Woes of sharecroppers

Sharecropper Ahmed Ali of Haratal village in Lalmonirhat Sadar upazila. He is frustrated as he has to give half of the harvested boro paddy to the landowner. Photo: Star

A large number of sharecroppers in the district lead hard-pressed life as they have to give half of the produces to the landowners and bear most of the cultivation costs, especially irrigation.
As per agreement, 50 percent of the crop produced by a sharecropper has to be handed over to the landowner. Besides, sharecroppers have to bear almost all the costs to produce crops, especially paddy.
In some cases, the owner shares half of the cost of seeds and fertilisers but the responsibility of irrigating the land always remains with the sharecropper.
“We the sharecroppers can keep only a small portion of our produce after paying the shares of the landowners and meeting the demands of the irrigation service providers. Often we have to do other jobs to meet family requirements, including food,” said Ashraf Ali of Kakina village of Kaliganj upazila.
"I produced 53 maunds of boro paddy from three bighas of land that I rented from a landowner in the village. After harvesting it last week, I gave half of the amount to the land owner," said Nishi Kanta Ray, 55, at Durakuti village in Lalmonirhat Sadar.
"I as well as three other members of my family work hard on rented farmlands to save the cost of employing labourers," he added.
"The amount of crop that remains after paying the share of landowner seems too insufficient as I have to spend a good amount of money to hire the shallow machines for irrigation and buy inputs and other materials including pesticides," said Ahmed Ali, 55, a sharecropper at Harati village in Lalmonirhat Sadar upazila.
With hardly any scope to get bank loans, sharecroppers are often compelled to borrow from moneylenders at exorbitant interest rates and it eventually adds to their woes, said Rajoni Chandra Barmon, 60, of Mogholhat village in the same upazila.
At least 20,000 marginal and landless farmers work as sharecroppers to produce different crops, especially paddy, in the district, said Abdul Mazid, deputy director of the Department of Agriculture Extension in Lalmonirhat.