Lok Sabha Question No. 2097 (UNSTARRED), answered on 2022-12-20
Subject: Welfare of Tenant Farmers
Ministry: AGRICULTURE AND FARMERS WELFARE
Asked by: Kotagiri Sridhar, Chandra Sekhar Bellana

## GOVERNMENT OF INDIA MINISTRY OF AGRICULTURE AND FARMERS WELFARE DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE AND FARMERS WELFARE

## LOK SABHA UNSTARRED QUESTION NO. 2097

TO BE ANSWERED ON THE 20 TH  DECEMBER, 2022

## WELFARE OF TENANT FARMERS

2097.  SHRI SRIDHAR KOTAGIRI: SHRI CHANDRA SEKHAR BELLANA:

Will  the  Minister  of  AGRICULTURE AND FARMERS WELFARE क ृ षि एवं षकसान कल्याण मंत्री be pleased to state:

- (a) whether the Government is taking/intends to take measures for the welfare of tenant farmers  located  in  the  rice  bowl  areas  of  East  Godavari,  West  Godavari,  Krishna  and Guntur districts;
- (b) if so, the details thereof;
- (c) if not, the reasons therefor; and
- (d) the details of other measures being taken by the Government for the overall welfare of tenant farmers in the country?

## ANSWER

## MINISTER OF AGRICULTURE AND FARMERS WELFARE

क ृ षि एवं षकसान कल्याण मंत्री (SHRI NARENDRA SINGH TOMAR)

- (a) to (d): Agriculture is a State subject. However, the Government of India implements various schemes and programmes for the welfare of farmers including tenant farmers  of  the  country.  A  gist  of  some  of  the  important  schemes  for  the  welfare  of farmers including tenant farmers is given at Annexure-I . Government of Andhra Pradesh has informed about its various farmer welfare schemes for tenant farmers which are at Annexure-II .

## (i) Specific Target for Agriculture in Priority Sector Lending:

Under  the  priority  sector  lending  programme,  the  Reserve  Bank  of  India  (RBI)  has prescribed  focused  credit  to  priority  sectors  for  all  Commercial  Banks  including  Regional Rural  Banks,  Small  Finance  Banks,  Local  Area  Banks  and  Primary  (Urban)  Co-operative Banks other than Salary Earners' Banks. Within the specific target for priority sector lending, a sub-target of 18 % has been fixed for agriculture (excluding foreign banks with less than 20  branches),  out  of  which  a  sub-target  of  10%  is  prescribed  for  Small  and  Marginal Farmers  (SMFs).  For  computation  of  achievement  of  the  sub-target,  Small  and  Marginal Farmers include landless agricultural labourers, tenant farmers, oral lessees and sharecroppers whose share of landholding is within the limits prescribed for SMFs.

## (ii) Financing of Joint Liability Groups(JLG) of 'Bhoomi Heen Kisan':

Tenant farmers, share croppers and oral lessees are excluded from institutional credit/formal  banking  institutions.  These  mid  segment  clients  had  access  to  productive assets but were unable to access institutional credit due to their inability to offer adequate security. These farmers are eligible to form JLGs.

JLGs  of  'Bhoomi  Heen  Kisan'  are  informal  groups  of  4-10  members  engaged  in  similar economic activities and willing to jointly undertake to repay the loans taken by the group. The Union Budget of 2014-15 provided for financing of 5 lakh JLGs of Bhoomi Heen Kisan through  NABARD. RBI has issued guidelines  to  all  Scheduled  Commercial  Banks  in  this regard.

Apart from extending refinance support to banks, NABARD also extends grant support to banks and other JLG promoting agencies for formation and nurturing of JLGs and capacity building  of  the  stakeholders.  To  encourage  JLG  formation  and  promotion,  NABARD provides grant assistance of Rs. 4000 per JLG.

## (iii) Kisan Credit Card:

The  KCC  Scheme  was  introduced  in  1998  so  that  farmers  may  use  them  to  readily purchase agriculture inputs such as seeds, fertilizers, pesticides etc. and draw cash for their production needs. The scheme aims at providing adequate and timely credit support from the  banking  system  under  a  single  window  with  a  flexible  and  simplified  procedure  for farmers (individual/ joint borrowers who are owner cultivators), tenant farmers, oral lessees, share  croppers,  Self  Help  groups  or  Joint  Liability  Groups  of  farmers  including  tenant farmers.

## (iv) Interest Subvention Scheme:

The Government of India is implementing Modified Interest Subvention Scheme (MISS) with a view to provide short term Agri-loans availed by farmers through KCC for their working capital requirements at concessional rate of interest. Under this scheme, farmers who are owner cultivators - both individual /joint borrowers; Tenant farmers, oral lessees and share croppers;  Self  Help  Groups  or  Joint  Liability  Groups  of  farmers  including  tenant  farmers, share  croppers  etc.  are  given  KCC  loan  at  subvented  interest  rate  of  7%.  For  this,  at present,  interest  subvention  of  @  1.5%  is  being  given  to  financial  institutions.  Therefore, short term loans for Agriculture and other allied activities including animal husbandry, dairy, fisheries etc. upto Rs. 3.00 lakh is available to farmers at an interest rate of 7% per annum. Additional 3% subvention is also given to the farmers for prompt and timely repayment of loans; thus reducing the effective rate of interest to 4% per annum. In case of short term loan availed for allied activities only (other than crop husbandry), the loan amount upto Rs. 2.00 lakh is available at the rate of 7%. Additional 3% interest subvention is also available on it.

## (v) Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana (PMFBY):

PMFBY  Scheme  was  launched  from  Kharif  2016  with  aim  to  support  production  in agriculture by providing an affordable crop insurance product to ensure comprehensive risk cover insurance support for crops of farmers against all non-preventable natural risks from pre-sowing  to  post-harvest  stage.  All  tenant  farmers  growing  the  notified  crops  in  the notified areas are eligible for coverage.

## (vi) Farmer Producer Organisations (FPOs):

The Government of India has launched the Central Sector Scheme (CSS) for 'Formation and Promotion of 10,000 Farmer Producer Organizations (FPOs)' in  the  year  2020. The scheme has a total budgetary outlay of Rs.6865 crore. Formation & promotion of FPOs are done through Implementing Agencies (IAs), which further engage Cluster Based Business Organizations (CBBOs) to form & provide professional handholding support to FPOs for a period of 05 years including preparation and execution of business plan for the concerned FPOs for ensuring better marketing opportunities & market linkages on sustainable basis. Landless tenant farmers are included as eligible beneficiaries/members of FPOs.

## Agril. credit disbursement to tenant farmers during 2022-23 as on date

|               | 2022-23              | 2022-23                   |
|---------------|----------------------|---------------------------|
| District      | No of tenant farmers | Credit amount (Rs. in Cr) |
| East Godavari | 22209                | 60.09                     |
| West Godavari | 12200                | 58.37                     |
| Krishna       | 7936                 | 54.42                     |
| Guntur        | 20520                | 49.14                     |

## Agril. Credit to Tenant farmers:

-  The  Government.  of  Andhra  Pradesh  has  enacted,  AP  Crop  Cultivators  Right  Act (APCCR Act), 2019 on 17-08-2019 in order to provide the different benefits extended by the Government to the actual cultivators duly safeguarding the land rights of the owner farmers.
-  This enables the generation of Crop Cultivators Rights Card (CCRC) to the Tenant farmers. This card facilitates the tenant farmers to have the rights on the crop for a period of 11 months and also the gives eligibility to get institutional credit from banks and all benefits are extended by Government under different schemes.
-  To overcome the problems in loaning to individual tenant farmers, the Joint Liability Groups (JLG) are formed with land less tenant farmers for facilitating credit in Group mode.
-  The GoAP has also integrated services of PACS / DCCBs with RBKs for providing credit services to farmers, particularly tenants through Rythu Bharosa kendras(RBK).

## YSR Rythu Bharosa- PM KISAN':

## Scheme benefit to tenant farmers during 2022-23 as on date

|               | 2022-23              | 2022-23                   |
|---------------|----------------------|---------------------------|
| District      | No of tenant farmers | Credit amount (Rs. in Cr) |
| East Godavari | 6976                 | 9.42                      |
| West Godavari | 4775                 | 6.45                      |
| Krishna       | 7190                 | 9.71                      |
| Guntur        | 5189                 | 7.01                      |

-  The  Government of  Andhra  Pradesh  has  implemented,  'YSR  RYTHU  BHAROSAPMKISAN' scheme from October 15 th , 2019.
-  Financial  assistance  of  Rs.  13,500/-  (Rs.  7500/-  from  the  State  Government  and Rs. 6000/- from GOI through PM-KISAN) is given to all the eligible land owner farmer families.

## Input Subsidy due to Natural Calamities:

The Dept. of Agriculture has released Rs.0.298 Cr. of input subsidy covering 507 tenant  farmers due to Floods/ Heavy rains during Kharif 2022 in EG, WG, Krishna & Guntur districts of AP. The details as on date are as follows.

| District      |   No. of Tenant farmersbenefitted |   Input subsidy released (Rs. In Cr) |
|---------------|-----------------------------------|--------------------------------------|
| East Godavari |                               252 |                              0.37319 |
| West Godavari |                               375 |                              0.38574 |
| Krishna       |                               167 |                              0.15907 |
| Guntur        |                               144 |                              0.12645 |
| Total         |                               938 |                              1.04445 |

## Crop Insurance to Tenant farmers:

-  Government of Andhra Pradesh implements Dr. YSR Free Crop Insurance scheme from Rabi 2019-20 onwards. With a view to ensuring Universal coverage of notified crops under the Crop  Insurance scheme without any premium burden on the Farmers and separate registration.
-  Priority has been given to the tenant farmers growing notified crops in notified areas, whose  crop  details  were  captured  through  the  e-crop  (a  software  application  for capturing crop details) and after successful completion of farmer e-KYC and social audit become eligible for coverage  under this scheme.

## Crop Insurance claims paid to tenant farmers as on date

| District      | 2021-22 (Released during June 2022)   | 2021-22 (Released during June 2022)   |
|---------------|---------------------------------------|---------------------------------------|
|               | No. of Tenant farmers benefitted      | InsuranceClaim (Rs. In Cr.)           |
| East Godavari | 13131                                 | 40.2                                  |
| West Godavari | 8729                                  | 17.98                                 |
| Krishna       | 27504                                 | 104.3                                 |
| Guntur        | 25367                                 | 29.4                                  |
| Total         | 74731                                 | 191.88                                |

In addition to this, Dept. of Agriculture, Government of Andhra Pradesh helps the tenant  farmers  through  other  programmes  like  Subsidy  seed  distribution,  YSR  Yantra Seva  Padhakam  (Farm  Mechanization-SMAM),  YSR  Sunna  Vaddi  Panta  Runalu  (The interest subsidy for the crop loans up to Rs.1.00 lakh who have repaid their loans within one year).

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