The paper examines the rental burden of tenants in settings with varied risk. In the process it postulates that the lease market is competitive enough to subject tenants to less burdensome rents in a more risky environment and more onerous rents in a less risky setting. It is seen that the tenants of canal irrigated areas facing less of risk have to pay higher rental shares than the tenants of tube-well irrigated areas experiencing greater risk. Alongside, it is found that the rental burden is the least on tenants governed by fixed cash rents that are synonymous with the highest production and price risks and the most on those covered under sharecropping, where the associated risks to tenants are the least. Where it is uppermost in the minds of landlords to receive rents with certainty, they opt for cash rents. But there is a cost associated with their choice, as they have to settle for relatively low rents in the bargain.