The identity of the tenant farmers remained only on paper

Srikakulam: Identification and recognition of tenant farmers and issuing of identity cards to them seems to be confined only to the paper. As per land records available with the Revenue Department, total farmers in the district are 4.43 lakh. But all these farmers are not cultivating their lands at field-level. Out of the total 4.43 lakh farmers more than 1.50 lakh farmers are tenant farmers and actual owners of the lands are cultivating their lands through these tenant farmers. But as per government guidelines for identification and issuing of identity cards for tenant farmers a written agreement must be executed between the landowner and tenant farmer. But landowners are not willing to enter into agreement with the tenant farmers on cultivation of land following some cases of “cheating” and due to some earlier errors. This is the main hurdle in the identification of actual tenant farmers. As per rules, officials of both revenue and agriculture departments have to conduct village-level meetings with both landlords and tenant farmers with the assistance of village-level government staff. But it is not possible at village level as the landowners are not willing to attend the meetings and given their nod before the officials on cultivation of their lands through tenant farmers. As a result, tenant farmers identification and issuance of identity cards to them has become almost impossible. In Srikakulam district, so far this year only 3,200 tenant farmers have been identified by the agriculture and revenue departments. But these tenant farmers are cultivating lands pertaining to various temples and surplus lands acquired by various projects. The identified tenant farmers can get subsidy on seed, manure and input subsidy amount as compensation in case of crop loss during the natural calamities. “In the absence of written agreements between the landowners and cultivating farmers identification of tenant farmers is difficult,” points out Joint Director for Agriculture K Sridhar.