The Andhra Pradesh Koulu Rythu Sangham (AP Tenant Farmers’ Association) has demanded that the State government immediately withdraw its decision to make Farmer ID (Unique Farmer Number) mandatory for selling crops at government procurement centres, stating that the move would severely affect tenant farmers. 

In a press release issued on Wednesday, AP Koulu Rythu Sangham president A Katamaiah and general secretary P Jamalaiah said tenant farmers cultivate nearly 80% of the agricultural land in the State and have become a crucial part of farming across regions and crops. However, the government was neglecting the issuance of Crop Cultivator Rights Cards (CCRCs) and Farmer IDs to tenant farmers, they alleged. 

They said tenant farmers without CCRCs or Farmer IDs were being forced to sell the crops they had cultivated through their own efforts in the names of landowners. This was causing financial losses and depriving them of the benefits of government procurement and welfare schemes, they said.
 

The leaders said the Agriculture Department’s decision to make Farmer IDs compulsory for procurement during the ongoing kharif season was unfortunate. They pointed out that making Farmer IDs mandatory for crop insurance had already resulted in thousands of tenant farmers being denied insurance benefits. 

They said agencies such as AP Markfed, which procures pulses including green gram, black gram, red gram and Bengal gram, and the Civil Supplies Corporation, which procures paddy, had been instructed to purchase crops only from land parcels linked to valid Farmer IDs. This could prevent tenant farmers from accessing government procurement centres, they warned. According to the association, against the State’s target of 64.71 lakh Farmer IDs, only 51.83 lakh farmers had been registered so far. 

They also alleged that in several cases, landowners, who had leased out their lands, were obtaining crop insurance in their names despite not cultivating the fields. Katamaiah and Jamalaiah demanded that crops be procured in the name of the actual cultivator. Instead of treating the Farmer ID as the sole criterion, the Agriculture Department should conduct field-level verification to identify those actually cultivating the crops and register their details for procurement, they said.

 

Source - https://www.thehansindia.com