it has also declared a credit scheme of Rs 1,040 crore named as Bhoomihina Agriculturist Loan and Resource Augmentation Model (BALARAM) for them.
These two initiatives aim to bring change in the crisis- ridden agrarian sector of the State as it will directly contribute to the lot of real farmers who have been engaged in cultivation but are deprived of benefits for the farmers provided by State for a long time.
These sharecroppers are mostly landless or having very marginal holding and small producers those who have no access to scope of formal credit ,input subsidy, benefit of MSP and compensation for crop loss etc already availed by land owning farmers.
The Agriculture Census 2015-16 estimated thatout of total 48 lakh holding in the State accounting for one -fifth of the operational holding is cultivated by sharecroppers who are mostly small and marginal farmers. This available data will be used by Krushak Sathi and VAWs in identifying beneficiaries of the schemes of Government with involvement of institutions such as NABARD, ATMA and IMAGE as facilitating agencies.
As per the BALARAM scheme, the farmers will be extended credit facility of Rs 1.60 lakh per group by banks and primary agricultural cooperative societies through joint liability groups of minimum five farmers. It has to follow all the RBI norms including CIBIL(Credit Information Bureau of India Ltd) score and other banking regulations. The Government hopes that it will improve access to scope of formal credit and limit the role of traditional village money leaders. This will also help prevent distress sale during harvesting period. It is also expected that the migrant labourers who have returned to villages may be rehabilitated through the process by extending them productive employment in agriculture. The whole process depends on the willingness of banks and their outreach in rural areas as well as access of landless illiterate farmers to financial inclusion.
The most important part of the Government initiative is to ensure the legal recognition of sharecroppers and their identification while to remove the fear of land owners over ownership of land in executing a legal deal with sharecroppers by enactment of law called Odisha Agriculture Land Leasing Act. Already many States such as TN and AP have overcome the difficulties to ensure protection for sharecroppers. However, though late, the decision of the Government of Odisha will be helpful to the real farmers.
The Agricultural Land Leasing Act in its draft has included agriculture and allied activities which cover a wide range of actions relating to agriculture, horticulture, plantation,dairy, poultry, fishery, agro forestry and agro –processing, to be done individually and in group. The lease is a written contract between the land owner and sharecropper for periodic cultivation of land. The proposed act has restrictions for scheduled areas of the State to protect the tribal land owners. The total amount of lease area is restricted to ceiling area as per OLR Act. The lease agreement covers the details of the land owner and lessee cultivator, survey number, boundaries, location and area of lease, duration and other terms and conditions including provisions of termination and list of agricultural activities. The lease agreement has to be attested by local RI, Sarapanch, local bank officer or Notary with two witnesses. The oral lease can be discussed in Gramsabha before approval of the officials. It is clearly mentioned that the lease do not approve any right over land to the lessee cultivator except for the purpose of periodic cultivation. Any dispute arising out of enforcement of lease will be settled amicably and it can be taken up with the Tehsildar , the Collector and finally by a special land tribunal headed by a retired High Court or District Court Judge and it is said that no civil court will have jurisdiction over dispute under the Act.
It is told in the Act that the Government will create awareness to facilitate the law and motivate both non-cultivate land owners and land less cultivators.
It is expected that through this deed, the sharecroppers will be eligible to avail loan from the banks and cooperative societies or any other Government financial institutions. The expected value of crop from the land may be used as collateral security against the loan. During the lease period, the sharecropper will be eligible for crop insurance, compensation against loss and damage due to natural calamities and other forms of attack over crop and sale of crop at MSP in the designated sales points along with any other benefits declared by Government from time to time available for land owning farmers.
That's said and done, it seems the proposed Act will make the relationship among landowner and sharecropper too much complicated rather than serving any purpose. So it is suggested that to make the process simpler, the sharecroppers and their needs be properly identified. The Government may identify the sharecroppers by help of ward member, Sarapanch, VAW, RI or any local persons and help them in getting access to basic inputs such as seed, pesticide, fertilizer and compensation for loss as well as access to sale of crops at MSP and other such special benefits targeted only for sharecroppers.
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