By Bhabani Prasad Mahapatra in Bhubaneswar, December 2, 2015 : The recent decision of the Government of Odisha to amend the Orissa Land Reforms Act 1960 may brighten the prospects of the fledgling agriculture sector in the state. The move by the state government comes in the wake of growing cases of suicides by farmers due to the huge crop loss and their inability to repay the loan which they have borrowed from non-institutional agencies like money lenders with high rate of interest. If implemented in letter and spirit, the proposed amendment to the Act will go a long way to boost the agriculture sector and also will ameliorate the pitiable conditions of farmers literally struggling to eke out a living.

The contribution of the agriculture to the state economy has been falling even as the dependence of the population on this sector has not seen noticeable fall. Agriculture in Odisha has also been facing several challenges like low investment, low return, low availability of institutional credit, inadequate irrigation facility, small landholding, rising cost of inputs, recurrence of natural calamities like drought, flood and cyclone and other problems like insufficient return from their produce due to inadequate post-harvest facilities like warehousing, storage, processing, marketing and effective insurance cover against crop loss.

Similarly, low seed replacement rate (SRR), inadequate extension and farmers training also hinder the growth of this. In general, the lack of interest of the farmers to adopt farming as an occupation is a matter of grave concern. As per an estimate of National Commission for Enterprises in the unorganized Sector (NCEUS) 2008, 46.7 percent of all farmers are disappointed over the outcome from farming in Odisha. Of the disgruntled farmers, 34.6 percent are medium and large farmers, 49 percent marginal farmers and 41 percent small farmers.

In order to address these challenges, civil society organizations, researchers and field practitioners have come out with several suggestions like, extending timely credit and insurance facilities for all crops to farmers belonging to all the farming categories like tenant farmers, share croppers, farmers under oral lessee including the small and marginal farmers and women farmers.

Responding to these demands, the state government has also taken several initiatives for the benefit of the farmers like providing subsidized seeds, fertilizers and credit. As per the estimate of the government, approximately Rs.11,000 per acre is required to harvest one crop once a year.

However, farmers like share croppers and other farmers under oral lessee and women farmers, just do not have that much saving and are forced to resort to borrowings. But as they do not have the ownership right of the land they are tilling, they are deprived of the institutional credit. They have no option but to look for loan from indigenous money lenders with high rate of interest. In case they incur huge crop loss, these farmers are unable to repay the loan to the money lenders.

The government has legally been constrained to address the deprivations of the share croppers and other vulnerable farmers because of following reasons:

• There is no data base of share croppers, farmers under oral lessee and women farmers.

• Inadequate attention to the rights of the share croppers in the Orissa Land Reforms Act 1960, which became effective from 1st October 1965. Except abolition of the zamidari system, reforms related to rights of the share croppers in the state were never initiated.

Hopefully, the recent decision of the state government to amend the Orissa Land Reforms Act 1960, will formalize the relationship between share cropper and land lord. As per the proposal, the land owners will be required to enter into a formal agreement with the share croppers in the presence of the tehasildars. The agreement, among others, will specify the rights of the land owner and the share cropper on the land and its produce.

Interestingly, the state government intends to incorporate the best practices relating to sharecropper in Karnataka, West Bengal, Chatisgarh etc to ensure that the share croppers will have the legitimate right to avail the institutional benefits provided by the government. The modalities of the implementation of the amendment will be decided jointly by revenue, co-operation and agriculture department of the state. However, the proposed amendment may include the women farmers as recognized farmers so that they too can get the access of credit and insurance facilities.