DBT and Tenancy

  • November 28, 2022
  • Posted by: OptimizeIAS Team
  • Category: DPN Topics
No Comments

 

 

DBT and Tenancy

Subject: Economy

Context :Most economists advocate the conversion of all agricultural subsidies — whether on inputs (supplying fertilizer, power, water at below cost) or outputs (procuring crops at above market prices) — into direct income support to farmers.

Benefits:

Direct benefit transfers (DBT) on a per-acre or per-farmer basis- transparent and simple to administer.

It is crop-neutral hence, does not cause distortions in input/output markets.

Issue?

The exclusion of tenant farmers including exclusion from other schemes- zero/low-interest loans, crop insurance, disaster compensation.

About tenant farmers:

According to the National Statistical Office’s (NSO) ‘Situation Assessment of Agricultural Households’ survey for 2018-19-

  • 17.3 percent out of the total estimated 101.98 million operational holdings (i.e. farms) in rural India were on leased lands.
  • The share of such leased-in lands in the total area used for agricultural production was 13 per cent.
  • The  incidence of non-owners cultivating agricultural lands is the highest for Andhra Pradesh (AP) (42.4 per cent) and Odisha (39 per cent).
  • In Haryana and Punjab, the share of leased-in area is higher than the percentage of tenant holdings.
    • It means that the tenant farmers there operate relatively large holdings, even though they don’t own these lands.
  • The NSO’s previous surveys for 2012-13 and 2002-03 revealed the shares of leased-in holdings at only 13.7 per cent (11.3 percent of area) and 9.9 per cent (6.5 per cent), respectively.
    • Thus, the NSO surveys point to a steady increase in tenant farmers — who typically pay fixed cash rents or share of produce to owners.
  • Agriculture in India is increasingly seeing both “tenancy” (landless/marginal farmers leasing in land to cultivate) and “reverse tenancy” (small landowners leasing out to better-off farmers keen to reap economies of scale).

Agri-DBT schemes:

  • Pradhan Mantri Kisan Samman Nidhi (PM-Kisan)-
    • PM-Kisan provides an annual income support of Rs 6,000 to all landholding farmer families in India.
  • RythuBandhu
    • RythuBandhu extends financial assistance of Rs 10,000 per acre, again to all farmers owning land and without any size limit.
    • RythuBandhu literally means ‘Friend of Farmer’.
    • It is a scheme of the Telangana government under which the state government extends financial support to land-owning farmers at the beginning of the crop season through direct benefit transfer.
    • It was announced by the Chief Minister of Telangana in February 2018.
    • It is the first-ever farmer investment support scheme in India, where the cash is paid directly.
    • Eligibility 
      • It provides a grant of Rs. 5,000 per acre per farmer for both Kharif and rabi seasons for purchase of inputs such as seeds, fertilizers, pesticides, labour and other investments.
      • The scheme is open to all resident farmers of the state who owned land.
      • Farmers cultivating the land in the forest, a majority of them from Scheduled Tribe communities, and having Record of Forest Rights (ROFR) documents are also eligible to receive benefits under the scheme.
  • YSR RythuBharosa
    • YSR RythuBharosa is a program launched by the Government of Andhra Pradesh to financially assist farmers by depositing an amount of ₹13,500 per annum in three installments, in association with Pradhan Mantri Kisan Samman Nidhi with the state government contributing ₹7500 and the center ₹6000.
    • RythuBharosaKendras were later launched on 30 May 2020 to supply seedlings, fertilizers and seeds to horticulture, aquaculture and agriculture sectors.
    • It targets not just farmers, but also women, senior citizens, schoolchildren, unorganised workers and specific communities such as Kapus and weavers. Thus, tenant farmers were also considered eligible to the scheme
    • The AP government’s other agri-DBT schemes such as
      • YSR RythuBharosa,
      • Free Crop Insurance,
      • Input Subsidy and Sunna Vaddi (zero-interest loans)
      • AP Crop Cultivator Rights law-It provides for the issuance of “crop cultivator rights cards (CCRC)” to persons cultivating the lands of owners under agreements with 11-month validity, and countersigned by the village revenue officers concerned. The cards entitle lessee cultivators to benefits under the state’s DBT schemes, besides being “sufficient” for obtaining crop loans from banks.
  • Other schemes:

DBT and Tenancy economy