Deep inside the villages of Abujhmad, a silent revolution is taking shape. A hilly forested area spread across three districts of Chhattisgarh — Narayanpur, Bijapur and Dantewada — several villagers in the Naxal-hit Abujhmad are beginning to sell their paddy to the government, a first for many of them.
It’s no mean feat for a region where the state has struggled to make its presence felt and where much of the land is yet to be surveyed by the government, thus leaving its residents out of several welfare schemes. Abujhmad is bigger in area than Goa, with nearly 3,400 sq km of this region falling in Narayanpur district.
Kurusnar village in Narayanpur district’s Orchha block, which is part of Abujhmad, is among the unsurveyed villages.
Yet, over two years now, farmers have been selling paddy at the minimum support price (MSP) to the government — from 20 of the 130 farmers from the village who reaped this benefit last year to 50 this year.
Yogesh Uikey, 23, is among the lucky farmers. This year, he made nearly Rs 20,000 for nine quintals of paddy, double the Rs 10,000 he made for the same amount of paddy that he sold to private traders last year. Kurusnar sarpanch Santosh Potai too earned Rs 46,000 for around 20 quintals, up from Rs 22,000 when he sold the same amount of paddy to private traders last year.
What made this possible in a region with vast tracts of unsurveyed land is a 2019 decision by the government to hand out masahati pattas or land ownership deeds, a stopgap measure in the absence of land surveys. As part of this exercise, government officials from various departments went to Abujhmad villages to ascertain ownership status, after which they were issued the pattas. So far, 7,729 masahati pattas have been issued across 170 villages in the region.
Farmers who qualified were then registered as farmers and made eligible for welfare schemes, including the procurement of paddy at MSP rates.
Calling this a “significant” development, a government official said the high concentration of Maoists in Abujhmad had made it difficult for the government to complete its land survey of the region, which in turn left the region bereft of welfare schemes.
“Paddy procurement has helped the locals understand the importance of welfare schemes. It is difficult to get any development work done in Abujhmad because of its hilly terrain and the presence of Maoists,” said a government official.
Of the 420 villages in Narayanpur district, land survey has been completed in only 174 villages. The survey work which started in 2016 slowed down considerably after a kotwar (revenue department employee) was murdered in 2019 by Maoists. On February 26, a 43-year-old security personnel from the Chhattisgarh Armed Force (CAF) was killed in an improvised explosive device (IED) blast in Orchha block.
“Most of the unsurveyed villages are in Orchha block. Land surveys are nearly complete in 18 villages and survey work is ongoing in another 12,” said Deputy Collector Sumit Garg, who is posted as OIC, Land Record.
Pratik Awasthi, a nodal officer for the district Central Cooperative Bank (CCB), said, “Last year, 6,000 quintals of paddy was procured from Orchha block. This year, the procurement touched 16,000 quintals. Several villagers from Kurusnar, Kokameta, Kihkad and Kundla sold paddy at MSP for the first time. Distribution centres too increased from 11 to 16 this year. Now that the villagers have learnt about the benefits of MSP, the figures are expected to go up in Abujhmad.”
Awasthi said 2,542 farmers have registered to sell their paddy, of whom 720 farmers who hold masahati pattas sold their produce (20,614.80 quintals of paddy) to the government for Rs 4.22 crore at an MSP of Rs 2,060 per quintal. These farmers are also eligible for Rs 1.22 crore under the state’s Rajiv Gandhi Kisan Nyay Yojana. The state budget allocated Rs 6,000 crore under this scheme, which gives Rs 9,000 per acre per year to farmers growing major kharif crops, including rice.
Narayanpur District Collector Ajeet Vasant said, “We are trying to ensure that more villagers avail benefits of government schemes in Abujhmad.”
B S Baghel, deputy director of the Agriculture Department, said, “We are trying to get the Kisan Credit Cards of the registered farmers ready so that they can avail subsidy on fertilisers and get some cash to assist with farming activities. They will also be eligible for some money under the PM Kisan Samman Nidhi Yojana and insurance under the Fasal Bima Yojana.”
