Even as agrarian crisis in Odisha is deepening with reports of frequent farmer suicides, the State government has decided to formulate a scheme which would enable sharecroppers and tenants to avail loans.
A high level committee, headed by Cooperation Department secretary with senior officials from Revenue and Disaster Management and Odisha State Cooperative Banks managing director, will shortly visit Andhra Pradesh to study the policy framework on tenancy rights.
“The team will study various aspects of land reforms undertaken by Andhra Pradesh and Telengana governments in respect of tenancy rights, its implication and also credit and other facilities available to the tenant farmers,” said sources in Cooperation department.
The Chief General Manger, Regional Office of National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development, Bhubaneswar, will coordinate the study through his counterparts in two neighbouring States.
Revenue department is preparing a brief note on statutes governing tenancy in the State ahead of the proposed visit. Besides, a comprehensive study of paddy procurement and facility available to sharecroppers will be carried before the visit which is expected in the last week of October or first week of November.
This is not the first time when the State government has mooted making provision of loan for the sharecroppers. In 2009, the government had decided to cover sharecroppers under institutional loan arrangement after coming across that majority of farmers who had ended their lives were sharecroppers. Then, the scheme could not get final shape.
This year too, some sharecroppers had taken extreme steps following crop loss. In Nuapada, Dhanurdhar Ada (35), a sharecropper, had taken loan from money lenders by mortgaging his wife’s jewellery to grow paddy and cotton on four acres of land each. However, when he foresaw imminent crop failure, he had consumed poisonous substance to end his life. In most cases, the loan burden is found to be reason behind suicides.
If this becomes the government policy, it will go a long way in improving the financial condition of the sharecroppers.
According to Agriculture department, majority of the farmers are small and marginal and have limited access to resources. As per Agricultural Census-2010-11 the number of operational holdings of the State is 46.67 lakh with operational area 48.52 lakh ha.
From 13 per cent in the year 2004-05, agriculture credit as a percentage of state agriculture production has increased to 26 per cent in the year 2013-14. Against an agricultural production of Rs.48,047, the corresponding credit flow was Rs.12,582 crore (26 per cent) during 2013-14. In spite of such an increase in credit for the agriculture sector, the credit off-take from institutional sources is much less in the State as compared to national average or that in several neighbouring States. As many as 57,627 farmers had taken average loan of Rs.43,443 from different banks.
