The recent flood has severely affected agriculture sector of the State which will impact food production and SGDP. A majority of farmers with huge crop loss have been passing through a distress condition. Among the farmers, the most vulnerable section is the sharecroppers. It is a fact that a large portion of cultivation is being done by the sharecroppers. They are still predominantly engaged in paddy cultivation which is the principal crop in the State and mostly dependent on monsoon.
The sharecroppers cultivate the land of absentee land owners of different size. Though the sharecroppers are the real farmers but they have not been officially recognized as farmers to get all the entitlements offered by Central and State Governments.
Both land and agriculture are State subjects in the Constitution and it is expected that the State should come up with protective laws and schemes for the wellbeing of the real farmers to boost agriculture production and also arrest the huge distress migration in rural areas. As part of land reform measures of post independent India, in order to encourage the land owning farmers for cultivation, legally sharecropping is not allowed with a few exceptions for certain category of land owners in ORL Act.
This major contradiction has been continuing since the inception of the law without amendment to suit to the reality of the context.
In a recent move, the Government of Odisha has brought the Odisha State Agricultural Produce and Livestock Marketing (promotion and facilitation) Act 2020 to replace the Odisha Agricultural Produce Marketing Act 1956. The Odisha Agricultural Produce and Livestock Contract Farming and Services (promotion and facilitation) Ordinance 2020 aims to promote contract farming in the State. These Acts and reforms are no way going to help the sharecroppers; rather the privatisation move may finally replace the informal sharecropping in the State.
But in the current situation, sharecropping in the State is operated through informal arrangements between the land owners and tenants as per local traditions.
Traditionally, the landless Dalits in the coastal areas and other farming communities were engaged in sharecropping since generations but unfortunately there have been no legislation or dedicated schemes for them since long to protect them and they are always neglected by whichever party comes in power.
This year flood has hugely damaged paddy crops and seasonal vegetables of lakhs of sharecroppers who have substantially invested in agriculture through loan from informal institutions such as village women self-help groups and local money lenders usually at a higher rate of interest to meet the unavoidable timely expenses in seasonal agriculture.
Whatever compensation will be released by the State Government, that will directly reach to the accounts of the land owners and certainly not to the sharecroppers who are not yet legally recognised or identified through any informal survey as farmers.
For last 22 years, the mostly stable State Government has been talking about the sharecroppers without initiating a single step towards their wellbeing even in distress conditions such as flood and cyclone.
The most recent proposals of the State Government includes the draft Odisha Agricultural Landleasing Act, to be passed by the State Assembly, and a credit scheme of Rs 1,040 crore named as Bhoomihina Agriculturist Loan and Resource Augmentation Model (BALARAM) for them.
These two attempts are highly impractical and almost difficult to match with ground realties. The Agriculture Census 2015-16 estimated that out of total 48 lakhs holdings in the State, nearly one -fifth of the operational holdings is cultivated by sharecroppers.
This available data will be used by the Krushak Sathis and VAWs in identifying beneficiaries of the schemes of Government with involvement of institutions such as NABARD, ATMA and IMAGE as facilitating agencies.
The most important part of the Government initiative is to ensure the legal recognition of sharecroppers and their identification while removing the fear of land owners over ownership of land in executing a legal deal with sharecroppers by enactment of law called the Odisha Agriculture Landleasing Act.
The reality is no land owner is willing to officially recognise the existence of sharecroppers. A careful study of the draft legislation indicates the real intension of the Government and it seems the proposed act will make the relationship among land owner and sharecropper too much complicated rather than serving the purpose.
This BALARAM scheme is going to be implemented by the Department of Agriculture and Farmers’ Empowerment as part of the new Agriculture Policy of the Government, SAMRUDHI-2020. As per the scheme it will extend 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 scheme of loan for sharecroppers may not be practically effective, considering many social, political and economic implications as well as the current socio-cultural practices of the rural areas.
Most of the sharecroppers are illiterate, socially power less and lack financial literacy. They don't get access to institutional credit in rural areas. Therefore, it is highly desirable that the State Government must come up with practical solutions to support the real farmers in distress.
(manasbbsr15@gmail.com)