Andhra Pradesh: Tenant farmers continue to be meted out a raw deal

KAKINADA: Tenant farmers continue to suffer as they are not getting the Minimum Support Price for their produce as land owners are not giving them Crop Cultivator Rights Card (CCRC). Due to lack of the CCRC, the tenant farmers are not being enrolled for e-Crop. Generally, the land owners, who orally agree for the lease of land, do not give the required documents to the tenant farmers to make them avail of government benefits. As Rythu Bharosa Kendras (RBKs) are not ready to procure the paddy harvest of the tenant farmers, the latter are dependent on middlemen to sell their produce, who offer a lesser price of Rs 300 to Rs 350 per bag (75 kg), exploiting the former’s helplessness. 

Generally, middlemen are rice millers, who provide farm inputs to the tenant farmers to raise the crop to keep them under their control. In Kakinada district, 2,71,139 paddy farmers are enrolled. Of the total, 1,66,204 farmers are enrolled for e-crop, covering 2,21,370 acres of land under paddy cultivation. More than 50 per cent of the paddy crop acreage is being cultivated by the tenant farmers with or without CCRCs. 

Suryanarayana Merneddi, a farmer from Kovvuru village in Kakinada rural mandal, has cultivated paddy crop by taking 6 acres of land on lease. On an average, he has reaped a harvest of  32 to 35 bags (75 kg) of paddy per acre. The middleman has paid Suryanarayana Rs 1,200 per bag against the support price of Rs 1,545.

As a result, the tenant farmer has suffered a total loss of Rs 66,240. There are many tenant farmers like Suryanarayana, who are bearing loss silently. Though they are eligible to get all the benefits provided by the government for tenant farmers, they are not able to avail them due to lack of the CCRC.   

When the issue was taken to the notice of Joint Collector S  Ilakkiya, she said the agriculture department has been promoting awareness among land owners to give the tenant farmers CCRC to enable the latter avail of all the benefits being provided by the government. But there are a few legal issues in the process. However, steps will be taken to safeguard the interests of tenant farmers, the Joint Collector said.