HYDERABAD: A study conducted by the Centre for Economic and Social Studies (CESS) found that 61.22% of Scheduled Caste (SC) households in Telangana were landless, with only 0.68% of SC farmers surveyed having crop insurance. The study, titled “An Empirical Investigation into Agricultural Livelihoods of SCs in Telangana”, is based on a survey of 10,213 SC households across all 33 districts, covering 300 villages and 100 urban wards.
The study shows there are about 31.35% marginal farmers and 61.22% small farmers in the state. The figures cover both rural and urban households.
A separate household-listing exercise conducted across the 400 study locations found that 62.5% of households did not have land. The researchers noted that these households are unable to directly benefit from land-based agricultural schemes such as Rythu Bharosa and Rythu Bhima.
The study also found a major gap in crop insurance coverage. Only 0.68% of the SC farmers surveyed had crop insurance, and all those covered obtained it through private insurance companies.
A separate village-level dataset used in the study showed that 70.9% of SC households in rural Telangana depended on borewells for irrigation. Canals were used by 30.4% of households, followed by open wells at 27.7% and tanks at 19.6%.
The researchers observed that SC farmers have limited access to surface irrigation sources as their land parcels are often located away from canals, tanks and other water resources. This, they said, increases their dependence on private irrigation infrastructure.
Only 11.34% of SC farmers reported receiving agricultural services through mobile phones. While 49.41% of farmers surveyed reported using machine harvesting, only 21.26% said they processed or added value to their farm produce.