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Centre delists works on Vizag coffee plantations from NREGP, tribal farmers in lurch
The MGNREGP would no more applicable to works taken up in the coffee plantations in the tribal areas of Visakhapatnam.
A recent decision of the Central government to delist works related to coffee plantations from permissible activities under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Programme (MGNREGP) has left more than one lakh tribal farmers in forest areas of Paderu and Araku in Andhra Pradesh’s Visakhapatnam district in a lurch.
The Union ministry of rural development conveyed the same to the Andhra Pradesh government in September, stating that the MGNREGP would no more applicable to works taken up in the coffee plantations in the tribal areas of Visakhapatnam, where the famed “Araku coffee” is produced.
“The decision was taken following a recommendation made by the Coffee Board of India in April 2020. They contend that coffee plantation is not a perennial crop like other horticulture crops like mango. Secondly, coffee is also a commercial crop. Hence, it cannot come under the MGNREGP,” Andhra Pradesh commissioner of panchayat raj and rural development M Girija Shankar said.
He said the state government had already written twice to the Union ministry to reconsider its decision. “Our chief minister YS Jagan Mohan Reddy, too, wrote a similar letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi and our MPs, too, represented the matter with the Centre, but we fail to understand why the Centre is refusing to concede our request,” Girija Shankar said.
The Andhra Pradesh government has been promoting the raising of coffee plantation under MGNREGP since 2009-10, as an area-specific work in the Scheduled V areas (tribal pockets) of the Eastern Ghats in Visakhapatnam district.
“Only wage component tasks, such as pitting, planting and intercultural operations, are taken up under the MGNREGP and the material component is being met by the Integrated Tribal Development Agency (ITDA) and the Coffee Board. Funds are directly paid to the beneficiary bank accounts,” the commissioner said, adding that the total wage component under the project was around ₹32,000 per acre.
According to Dr Salijamala Venkateswar, project officer of ITDA, Paderu, the Centre had permitted coffee plantation works in Visakhapatnam as a special project. Normally, MGNREGP doesn’t cover agriculture labour but covers manual labour under horticulture, sericulture, plantation and farm forestry.
“It was basically aimed at preventing the tribal people from undertaking shifting cultivation that destroys forest areas and providing them with a sustained livelihood. Since they have very small landholding – from half-acre to a maximum of two acres, payment of wages under the MGNREGP would go a long way to improve their living standards,” Venkateshwar said.
He said under this programme, each tribal farmer was getting an average of ₹245 per day, there were 81 person-days during a year. “On average, each tribal used to get ₹20-25,000 per year towards wages under the project. Now, they are deprived of the same,” he said.
According to the ITDA official, the Coffee Board decided to delist the Araku coffee plantation works from the MGNREGP as it was under pressure from other coffee-growing states like Kerala, Karnataka and Tamil Nadu to include their coffee plantations, too, under the project.
“However, there is a fundamental difference between Andhra Pradesh coffee growers and other states. In our state, it is grown exclusively by tribals for their livelihood, whereas in other states they are grown in coffee estates in lakhs of acres,” Venkateshwar said.
The state government represented to the Centre that as coffee plantations in Paderu and Araku areas provide sustainable income resources to primitive tribal households, their activity may be permitted under the MGNREGP. “We pointed out that when the project is applicable for rubber plantations in Kerala, it could be applied to coffee plantations in Araku as well,” Girija Shankar said.
As per the MGNREGP guidelines, any plant that is perennial in nature and suitable to the agro-climatic conditions can be brought under the scheme. “Coffee plantation too was taken up as an area-specific work in the tribal areas of Visakhapatnam district where the altitude and climatic conditions favour it,” he said.
Stating that the coffee plantation was a game-changer in the tribal areas, the commissioner said delisting it from MGNREGP would adversely impact the livelihood of vulnerable tribals. “Since, as per Land Transfer Regulation Act 1 of 1970, the transfer of tribal land to non-tribals is banned, there is no scope for coffee cultivation by non-tribals in this area,” he said.
