#Agricultural Productivity & Share Croppers:

 More than 85 per cent of the land is cultivated by sharecroppers in Odisha,

where the agricultural produce is shared at the traditional one-third and two-
third proportion for the land owner and sharecroppers respectively as per the
existing practice.

 Officially this is not recorded by the Government because the Odisha land
Reforms Act 1960 and subsequent amendments restrict land leasing and
encourages cultivation by land owners.

 Sharecroppers are also borrowers of private lending and mostly belong to the
socially marginalised sections such as Dalits, Adivasis and socially and
educationally backward classes, who are otherwise resourceless in terms of
land, education and finance capital and have been living in meager income
without social security.

 Lack of land ownership has been affecting agriculture production due to lack of
willingness of sharecroppers to invest in land and agriculture related expenses.

 The institutional credit facilities available by Regional Rural Banks and farmer
cooperatives are availed by the land owning farmers, but not by the
sharecroppers.

 Even it has been difficult for the sharecroppers to sell their paddy in
Government Mandis where the farmers have to identify themselves as land
owners.

 Weakening the economic status of sharecroppers will have wider impact over
agriculture production and the overall economy because it is fact that the
sharecroppers constitute a major chunk of the farmers and without ensuring
their basic rights over State sponsored subsidy in agriculture during natural
calamities it is not possible to increase agriculture production and food security
in an agriculture dependent backward State like Odisha.

 There are States such as Andhra Pradesh, Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka and
West Bengal where the sharecroppers have some kind of rights and security
ensured in agriculture sector which need to be studied in the context of Odisha’s
peculiar situation in agrarian sector and State revenue laws in relation to land
ownership and sharecropping.