• Small , marginal farmers own less fertile , mostly rainfed cultivable land in the country .
Pauperization of Small Farmers
• Vast majority of farmers are now depend primarily on the sale of labour for their sustenance i . e . turned into wage labourers .
• This shows increased Pauperization after farmers loosing his / her land in villages .
• The reasons for small and medium farmers losing their land are many . Expensive food production technology was pushed on them , Due to the escalation of the cost of cultivation , unable to bear the high costs of fertilizers , diesel , seed small farmers are increasingly being exploited by markets and large agribusiness corporations . On the other hand , due to the lack of remunerative crop MSPs in markets , small farmers became vulnerable to rural indebtedness . This proved even more harmful in times of climate change with its more erratic rainfall and weather patterns . Small farmers became bankrupt in markets . The overall development model has moved in a direction where all four sections of rural India — 1 ). Input supply , 2 ). Land ownership , 3 ). marketing and 4 ). Distribution are increasingly monopolized by big agribusiness companies , large supermarket chains under Corporate farming .
Recent Land Acquisition Act ( 2014 ) and three Farm laws are directed to displace small farmers , and hand over the land to Corporate ownership .
Thus the paradigm of land reforms is totally reversed to benefit large corporations .
Farmers Income :
• The average monthly net income of agricultural households was a bare ‘ 8,337 in 2018-19 .
• But important is that wages ( earned as farm labourers in others fields ) now account for almost half the monthly income of agricultural households . This is a major shift May - 2023 as wage income not earned from crop cultivation but from wage labour , diary cattle and poultry rearing .
• Income earned outside crop cultivation has become the prime source of farm families . Wages have become the main source of income of agricultural households replacing crop production .
It accounts between 56 % and 70 % of income of households with less than 1 hectare of land . Burdened with income loss , medical & educational expenses farmers are indebted and fast losing their lands . This land is being acquired either by real estate lobby or big corporations or rich land lords .
Major cause underlying the present agrarian crisis is accumulation by dispossession by big Agribusiness and Corporations increased number of tenant farmers .
High costs of cultivation and low crop MSPs are major reasons for the loss of land and pauperization of farmers . In India , according to the census of 2001 there were 127.3 million ( 1273 lakh ) landowning farmers . According to 2011 census in a decade ’ s time , the number of landowning farmers in India decreased by 8.6 million ( 86 lakh ). This works out to a decline of over 2300 farmers in a day or almost a hundred farmers every hour . This is a huge decline .
Landless and small farmers have become tenant farmers and the numbers run to nearly 40 % in states such as Telangana , Gujarat , Maharastra , AP and West Bengal . Tenant farmers . These are denied benefits provided by the state such as PM Samman , Rytu Bandhu , seed , fertilizer subsidies , crop damage relief compensation and other forms of relief . Besides tenant farmers meeting high costs of cultivation have to pay nearly half the income derived from crop cultivation to land owners , leaving very little for their households .
Farmer Suicides
Subsequently , unable to stand serious agricultural crisis , small frmers are joining ranks of waged farm labourers or emigrating to urban areas or committing suicides .
During the last two decades ( 200 to 2020 ) nearly 3.5 Lakh farmers ( at a rate of 332 a day ) ended their lives . Land ownership and Women Women farmers perform nearly 60 % of farm operations starting from seed sowing , weeding , transplantation , harvesting , cattle rearing and postharvest operations .
Yet their labour is mostly unaccounted for or receive 30 % percent less wages .
In India only 12 % of women farmers own land . For example in Telangana only 10 % 0f women hold land legally on title deeds .
Distribution of Ceiling Surplus Land
All over India , 68,72,824 acres of land was declared ceiling surplus after abolishing Zamindari & feudal land ownership and government acquisition of land under partially implemented land reforms . Out of this , 60,27,180 acres was taken into possession of the government and 48,99,893 acres had been distributed till 2006 . This means that only 71 per cent of the identified ceiling surplus land was distributed among the landless . The distribution of land was done in states of West Bengal , Kerala , Tripura ( by Communist left governments ) and Jammu & Kashmir . A small portion of land was liberated from feudal landlords and distributed to landless during the militant peasant struggles of Telangana and Punnapravalayar soon after independence . State governments had ( though partially ) implemented land reforms in Andhra Pradesh , Maharastra . Bihar , Tripura , Punjab , Tamil Nadu after land occupation struggles were waged by All India Kisan Sabha ( AIKS ), All India Agricultural Workers Union ( BKMU ) and communist parties in 1960 ’ s & 70 ’ s . contd . in page 05 7