Question : Data on Tenant Farmers and Sharecroppers

(a) whether the Government has any data on number of tenant farmers and sharecroppers in the country;
(b) if so, the details thereof, State/UT-wise and if not, whether the Government has any plans to maintain the data of tenant farmers and sharecroppers in coming years;
(c) whether the Centre and various State Governments are recognizing tenant farmers and sharecroppers for availing any of the Government agricultural schemes, if so, the details of the schemes along with the list of the States which are recognizing the tenant farmers and sharecroppers and if not, the reasons therefor;
(d) whether the Government has any intention to include the tenant farmers and sharecroppers as farmers in database of ‘AgriStack’; and
(e) if so, the details of the steps taken to include them and if not, the reasons for not including them in the database of ‘AgriStack’?

MINISTER OF AGRICULTURE AND FARMERS WELFARE


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(a) to (e): A statement is laid on the Table of the House.





STATEMENT REFERRED TO IN REPLY TO PART (a) TO (e) OF LOK SABHA STARRED QUESTION NO. 323 DUE FOR ANSWER ON 21ST DECEMBER, 2021

(a) & (b): As per the latest survey on Situation Assessment of Agricultural Households and Land and Livestock Holdings of Households in Rural India conducted in 2019 by National Statistical Office (NSO), tenant holdings constituted (with both wholly and partly leased-in area) about 17.3% of the total holdings in the country during 2018-19. State-wise percentage of tenant holdingsis given in Annex-I.
(c): Agriculture being a State subject, the State Governments undertake implementation of agricultural schemes/programmes for the development of the sector and the Government of India also supplements these efforts through implementation of various central sector/centrally sponsored schemes/programmes. Among these, the schemes which specifically cover tenant farmers and sharecroppers are the Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana (PMFBY) & Restructured Weather Based Crop Insurance Scheme (RWBCIS) and Kisan Credit Card (KCC) scheme.

In PMFBY, farmers are required to submit necessary documentary evidence of land records prevailing in the State (Records of Right (RoR), Land Possession Certificate (LPC) etc.) and/or applicable contract/ agreement details/ other documents notified/ permitted by concerned State Government in case of sharecroppers/tenant farmers and the same should be defined by the respective States in the notification itself. In KCC scheme, adequate and timely credit support through the banking system is provided to farmers, including Self Help Groups (SHGs) or Joint Liability Groups (JLGs) of farmers for their agricultural activities and other needs. Farmers can avail of loan upto Rs. 1.60 lakh without any collateral. Landless and tenant farmers/artisans can also avail collateral-free institutional credit by forming Self Help Groups (SHGs) or Joint Liability Groups (JLGs), which is a medium for financing landless farmers, tenant farmers, sharecroppers and oral lessees.




Beneficiaries of such schemes are decided/selected by respective State Governments. The details of these schemes and the States/UTs implementing them are given in Annex-II.

(d) & (e): In the first phase of building the database of AgriStack, the Department is taking the publicly available data of only landowning farmers as existing in various data silos in Government.