Srikakulam: Woes of tenant farmers remain unsolved

Srikakulam: Woes of tenant farmers remained unsolved years together in the district as agriculture department and bankers doing precious little. There are more than 20,000 tenant farmers in Srikakulam district as per Left-oriented organisations. But of them, only 7,632 tenant farmers had been issued Crop Cultivator Rights (CCR) cards during the last year kharif season. This year, the new NDA government may alter norms, raising hopes among tenant farmers.

The CCR cards will help tenant farmers get crop loans from various banks, purchase seed on subsidy price from the government agencies and also get compensation if the crops are damaged due to natural calamities like floods and draught. Onus is on the agriculture department to identify tenant farmers and issue CCR cards. But most of the government employees have lands in various villages cultivate by tenant farmers.

They are not willing to issue CCR cards to tenant farmers lest their control on lands will be slackened. The irony is that government employees who are tasked with issuing CCR cards to tenants are alone preventing the implementation of the policy. During last year only 1,592 tenant farmers got crop loan from the bankers. This year the exercise is yet to start in the district for the kharif season.