The agricultural workers and sharecroppers are the real backbone of agriculture in Odisha but there is no end to the Government apathy concerning their welfare and development.
There is no law for the protection of sharecroppers and welfare scheme for farm workers. They are the most vulnerable section and mostly unorganised to bargain for their protection.
The allocation in agriculture sector by the State and the Centre out of public money must be non-discriminatory. Bringing inclusiveness in benefit sharing of agriculture sector of the State is highly required to boost production. For last 74 years, the Government of Odisha has been neglecting rural producers, agriculture workers and sharecroppers without protective laws for them and also with poor sharing of benefits under the State policy.
The Census 2011 says there were 67 lakh agricultural workers in the State and there has been no survey by the Government about the number of sharecroppers in the State though it has been officially told that nearly 85 per cent of the land is being cultivated under sharecropping. Mayurbhanj district alone has about six lakh agricultural workers. Such a huge manpower needs to be productively engaged for the development of the State by creating space for their creative engagement in agriculture and allied sector.
Agricultural workers and sharecroppers are not socially homogenous groups and socially divided with regional differences. There is a need of social mobilisation and organisational work among agricultural workers and sharecroppers to place their agenda before public and the Government in the larger interest of the State and to bring social inclusiveness in agriculture sector.
In comparison to other developed States such as Kerala, Odisha has a lowest wage rate for agricultural workers without a proper Wage Board to look after the issue. Their cost of living is one of the lowest in the country. There are no protective laws for sharecroppers and special schemes or programmes for their development out of the Agriculture Budget. As a result, the production in agriculture has not improved even to meet the State’s domestic consumption. Odisha is dependant on other States even for agricultural products for a long time without any sign of improvement.
Paddy continues to be the monsoon dependent principal crop with low productivity that still remains less than the national average. Odisha is largely dependent on neighbouring States for agricultural products such as vegetables, fruits, potato, egg, meat, fish etc. The production as well as per capita consumption of vegetables, milk, egg, fish and meat in Odisha is less than the national average. Agriculture still is seasonal in nature and mostly people in agriculture are seasonally employed. The NREGS is planned to employ rural people for a minimum 100 days but it has failed to meet the purpose in generating employment for the rural poor who are seasonally employed in agriculture. Though the State is dependent on sharecroppers but officially it does not recognise their presence and when it comes to benefit sharing of input subside, MSP and other support, they are handed out a raw deal. It is a fact that agricultural workers and sharecroppers are the actual strength of agriculture but unfortunately they have been historically denied justice. They don’t get full time employment, decent wage and dignified living condition. And a major section still suffers with social discrimination in village life.
The agricultural workers and sharecroppers constitute a major portion of the rural poor and they mostly belong to the socially marginalised sections, socially excluded in many ways, and remain resourceless, without land, education, skill and access to credit. For a long time, they have been excluded from State sponsored social security measures in healthcare, maternity benefit, old age pension and housing etc. The traditional farmers and forest dwellers are not given title rights over their land they are cultivating for centuries.
It is unfortunate that for the last 74 years, the State Government has failed to bring a legislation to protect the interest of the sharecroppers. May be, it is a fact that the leaders of the ruling parties of the State are mostly drawn from the rural land owning upper caste feudal families and urban middle class intellectuals who have never paid adequate attention to the issues of the socially marginalised section in rural areas. Various studies show that the rural land owning class is a major beneficiary of all kinds of Government subsidy for agriculture and the huge agricultural credit mostly goes to the use of non-agricultural propose. The MSP has been very well beneficial to private money lenders and rice millers and transporters because mostly poor producers and sharecroppers are prone to distress sale for timely financial need.
It has been proved again and again in last few years that a majority of farmers who have committed suicide in Odisha were sharecroppers and under debt burden of private money with higher rate of interest from local moneylenders. The sharecroppers are not given membership in the State- run agricultural cooperative societies for any loan facility. The financial organisations, banks and cooperatives enjoying State patronage are very casual about the financial need of agricultural workers and sharecroppers in rural areas. A vast majority of people in agriculture in rural and interior parts are illiterate and without a bank account. Private money lending is still predominantly operational in rural and tribal dominated areas.
It is found that many of the absentee land owners do not prefer to lease out their land for sharecropping; rather they are looking for commercial ventures for leasing out land to companies for comparatively higher financial gain.
Therefore, the Government must ensure land for real farmers engaged in agriculture by creation of new land. The land distribution settlement provisions under OGlS Act, homestead schemes such as Basundhara, FRA and employment generating schemes such as NREGS must be linked to ensure integrated development in agriculture. The temple land, waste land, mined out land and Bhoodan land must be distributed among land less agricultural workers and sharecroppers. It is time for the Government to change the land policy to make the ownership small producer centric rather than corporate friendly. The issues of agricultural workers and sharecroppers of the State never feature in the political agenda and political economy of the State as there is absence of powerful mobilisation of agricultural workers. In the absence of genuine farm leaders the few farmer outfits in the State highlight very little about the conditions of agricultural workers and sharecroppers in acknowledging their rights and linking their development to overall agricultural development of the State.
(manasbbsr15@gmail.com)