rural report, jamikunta

8/6/2019 Rural Report, Jamikunta

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Rural Visit Programmeon

Labor problem in respect to the NREGA

programme

A comprehensive report for Jamikunta mandal, Dist. Karimnagar

In

Association with

Krishi Vigyan Kendra (KVK)

Jamikunta

Dist: Karimnagar

Rural Visit Report, Jamikunta team, PGDM (ABM)9/11 Page 1

Submitted to :

Programme Coordinator,National Institute of Agricultural

Extension Management ,

(MANAGE), Rajendranagar,

Hyderabad 500030

Submitted by :

Jitendra Bhattal

Rahul Kapse

Ketan Grag

Prasenjit Gorai

Sutanu S. Ghosh

PGDM(ABM) 2009/11


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ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

It is a matter of great pride for us to be associated with KVK, Jamikunta,

Karimnagar district. We hereby would like to thank KVK and all its staff

members whomever we came across, for their kind hospitality and

cooperation during our attachment for Rural visit(RV) project work.

We heartily thank our project guide Dr. N. Venkateshwara Rao, Project

Director, KVK for all the care and guidance given to us during the project.

We would also like to thank Dr. Vikram Singh, Programme coordinator

PGDM (ABM), MANAGE, Dr. Venkatarao, Batch Coordinator, PGDMABM

2009-11 and Sivakumar sir for giving us the opportunity to be associated

with the KVK.

Our heartfelt gratitude and appreciation goes to all farmers whose patient

answers to our queries formed the foundation of project. We reverently

express our special regards to KVK members Dr. M. Janardanreaddy, Mr.

Shivakrishnan and all other field assistants specially Sathyanarayan ji who

helped us driving to the numerous places regarding the work and helped

us to make this project a success; without their contribution the work

would never have completed.

And thanks Mr. Bill Gates for this wonderful software MS Word. You

made our life easy.



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(Authors)

Executive Summery

The Village Visit Programme (Live Project) scheduled for second

year PGDM (ABM) students from February 18-28, 2011 the purpose of

which was to understand the village activities, problems, opportunities

faced by the farmer community of that KVK area and suggest possible

solutions within the resources of the farmers and also advising them to

take advantage of the existing programmes and schemes. The study also

attempt to throw light of the present status of the area, opportunities for

growth and the strategies for farmers. The project assigned to the

students was Labor problems in respect to the NREGA

programme

Apart from this the report would also contain the village

profile, status of agriculture in the village, scope for diversification,

intensification, challenges and prospects, water management, organic vs.

inorganic cultivation practices, value addition processing, credit delivery,

problems of marketing, extension delivery mechanism, IPM, INM, seed

replacement etc.



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Host Institution:

Krishi Vikas Kendra, Jamikunta was rechristened from Grama Nava

Nirman Samithi, which was a voluntary organization founded by Sri P.

Janardana Readdy in 1974. Owing to the nature of the work and support

given to the farming community ICAR sanctioned it as a Krishi Vikas

Kendra. The KVK is not only responsible for lab to land transfer of

technology but also to organize front line demonstrations in various crops

to generate productive data and feedback information along with

vocational training to the women folk. The areas that we visited are given

as under:

Village visited under Jamikunta block (BDO-Shri T. Hanmaiah):

Sl.

No

.

Village Manadal Populatio

n

Sarpanch Water Source

1. Dandepall

i

Elakaturi


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Area

2. Gopalpur Elakaturi


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Cropping Pattern:

The cropping patterns of the area depend on the availability of the water.

Some of the cropping patterns adopted by the farmers are:

Kharif Rabi Summer

Rice Rice Fallow

Rice Maize Fallow

Maize Fallow

Maize Groundnut Fallow

Cotton FallowCotton Maize

Redgram FallowCastor Fallow



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Soil type of the district:

Soil Type Characteristics Are in Ha

Sandy Loam Coarse, neutral to

moderate alkaline, low

OC

313996

Red Chalka Non calcareous,

shallow with low

fertility

156998

Black cotton Calcareous, medium

fertile, low OC matter

52332

Horticulture and Fishery:

The district is well suited for dry land agriculture. The predominate

crops are Mango, Sweet oranges and vegetables and spices like chili,

turmeric etc. Presently the area under horticulture crops stands at 17 ha.

Karimnagar district is richly supplied with natural water sources.

There are 607 departmental tanks, 2 major reservoirs and nearly 5000

gram panchayat tanks with 45000 ha of water spread. On top of that

Godavari River also flows nearby. There are 4 seed farms with the

requirement of 12 crore fish seeds as of now. The above mentioned

sources can provide for just the 30% of the requirement. So there isimmense potential for the development of fish seed banks on the

commercial basis.

Water Management:

The areas that we surveyed were belonging to 3 different water

supply patterns. While Dandepalli and Perkapali were falling in the SREP

command area and watershed village respectively, Gopalpur was a rainfedarea. In Gopalpur, an area of around 470 ha falls under the river



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catchment area which represents 40% of the farm area of the villages.

Rest is irrigated by tank and wells.

In Perkapalli, a watershed has been developed with the

collaboration of Indo German initiative and NABARD with a cost of about

13lakhs. The watershed consists of 5 check dams which changed the face

of about 300-400 ac. The average water table is at 10-15 meters. Prior to

the watershed the water table was at around 200ft. so much so that the

watershed has received the Best Integrated Watershed model. This

has not only been beneficial for the agricultural purpose but also for the

allied activities such as sheep and goat rearing, dairy, etc.

Challenges and prospects:

All the surveyed villages are well connected with feeder roads

which are metallic. Due to the availability of the SREP project the area is

very much fertile and productive in nature. A varied type of crops is

grown. There is significant presence of education in the villages as they

contain both the secondary and higher secondary schools. Empowerment

of the women members is also present in the villages. The farmers face a

major problem of market ability and market for their products. They are

also not aware of the mobile based platforms for knowing the prices of the

mandi at Jamikunta or Mulkanoor. So, here lies an opportunity where the

private companies with easy to use solutions can leverage and deliver

better value to the farmers in terms of price. Also there is a presence of

dairy cooperatives in the village of watershed command area. This fetches

an additional income to the farmers. The watershed which was built in

Perkapadi has become a significant change in the village, average land

value has gone up, and so have the productivity and the addition of allied

activities. More such



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programme should be identified and can be done. In fact, farmers have

asked for the same but their voice has not reached to the concerned

departments.

Seed Replacement:

Indian farming system from ages has relied on the farm saved seeds

for their crops. However, due to the advent of the hybrid crops farmers

are slowly adopting new F1 generation seeds. Farmers rely on good

quality hybrid seeds for rice and BT seeds for cotton. Seed replacement

ratio across the area was reported to be 50-65 percent in Rice and about

95 percent in cotton.

Organic vs. Inorganic practices:

All the farmers of all the villages surveyed were aware of the

concept of organic cultivation and knew that the cost of cultivation while

adopting organic practices decreases. However, the major complaint was

that, how to have a substantial income for the initial years? Apart from

this the farmers also said that due to the absence of certification agency

in the area they do not get actual value of the produce and hence they are

not much interested in organic cultivation i.e. there is a clear lack of

market ability and premium pricing for the product. Also field level

technical knowledge is absent which has been restricted to classroom

discussion. Fewer advanced farmers try to spread the knowledge which is

not enough. The government should adopt a village for an entire period

and give necessary training which in terms will get spread into the

neighboring villages. As of now farmers practice organics in less than 5

guntas of their available land (avg landholding 3-4ac).The farmer practices

a mixture of organic along with inorganic practices which also helps themin cost cutting. The use of Harvesters and reapers is prevalent by the



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large farmers and presence of tractor in the houses of the village is a

common sight.

INM and IPM:

Farmers are aware of the concepts. They use a mix and match of

the available solutions, consults the KVK and the progressive farmers.

Light traps were used by them. But mostly they were depending on

chemicals for the control because the effect is immediate and effective as

compared to other alternative techniques. When enquired the farmers of

Gopalpur told that in a village at around 110 ac of land is under IPM and

INM strategies.

Credit Delivery:

Credit facilitates for the farmers are available from both the

organized and unorganized sources. Farmers avail loans from their

respective areas cooperative banks. A few Microfinance companies were

also actively serving the area such as SKS, Spandana Sphoorty, etc.

However after the recent debacle of the micro finance sector their

activities have been restricted. The villages complained that they do have

caught themselves into a debt trap. The companies not only go for giving

multiple loans but also coerce them to take up additional policies for them

and their family members. The outstanding amount was yet to be

collected by the company agents. The farmers however showed no

intension to return the amount.

Nonetheless disposable income and spending capacity of the

farmers had increased due to this flow of credit in the rural system.

Farmers with whom we discussed things flashed their medium to high end

mobile phones; it was also evident from the discussion that the averagespending on consumer durables has also increased in the villages.



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The MNEREGA Programme:-

The Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee

Act (MNREGA) is an Indian job guarantee scheme, enacted by legislation

on August 25, 2005. The scheme provides a legal guarantee for 100 days

of employment in every financial year to adult members of any rural

household willing to do public work-related unskilled manual work at the

statutory minimum wage of 100 per day in 2009 prices. The Central

government outlay for scheme is 40,000 crore in FY 2010-11.

This act was introduced with an aim of improving the purchasing power

of the rural people, primarily semi or un-skilled work to people living in

rural India, whether or not they are below the poverty line. Around one-

third of the stipulated work force is women. The law was initially called the

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indian_rupeehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indian_rupee


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National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (NREGA) but was renamed

on 2 October 2009. Provisions under the scheme are as follows:

1) Adult members of a rural household, willing to do unskilled manual

work, may apply for registration in writing or orally to the local Gram

Panchayat.

2) The Gram Panchayat after due verification will issue a Job Card. The Job Card will bear the photograph of all adult members of the

household willing to work under NREGA and is free of cost.

3) The Job Card should be issued within 15 days of application.

4) A Job Card holder may submit a written application for employment

to the Gram Panchayat, stating the time and duration for which work

is sought. The minimum days of employment have to be at least

fourteen.5) The Gram Panchayat will issue a dated receipt of the written

application for employment, against which the guarantee of

providing employment within 15 days operates

6) Employment will be given within 15 days of application for work, if it

is not then daily unemployment allowance as per the Act, has to be

paid liability of payment of unemployment allowance is of the

States.

7) Work should ordinarily be provided within 5 km radius of the village.

In case work is provided beyond 5 km, extra wages of 10% are

payable to meet additional transportation and living expenses

8) Wages are to be paid according to the Minimum Wages Act 1948 for

agricultural labourers in the State, unless the Centre notices a wage

rate which will not be less than 60 per day. Equal wages will be

provided to both men and women.

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The details for the MNEREGA scheme for Karimnagar district under which

the survey area falls is given as under:

District Karimnagar MNEREGA Details:

Employment provided to

households: Persondays [in

Lakh]:

3.8033 Lakh

Total: 239.6SCs: 73 [30.47%]STs: 15.3 [6.39%]Women: 160.4 [66.94%]Others: 151.3 [63.15%]Total fund: 271.99 CroresExpenditure: 279.51 Crore.Total works taken up: 59493Works completed: 28034Works in progress : 31459

JAMIKUNTA: Jammikunta is a town and mandal in Karimnagar District in

the Indian state of Andhra Pradesh. It is a small town with a population

just above 50,000. Jammikunta is the centre for trade and education for

60 odd surrounding villages.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indian_rupeehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indian_rupee


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The blocks NREGA scheme details are fully IT supported. The server

provider is BSNL and the centre is properly staffed. However, when

checked for the details none of the information related to the nature of

work, employed people and details on Job cards were not available on the

site. The natures of work undertaken by the scheme are as follows:

1. Rural Connectivity2. Flood Control

3. Water Conservation and Water harvesting

4. Drought proofing

5. Micro Irrigation

6. Provision for irrigation Facilities

7. Renovation of traditional water bodies

8. Land development9. Other activities approved by MRD.



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Problems in the MNEREGA system:

The scheme is referred to as the EGS scheme in the village

parlance. With the advent of the scheme the agriculture labor problem has

been highly aggravated in all the areas. The laborers are demanding more

and more wages. A comparison of the local labor rates are given below:

Pre MNEREGA(`) Post MNEREGA(`)

Men 150 300- 250Women 80-100 150Average Work Hours 8 4-5Timings 8-12 oclock Usually 8am 5pm.

Previously work used to be done irrespective of the farming season.

Hence it was very difficult for the farmers to get laborers during the

season. Laborers not only used to demand huge amount of wages but the

availability was itself a problem which gave raise to imbalances in the

payments given by the farmers and hence rivalry. For eg, suppose a

farmers is paying Rs. 90 for a particular activity, another farmer may be

paying Rs. 100 for the same work thereby driving up not only the cost but

inter farmer rivalry. However, due to the demand of the local conditions

later the workings were restricted to the non farming seasons. But these

conditions are limited only to some villages.

Working hours itself was a problem. In the government run schemes

the labors are working only for 3-4 hrs. In many cases these 4 hours was

also not serious work but just whiling away the time. Actual labor done

was very less, and due to regulatory issues the contractor several times

fails to make the workers work. Irrespective of the work done the worker

was to be paid a sum of 100 at the end of the work. At times the labors

work for 4 hrs in the morning in the EGS scheme and afternoon hours goes

to the farmers field to maximize his income of the day. As compared to

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work in the farmers field the working hours were quite rigorous under the

supervision of the farmer and the worker had to work for a strict 8 hrs with

half an hour break for rest and food. Overall the productivity of the labor

has been seriously affected due to the scheme.

Due to this it was also noticed that not only the farmers of below

poverty lines were working but well do farmers were also engaged in this

scheme related work. This was detrimental for not only the scheme but

also the principle activity of the farmers as well i.e. farming. The farmers

of the region confidently said that all of them go to do the EGS work.

Availability of labor is yet another issue. The labor usually comes

from the nearby villages. Whenever there is any ongoing activity of EGS

scheme the labor goes to that area.

With all the above complains which the farmers had, a quite peculiar

issue came up. With the advent of the EGS scheme the cropping pattern

itself has been changing in the areas. Due to non availability and shortage

of labor the farmers are going for crops which are less labor intensive.

Previously this area were largely under Rice and Ground nut which has

been replaced by Cotton and Maize which are comparatively less labor

intensive crops than the prior crops. This has given rise to a pseudo

Monoculture system in the area. As a result the fertility of the soil will be

largely affected in the long run. The farmers also reported that certain

area already faces seriously damage from deficiency of micronutrients

such as Boron and Zinc (Farmers are usually using hybrid rice seeds which

are quite heavy removers of macro and micro nutrients from the soil.) As

the lands are well irrigated due to the SREP irrigation project the farmersare also facing the problem of salinity.



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Another complaint which the farmers had due to this MNEREGA

scheme is that the farming activity actually gets delayed. The work for

e.g. transplanting in paddy which should be carried out in 2/3 days used to

get delayed by 1 week or so, due to unavailability of labor, laziness of the

labor, wage problems, disputes, etc. Sometimes there is a clash of the

EGS work and the farming activities. As a result the whole process of the

farming activity usually gets delayed by 30-40 days which adversely

affects the productivity and health of the crops.

The farmers also complained that there is a problem with the

allocation of the budget problem. As per the rule the authority need to

spend 60% of the allotted budget to get the next set of the money to be

passed from the state and the centre. Hence, when money is received it is

spend in a hasty way usually by some useless work and charges of non

allocation were also raised. The contractor also does the job assigned in a

haphazard manner leading to poor quality work.

The work itself is more or less standardized in place of the region

specific activity. For e.g. if the BDO says that the sum has to be spend on

road maintenance activities, throughout his entire jurisdiction area similar

work is carried out, rather than region specific work. In other area may be

de-silting of the river bed would be a far more beneficial work rather than

road maintenance and repair.

The farmers had raised several of these issues at their annual

meetings in the Agricultural universities, however still there has been little

effect on field as on date.



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The villages that our team surveyed the following nature of the works

were undertaken:

Nature of Work Rating by the VillagersVegetation removal Not considered worth a workPond Digging BeneficialCanal Bed Dredging Most Useful

Canal/ Tank Repairing Most usefulJungle Cutting Not much useful.Road repair Useful

Probable solutions for the Labor problem:

After the survey of the area we found that the problems were more or less

similar in all areas. The farmers unanimously believed that the EGS

scheme has done more harm than good at least from the farmer

perspective. On one hand it has brought more income in the hand of thefarm labors but at the cost of increasing cost of cultivation and shifting of

farming practices. The EGS scheme has made the labor more and more

adamant and demanding and lazy. Few possible solutions which came out

of the focused group discussions (FGD) are given as follows:

1. Complete stopping of all the EGS related activity in the farming

season.

2. EGS system can be streamlined with the farming activities on a 50percent cost sharing basis with the farmers.

3. Standardization of work (based on nature of activity) should be

discontinued with immediate effect.

4. Working of the labor in EGS scheme related work should be carefully

surveyed; the current practice is that irrespective of work the labor

gets paid at the end of the day which breeds laziness and

discourages other labors.



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Conclusion:

A streamlined solution for the problems is very urgent for the

affected areas. Else it is wastage of resources both in terms of quality of

work and the funds available for the work. Seeing the effect of watershed

structures in the villages where it is present other villages are also

demanding for similar structures. A feasibility study should be carried out

by NABARD and other organizations with the involvement of the local

people to benefit the same. It is no less of a miracle what we found out

that how small interventions can make big change in the income of

people, their prosperity and the development of quality asset for the

village as a whole. The system should also adopt villages to give a hand

holding training on organic practices, quality issues, their market ability,

etc. Adopting the strategies the villages can be made more and more

prosperous thus restricting not only human capital in the villages but also

mitigate the problems of migrations from village to urban area. A step by

step policy making and intervention can definitely make available urban

amenities in rural areas (PURA).

Participants members of FGD during surveysVillage: DandepalliV. Annaraul 6.5 ac Cotton, paddy

C. H. Kurumulla 3 ac DoSrinivas H. 4 ac Do



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B. Soumayya 4 ac. Chilli, paddy, cottonHanumantha Rao 5 ac Fishery, Paddy, Cotton,

chilliC. H. Viraswamy 5 Do

Village: GopalpurCh. Rajaswamy 5 ac Chilli, Paddy,

vegetablesKumarsamy 4 ac Paddy, cotton, maizeV. Ramalu 1.5 ac PaddyPrabhakar Rao 3ac Cotton, PaddyK. Narayan 4 ac Vegetables, PaddyPrabhakar V. 6 ac Cotton, Rice, FisheryVillage: Peranpalli Watershed Command VillageName DesigntionBhikshapati SarpanchKumarasamy Village Dairy Coop SecetratyAnil Kumar Watershed Command Area engg..Amrut Singh Chairman

G. Vijjirao Dairy Coop ChairmanPraveen Kumar SecretaryT. Jagraniamma

Errakam G.

Rajamma

Member

Member

Member

References:

1. www.agricoop.nic.in

2. http://www.kvkkarimnagar.com/

3. KVK Publications Jamikunta, KVK

4. http://nrega.nic.in/netnrega/home.aspx

5. http://nrega.nic.in/netnrega/Homedist.aspx?

is_statefund=Y&lflag=local&district_code=0220&district_name=KAR

IMNAGAR&state_name=ANDHRA%20PRADESH&state_Code=02

http://www.agricoop.nic.in/http://www.kvkkarimnagar.com/http://nrega.nic.in/netnrega/home.aspxhttp://nrega.nic.in/netnrega/Homedist.aspx?is_statefund=Y&lflag=local&district_code=0220&district_name=KARIMNAGAR&state_name=ANDHRA%20PRADESH&state_Code=02http://nrega.nic.in/netnrega/Homedist.aspx?is_statefund=Y&lflag=local&district_code=0220&district_name=KARIMNAGAR&state_name=ANDHRA%20PRADESH&state_Code=02http://nrega.nic.in/netnrega/Homedist.aspx?is_statefund=Y&lflag=local&district_code=0220&district_name=KARIMNAGAR&state_name=ANDHRA%20PRADESH&state_Code=02http://www.agricoop.nic.in/http://www.kvkkarimnagar.com/http://nrega.nic.in/netnrega/home.aspxhttp://nrega.nic.in/netnrega/Homedist.aspx?is_statefund=Y&lflag=local&district_code=0220&district_name=KARIMNAGAR&state_name=ANDHRA%20PRADESH&state_Code=02http://nrega.nic.in/netnrega/Homedist.aspx?is_statefund=Y&lflag=local&district_code=0220&district_name=KARIMNAGAR&state_name=ANDHRA%20PRADESH&state_Code=02http://nrega.nic.in/netnrega/Homedist.aspx?is_statefund=Y&lflag=local&district_code=0220&district_name=KARIMNAGAR&state_name=ANDHRA%20PRADESH&state_Code=02


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6. nrega.nic.in/MISreport.htm

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