HYDERABAD: The number of small farmers getting the benefit of Rythu Bandhu scheme has gone up in the current cycle, with about 36,000 more farmers owning three acres or less having received the benefit when compared to the first half of 2020. Reason: Land is being divided within families following fears that government may introduce a cap on subsidy based on land ownership. Officials, however, have denied any such plan.
“Small farmers who are getting the benefit are not new owners but belong to the same family having chunks of land,” an official explained. In the last cycle, there were 44.42 lakh farmers in the category owing land up to three acres. This has gone up to 44.78 lakh farmers now.
Govind Reddy (name changed), a farmer from Turkayamjal, said: “We have about 11 acres in the name of my father. To be on the safe side, we have divided the land in my brother and my name. We are getting the same benefit though,” he said.
The government introduced the scheme for all landowners without any cap on the number of acres, providing Rs 5,000 per acre per season, which is twice a year. Only in one particular season the state had stopped the scheme to some farmers on technical grounds.
“This has led to fears in some families who owned more than 10 acres. We never intended to introduce any cap on the number of acres owned. All this talk of government planning a cap on those owning more than 10 acres and not extend Rythu Bandhu benefit are only rumours,” Telangana State Planning Board vice chairman B Vinod Kumar said.
He said though land mutations in recent times have gone up, the government is not harbouring any idea of rationalising the scheme. Officials said there were about 87,000 mutations of agricultural land properties in this financial year.