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Fahimuddin ¹

Affiliations
1 Giri Institute of Development Studies, Lucknow-226 024, IN

Abstract

There are conflicting views of the scholars about the role of tenancy in agricultural development. One section of the scholars believe that tenancy runs under exploitative terms and is based mostly on oral contracts without any security of lease. An opposite view has also emerged among the scholars who find tenancy as an effective means of increasing land access to the poor, redistributing the gains of agricultural development, empowering tenants and improving their bargaining power. In the light of conflicting views about tenancy, it becomes important to empirically examine the issue in its various dimensions and to solicit the views of stakeholders at the ground level. The present paper is mainly based on a survey of 43 tenants in Lakhimpur district, 56 tenants in Hardoi district, 60 tenants in Sultanpur district, 50 tenants in Etah district and 49 tenants in Jhansi district in the State of Uttar Pradesh. The analysis of NSS data has indicated that despite the legislative regulations and restrictions on the tenancy, it is being widely practised in U.P. as well as in India. The percentage of leased-in area in total area has remained constant around 10 per cent in U.P during 1980-81 to 2002-03. The socio- economic conditions of sample tenants have revealed that majority of them belonged to backward castes followed by scheduled castes; while very few tenants were from upper castes. Agriculture was the main occupation of about 60 per cent of tenants while about 20 of them were rural labourers. Average land leased-in per household was 1.61 acres which was higher than the land owned per household (1.19 acres). The leased-in land did provide an average annual income of ₹ 5163 per household, which accounted for 22.34 per cent of average annual income per household. Majority of landlords who rented-out their land also belonged to Other Backward Castes (OBCs) and around half of them were engaged in agriculture and rest were engaged in service and trade professions. All lease agreements were oral. The length of lease was generally of short duration. In most of the cases duration of lease was of 1 to 2 years. The terms of lease were generally decided according to the prevalent lease practices in the area. The dominant form of leasing was based on the sharing of produce and cost on 50:50 basis. Generally the cost of fertilisers and irrigation was shared on 50-50 per cent basis between tenants and landlords. The practice of leasingin on the basis of cash payment was also found to be emerging in some districts. Insecurity of lease contract was the most serious problem perceived by tenants. About one-third of tenants have reported the taking of loan from land owners for production or consumption purposes. One-fourth of the tenants have reported that their land owners sought undue favour in lieu of leasing-in of land to them in the form of payment of lower wages for their labour. Majority of tenants who were interviewed expressed the view that tenancy should be legalised. Reforms in tenancy laws is the need of the hour which will be mutually beneficial to all parties concerned and will certainly promote inclusive growth.

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Fahimuddin ¹

Affiliations
1 Giri Institute of Development Studies, Sector-O, Aliganj, Lucknow-226 024, IN

Abstract

In the State of Uttarakhand, availability of safe drinking water has been a serious problem. In order to tackle the problem, State government installed several rural water supply schemes in the past, but efforts could not yield desired results due to lack of community participation in operation and maintenance of these schemes. Few years back, State government with funding support from World Bank installed Rural Water Supply and Environmental Sanitation Projects with NGOs and community support. The idea was that with the installation of such projects, time used in water collection would be considerably saved which a rural household can utilise in economic activities to earn additional income. The total income, thus, earned would provide an economic advantage when such benefits exceeded the costs incurred in these projects.

The analysis in the paper focused on two issues. (i) The situational analysis of various dimensions of drinking water collection in the State. (ii) The cost-benefit analysis of a rural water supply scheme. The findings revealed that drinking water collection was arduous and a time-consuming activity for the rural households in the State. The economic benefits which resulted due to time savings from rural water supply scheme were higher than the investment made and rural water supply schemes of the Uttarakhand State provided a model of replicability in other hilly areas of the country.

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Fahimuddin

Abstract

Crop diversification in favour of more remunerative and high valued crops has been reckoned as an important strategy to increase the income and employment opportunities of the farmers in the State of Uttar Pradesh. It has been adopted in the 'Agricultural Policy of Uttar Pradesh' which has emphasised the need for diversification of existing agriculture towards high value crops and develop appropriate infrastructure to accomplish regional specialisation in production of commodities best suited to their respective bio-physical endowment and improving the sustainability of soil and water resources. In the era of economic liberalisation and WTO regime, crop diversification in agriculture best suits to the market oriented development strategy. In view of this, an attempt has been made in the paper to evaluate the pattern of crop diversification achieved during the postliberalisation period in the State of Uttar Pradesh and suggest policy modifications. The study noted that agricultural economy of Uttar Pradesh has been largely food crop based during the economic reform period as it was before. Wheat and rice are still the principal crops in the State. The pace of commercialisation in agriculture has been found to be slow in the State. Even the most commercialised western region has shown declining trend in its area under commercial crops in 2006-07 as against 1990-1991. Majority of the districts in Western, Eastern and Bundelkhand regions have lost their area of commercial crops during 2006-07 against the level of 1990-91. In this way majority of districts in Uttar Pradesh have slipped down from their ranks in 2006-07 as compared to their position in the year 1990-91 as far as the level of commercialisation in agriculture was concerned.

The role of cropping intensity in boosting the area of cash crops has been found to be negligible. The observed trends are deterrent in achieving the objectives of Agricultural Policy of Uttar Pradesh which has emphasised the speedy commercialisation of agriculture through cultivation of high value crops by crop intensification. The trend necessitates the infrastructural support and improving the delivery mechanism of promotional policies of farm sector in the State.

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