An elderly landless peasant, Mahar Mallah, is satisfied with an 800 maund per-acre yield of sugar cane from two acres of land he tilled this season. His worries are that sugar cane factory owners haven’t paid the just sugar cane rate to the landowner on whose land he is working as a share cropper.

Despite impressive per-acre yields from the two acres, Mallah says he couldn’t get a good price on his share which remained at Rs100-Rs130 per 40kg against the notified price of Rs182/40kg. He feels he is at a disadvantage in terms of average income to be earned from this crop. He managed the crop for close to 18 months in anticipation of an adequate price in Tando Mohammad Khan district.

The price factor alone doesn’t trouble Mallah and his like. Additional problems expose them to vulnerabilities due to which they struggle to survive.

Landowners have their own axe to grind when it comes to managing and owning lands. A landowner like Nabi Bux Sathio has to ensure timely provision of input to haris, from availability of irrigation water to seed, fertiliser and pesticide for cultivating a major crop.

No written agreement exists between landowners and peasants for a piece of land the latter tills in this relationship. Growers with a sizeable landholding make a considerable income compared to the hari working there, even after sharing expenses

Share croppers like Mahar Mallah are supposed to share expenses of crop input. Expenditures initially are borne by growers by way of credit obtained through formal and informal lenders. Loan is to be adjusted once the crop is harvested and sold in the market. Accounts are, however, maintained and settled by the two sides on their own.

No written agreement exists between landowners and peasants for a piece of land the latter tills in this relationship. The size of such land usually varies between two and five acres. A hari’s entire family including the womenfolk and children work from dawn to dusk. They heavily bank on the grower for their day to day financial needs.

“We share expenses on input for which finances are made available by the landowner. In case of extreme weather like rains and floods we end-up earning nothing as the entire crop is washed out”, says Ghulam Mohammad Mallah, another landless peasant.

According to him, his allocated four acres of land produced 320/40kg of paddy last year but after clearing expenses he got ended up with a paltry amount.

A 50-50 cost is shared by a peasant and grower for the procurement of input like fertiliser, pesticides and seed. In addition, the peasant has to bear the full cost of sowing, thrashing and land preparation.

Historically peasants plough a grower’s land using their own bulls and then thrash the crop with the cattle, “tractors have now replaced cattle for land preparation and thrashers are used for crops to save time, therefore the tractor’s fuel expenses are to be fully borne by the hari. I don’t claim a per day rent for the tractor that I own”, says Sathio.

He concedes that growers with a sizeable landholding make a considerable income as compared to the hari working there, even after sharing expenses. Given the large landholdings a grower has the capacity to offset the impact of losses in a crop unless they are colossal, he concludes.

Besides sharing the cost of input, haris borrow money from growers on occasions like weddings, funerals and for medication. These miscellaneous expenses are to be deducted from the hari’s share of income.

Mahar Mallah says that only an adequate price for his crop increases his share in earnings for him to be able to repay the grower, although peasant families who rear livestock can somewhat supplement their income through a small scale milk business.

Landless peasantry, generally, has been surviving amidst this relationship across Sindh. Growers and hari’s have to trust each other. Nabi Bux Sathio opines that a hari doesn’t share the land’s rent and tax even though technically, being 50-50 share cropper, he has to share it.

Orchards are located in lower Sindh where peasants can work as wage labourers in mango and banana seasons to supplement income.

Cotton picking is another option for them. Hari’s are engaged for picking at Rs300 to Rs400 per 40kg. Peasants working on lands fed by non-perennial canals by and large have lesser income prospects, for they depend on a single kharif crop which is mostly paddy.

Sindh Tenancy Act (STA) 1950 is supposed to govern peasant-landowner relationship. STA describes haris as a ‘tenant’. Lack of enforcement of this law and an overall weak regulatory mechanism subjects haris to exploitation. Resultantly, cases of bonded labour are occasionally reported.

Veteran labour rights activist Karamat Ali believes that the STA 1950 needs to be suitably amended to protect haris’ rights to ensure setting up of hari courts, their registration and their right to form associations.

In the present condition, he says, 50pc of a hari’s share is denied to them. This verbal arrangement should be substituted with a formal agreement to be registered with the board of revenue. It would ensure that the hari wouldn’t be evicted at will and in such he would find recourse in the court of law, Ali says.

STA 1950 was the outcome of the famous hari movement in Sindh launched by Hyder Bux Jatoi. Jatoi had staged a sit-in outside Sindh Assembly, forcing legislators at that time to pass this pro-hari law.

Pakistan’s leading economist Dr Kaiser Bengali conducted a study on Land Tenure System in Pakistan in 2014 for the Pakistan Institute of Labour Education and Research (PILER). His report shows that “over three-quarters (76pc) of rural families in survey areas are tenants/sharecroppers, working on land belonging to large landowners. A vast number of tenants (98pc) cultivate small holdings of less than 16 acres, with 43pc cultivating less than five acres each, it says.

Dr Bengali observes that tenancy should be abolished and wage labour should be hired. “Tenants lack a bargaining position as they serve as captive of landowners and the existing law doesn’t support them”, he remarks.

Published in Dawn, The Business and Finance Weekly, March 12th, 2018