10 lakh tenant farmers left in the lurch

Telangana has registered a negative growth rate of over 10 per cent in agricultural sector due to lack of access to adequate institutional credit, besides persistent crop failures, rise in input costs, irrigation facilities, fake seed and fertilizers menace

Warangal: The kharif season in Telangana may have got off to an astounding start with the arrival of Southwest monsoon in time and with no alarming power outages to the agriculture sector, but the inordinate delay in the issuance of Loan Eligibility Cards (LECs) have left about 10 lakh tenant farmers in the lurch in the state.

Though the first progressive step to address the farm sector came in December 2011 when the AP government passed legislation - Land Licensed Cultivators Act - granting tenant farmers access to institutional credit by giving annual loan eligibility cards. The LEC is also meant to ensure subsidies for seed and fertilizers to the tenant farmers.

While the pro-farmer fora claims the number of tenant farmers is above 10 lakh in Telangana, the government numbers state that it is only 4.14 lakh. The then AP government had issued only 58,534 LECs and disbursed Rs 23.93 crore crop loans to 8,406 tenant farmers in 2012.

The tendency of suicides among tenant farmers is high as they fetch loans from private money-lenders at a rate of 24 per cent to a whopping 120 per cent interest. The farmers’ fora claim that at least 350 of total 924 cultivators, who committed suicide between June 1, 2014 and June 30, 2015, are tenant farmers.

According to the recent survey by the National Sample Survey Organization (NSSO), Telangana and Andhra Pradesh lead in agrarian indebtedness. Telangana has registered a negative growth rate of over 10 per cent in agricultural sector due to lack of access to adequate institutional credit, besides persistent crop failures, rise in input costs, irrigation facilities, fake seed and fertilizers menace.

Although, the government cited teething problems in the administration immediately after the state bifurcation for the delay, it’s said that the government didn’t show any interest to renew the existing cards as they sported the pictures of the AP government logo and the then chief minister N Kiran Kumar Reddy in 2014.

However, the issue has been sorted out by redesigning the cards carrying the pictures of TS logo and Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao, the new cards are yet to be printed. Against this backdrop, the Revenue department has issued GO RT No. 286 according permission for the issue of new loan eligibility cards to the eligible tenant farmers on June 22, 2015. However, the process of identifying the eligible tenant farmers is yet to get underway in several districts.

If it was like this, the situation is already turning critical for the farmers as they have to make a decision, whether to miss out this kharif or walk straight into the trap of private money-lenders. Meanwhile, the reported delay in release of second installment of Rs 4,250 crore due to banks is also playing havoc on the farmers in general. The delay is obstructing farmers to roll over their existing loans and receive fresh ones.

“It is high time the government woke up from its deep slumber and issue the LECs to eligible tenant farmers,” TPCC working president N Uttam Kumar Reddy told The Hans India. Congress Legislature Party leader in the Telangana Assembly K Jana Reddy urged the government to take measures on a war-footing as there was not much time left for the farmers to take up sowing operations.

AIKS national vice-president Sarampalli Malla Reddy said, “It was unfortunate that the successive governments never paid attention to the problems faced by the tenant farmers, despite the fact that 32 to 35 per cent of the farming in Telangana is in their hands.” He said that with the kharif season is already underway and the process of determining the eligibility of tenant farmers is a time-consuming one, the district administrations need to act on swiftly.

Khammam district joint collector D Divya assured of initiating steps for the issue of LECs to tenant farmers in about 10 days, Rythu Sangham Telangana State joint secretary Nunna Nageswara Rao told this newspaper. “If this process done at the earliest, it would help the farmers to take up sowing operation, besides it would also rescue the farmers who already walked into the debt-trap of private money-lenders,” he added.

By:Adepu Mahender