Involvement of marginal farmers in implementation of MGNREGA

The Government has included small and marginal farmers under Mahatma Gandhi NREGA by an amendment made in para 1(iv) of the list of permissible activities provided in Schedule-I of the Act. The amendment made is as follows: “Provision of irrigation facility, horticulture plantation and land development facilities to land owned by households belonging to the Schedule Castes and Schedule Tribes or below poverty line families or to beneficiaries of land reforms or to the beneficiaries under the Indira Awas Yojana of Government of India or that of the small farmers or marginal farmers as defined in the Agriculture Debt Waiver and Debit Relief Scheme, 2008.”

In his address on the fifth anniversary of MGNREGA on 2 February, 2011, Hon’ble Prime Minister of India had pointed out that millions of small and marginal farmers, especially in tribal areas, are being forced to work as MGNREGA labourers because their lands are no longer productive enough to support their families. If MGNREGA work were to help rebuild this productivity through water harvesting, drought proofing and ground water recharge, these labourers can go back to full time productive farming, or they could take up other livelihoods on the foundation of water security created by MGNREGA.

This information was given by Shri Pradeep Jain “Aditya”, Minister of State for Rural Development in a written reply in Rajya Sabha today. The house was also informed that the funds spent on works taken up on the individual lands of marginal farmers under MGNREGA is not maintained separately at national level.