ABSTRACT
The Ministry of Rural Development (MoRD), Government of India, has launched a Rights Based and People-centric wage employment program 740known as Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (Mahatma Gandhi NREGS), which essentially combines both social security and rejuvenation of agriculture by creating durable community and individual assets. The Scheme incorporated a component, known as category IV works, to improve the productivity of marginal and small farms by providing irrigation, land development and development of plantations. Implementation of category IV works is the adoption of block cum group approach in Chittoor and individual approach in Anantapur has resulted in higher investment by the beneficiaries. While 85% of the beneficiaries made own investment (Rs. 16,000/acre) in Chittoor, only 39% of the Anantapur beneficiaries (Rs. 1630/acre) did so. Works in Chittoor focused more on development of waste land as a block and converging with other schemes to cover activities not permissible under Mahatma Gandhi NREGS and beneficiaries not eligible under category IV works. The impact was an increase in cropping intensity and continuous employment in agriculture, increase in labor absorption in agriculture and improvements in the livelihoods. The results are divergent because of the variations in agro-climatic conditions in the study area. The category IV works under Mahatma Gandhi NREGS need to be restricted to agriculturally backward areas through participatory planning approach at Gram Panchayat level with focus on macro plan for land use and resource development and a micro plan to cover individual farmers.
