Lease farming catches on in Punjab

Although the much-hyped Reliance Industries project to establish 52 agriculture hubs in Punjab is yet to be implemented, the trend of farming in the state has been changing, with more and more companies taking agricultural land on lease from small and marginal farmers.

The idea behind the RIL project has gone down well with private companies. They have started taking land on lease from farmers at rates between Rs 7,000 and Rs 17,000 per acre.

The plight of the peasantry in the state, which had been going through an acute financial crisis, has created a kind of boom for such private companies. Farmers found the companies' offer more profitable as, by sowing wheat or paddy, they were incurring losses.

In the Doaba region, it was found that the private companies, instead of going for the wheat-paddy cycle of crops, were sowing profit-making crops like baby corn, bitter gourd, bottle gourd, cucumber, cauliflower, green chilly, onion, carrot, radish and tinda.

Farmers of Allowal, Muddan, Bajjah, Kala Singhia and Basti Danish Manda were upbeat after getting an offer from a Delhi-based company, Field Fresh Private Ltd. In Allowal village, the company has already sowed bitter gourd on 31 acres. Agricultural labourers are also happy to work on the leased land because they are getting higher payment on a regular basis from the company.

"Earlier we used to get Rs 50-60 per day, but now the company is paying us Rs 85 per day, apart from contributing to the employee provident fund and giving a weekly off day," Saroj, one of the labourers, said.

However, farmers who had not given their land to companies were facing an acute labour crisis as labour rates had increased, apart from frequent refusals by labourers to work in their fields.

Paviter Singh, one such farmer, said "The new trend of contract farming will increase the cost of production of other crops like wheat and paddy due to the increase in labour rate."

Kuleep Singh, supervisor of the company, said the farmers were happy as, apart from getting money, the soil quality of their land was also improving due to the company's technique of farming.

When asked about the strategy of the company, Sham Singh, who is in charge of the Doaba region, refused to divulge details of the strategy. He said "The company is already cultivating 1,170 acres in Doaba and now more farmers are coming forward to offer their land on lease to the company".

The trend of lease-farming has also brought relief to the non-resident Indians, as, earlier, they ran into disputes with their relatives, who, they alleged, instead of sending them the earnings from their land, were taking the money to maintain their own land.

"Moreover, the new trend may pose a serious threat to the food security of the country, as Punjab is contributing more than half to the total food stock of the nation," he said.