Hyderabad: Farmland rental agreements have come to a halt in Telangana raising serious concerns that the Kharif production will be badly hit this year as land owners and tenant farmers fight to claim the Rs 8,000 per acre financial assistance scheme of the government.
Agriculture secretary C. Parthasarathi confirmed that there is no provision to give the assistance to tenant farmers in the guidelines issued for distributing cheques from May 10. According to farmers’ organisations the government has listed 14 lakh tenant farmers in the state.
“A land owner is already getting the benefit because the tenant farmer pays him rent and if there is a loss of crop that too is borne by the tenant farmer. The government again extending Rs 8,000 per acre to the land owner gives the land owner a double benefit at the cost of the poor tenant farmer, who actually invests, cultivates and suffers losses due to natural calamities or pest attacks,” points out T. Sagar, secretary, Telangana Rythu Sangham.
