It is a double bonanza for the landowners of the Karimnagar district. After securing the Rythu Bandhu (investment support scheme) of ₹4,000 per acre from the State government, now the lease amount for the tenant farmers has been increased.
Thanks to the State government’s initiatives to turn the district into “seed bowl” owing to its favourable climatic conditions, fertile soil, irrigation sources under the SRSP command area and various seed, and companies coming forward to encourage seed production in the district, the tenant farmers were showing more interest to produce seed instead of the traditional consumable crops.
Now, farmers, mostly the tenants, were going in for the hybrid seed production due to the encouragement provided by the seed companies and good rate for the seed produced. The lease amount of per acre land for a period of one year was earlier only ₹15,000, but now, with the demand for seed production, it had increased to ₹27,000 per acre per annum. The cultivation of seed farming had become more beneficial to the debt-trapped farmers in general and the tenant farmers in particular, because of high returns.
Subsequently, there was heavy competition among the tenant farmers in the district in Veenavanka, Huzurabad, Saidapur, Shankarpatnam, Saidapur mandals for securing land to take up seed farming. Rythu Ikya Vedika district president Muduganti Venkat Reddy said that the tenant farmers were showing interest for seed farming as the seed companies were providing necessary male and female seed and also investment support of ₹5,000 per acre. Besides, the seed company was procuring the paddy seed at the rate of more than ₹7,000 per quintal against the normal paddy price in the market at ₹1500 per quintal.
Though, it is a laborious work, the tenant farmers were showing interest to take up seed farming instead of traditional cultivation of paddy, maize and jowar cultivation for better profits, he said, and added that the Karimnagar district was producing more than 90%hybrid seed to meet the domestic and international market.
He also said that another reason for the land owners to increase lease amount was that the tenant farmers were not showing the interest in taking up sharing (paalu) cultivation. In paalu cultivation, the land owner would not invest anything to do cultivation, but the tenant farmer after making investments and cultivation has to share 50% of the produce for leasing out land, he said.
