MADURAI: The Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS), rolled out a decade ago, has impacted households and individuals in a positive as well as negative way, but the adverse impacts of the scheme could impact the nation’s food security, according to an authoritative study.
What may set the alarm bells ringing is the projected decline in acreage under rice cultivation in states like Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh by three to eight per cent in the next five years. This could be a threat to the nation’s food security , according to the experts, Hari K Nagarajan, professor RBI chair in Rural Economics, IRMA, G Pazhanithurai, Rajiv Gandhi Chair for Panchayati Raj Studies, Gandhigram Rural Institute and Anirudh Tagat, senior researcher, Monk Prayogshala, Mumbai, who conducted the study .
The scheme is implemented in all the districts in states and union territories. Official statistics reveal that MGNREGS has a cumulative generation of 2235.93 crore person days and a total expenditure of `3,70,667 crore.
As on date 67,33,214 workers are expected to be working in 4,42,385 sites across the country .
The study took into account 48,000 households and 100,000 individuals belonging to 104 villages in the states of Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Bihar, Chhattisgarh, Haryana, Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan for their study.
They found that the adverse impacts of the scheme would include decrease in agriculture and decline in crop incomes by 15 per cent in these states. Already , there is a decline in the availability of skilled farm labour.
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