REFORMS IN INDIAN AGRICULTURE

SRISHTI SACHAN

595

At the time of Independence, India inherited a semi-feudal agrarian structure with onerous tenure arrangements.

The ownership and control of land was highly concentrated in a few landlords and

intermediaries.

Thus, the agricultural land resource of India

was gradually impoverished

because economic motivation

tended towards exploitation rather than investment.

• Intermediaries like Zamindars, Talukdars, Jagirs and Inams had dominated the agricultural sector in India by the time the country attained independence.

• Soon after independence, measures for the abolition of the Zamindarisystem were adopted in different states. The first Act to abolish intermediaries was passed in Madras in 1948.

• As a result of the abolition of intermediaries, about 2 crore tenants are estimated to have come into direct contact with the State making them owners of land.

• The abolition of intermediaries has led to the end of a parasite class. More lands have been brought to government possession for distribution to landless farmers.

Tenancy Reforms

Security of Tenure

Fair Rent

Ownership Rights

To protect tenants from eviction and to grant them permanent rights on lands, laws have been enacted in most of the states. They have three essential features.

(a) Tenants cannot be evicted without any reason. They can be evicted only in accordance with the laws.

(b) Land can be resumed by the landlord only on the ground of personal cultivation. But the land-lord can resume the land only up to a maximum limit.

(c) The landlord should leave some area to the tenant for his own cultivation. The tenant in no case should be made landless.

• In Pre-Independent India rents were high for obvious reasons. Fifty per cent of the total produce was paid as rent.

• In addition to such high rent, the tenant had to provide certain free services to landlords.

• So at the beginning of the First Plan, the Central Government insisted on the regulation of high rent by State Governments.

• It was laid down that the rent to be paid to the landlord should not be more than 20 to 25 per cent. The main objective of such Acts was to make the rent fair and reasonable.

So far as right of ownership is concerned, tenants have been declared as the owners of the land they cultivate. They have to pay compensation to the owners. The amount of compensation should not exceed the level of fair rent.

As a result of these measures about 40 lakh tenants have already acquired ownership rights over 37 lakh hectares of land. They have become better-off economically and socially.

Ceiling on land holdings implies the fixing of the maximum amount of land that an individual or family can possess.

Economic Rationality of Land Ceiling:According to some economists small farms are more efficient than large farms. They require less capital compared to the large farms.

Social Rationality of Land Ceiling:In a poor country like India the supply of land is limited and number of claimants is large. Hence it is socially unjust to allow small number of people to hold large part of land.

Consolidation of Holdings means bringing together the various small plots of land of a farmer scattered all over the village as one compact block, either through purchase or exchange of land with others.

In Orissa, the Consolidation Act was passed in 1972. The work of consolidation has been completed fully in Punjab and Haryana. So far, about one- third of the total cultivated land has been consolidated.

There are various obstacles to the speedy implementation of the consolidation programme. These are poor response from cultivators, wide variation in the quality of land, complicated process of land consolidation, lack of enforcing machinery, lack of political will etc.

The general assessment on land reforms in the Indian context is rather negative. For example, the report of the Task Force on Agrarian Relations of the Planning Commission of India (1973) had the following overall assessment of land reforms in India: ‘The programmes of land reform adopted since Independence have failed to bring about the required changes in the agrarian structure.’

Abolition of intermediaries is generally agreed to be one component of land reforms that has been relatively successful. The record in terms of the other components is mixed and varies across states and over time.

Landowners resisted the implementation of these reforms by directly using their political clout and also by using various methods of evasion and coercion, which included registering their own land under names of different relatives to bypass the ceiling, shuffling tenants around different plots of land so that they would not acquire incumbency rights as stipulated in the tenancy law.

• The two states in which land reform is widely considered to have been successful are West Bengal and Kerala.

• The two states accounted for 11.75 and 22.88 per cent, respectively, of the total number of tenants conferred ownership rights up to 2000, despite being home to only 7.05 and 2.31 per cent of India’s population, respectively.

• West Bengal’s share of total surplus land distributed was almost 20 per cent of the all-India figure (Government of India, 2000),although the state accounts for only about 3 per cent of India’s land resources.

National Land Reform Policy

In July 2013 the ministry of rural development put forth a draft of a new National Land Reform Policy. The draft national land reform policy, released last month, has five goals:

•Distribute land to all rural landless poor

•Restore land unjustly taken from vulnerable communities such as the Dalits (untouchables) and Tribals

•Protect the land of the Dalits and Tribals

•Liberalize leasing laws

•Improve land rights of women

Overall Observations:

Pro-Women Policy - All new homestead land distribution/regularisation to

landless families should be only in women’s name rather than joint titles with

husbands. Distribution of land under all land distribution programmes should

exclusively be to rural landless women workers. Awareness programs to educate

women about land laws and land rights may be conducted.

Administrative reforms and improvements in institutional processes: The

Policy encompasses a very large set of pro-active administrative, legal and

quasi-legal actions to ensure the rights to land of all socially and economically

marginalized communities including SCs, STs, Women, Nomads and the like.

Additionally, the policy proposes a number of administrative reforms, and

improvements in institutional processes to make it more efficient, transparent,

and accountable.

Tenancy - Restrictions on land leasing within ceiling limits should be removed

to help improving poor people’s access to land through lease market and also for

improved utilization of available land, labour and capital. Encouragement to the

women for group leasing, as far as possible. The rent should operate as per the

lease market. The State should not fix the lease rent.

Shortcomings in the policy:

More focused towards rural land reforms: The ‘Draft National Land Reforms

Policy’ seems to be skewed more on rural land reforms. Urban land issues are

equally complex though the size might be smaller. Hence the draft would do well

to have urban related issues addressed as well.

Exemption of North Eastern region: The Policy has exempted the states of

North-Eastern India and does not seem to be adequately clarifying the reasons for

the same.

Coverage of Backward Classes in the policy: There has been little mention of

the other backward classes (OBCs), Salt farmers (in Gujarat’s context).

Interconnections between demand for agriculture and non-agriculture

purposes: The proposed policy needs to address the interconnections of surging

demand of land for agricultural purpose and demand of more land for non-

agricultural purpose and to strike a balance through land reforms policy.

CCIS was introduced with effect from 1st April 1985 by the Government of India with the

active participation of State Governments. The Scheme was linked to short term crop credit

and implemented on homogeneous area basis.

The main features of the scheme were:

1) It covered farmers availing crop loans from financial institutions for growing food

crops and oilseeds on compulsory basis. The coverage was restricted to 100 per cent

of crop loan subject to a maximum of Rs.10 thousand per farmer.

2) Small and marginal farmers were given a subsidy of 50 per cent of the premium payable

shared equally by the central and state governments.

3) The central and state governments shared the premium and claims in the ratio of 2:1.

4) The scheme was a multi-agency effort, involving Government of India, State

Governments, Banking Institutions and General Insurance Corporation of India.

The scheme was, however, scrapped in 1997 because of huge losses to the Government.

Keeping in view the demands of States for improving scope and contents of CCIS, a broad-based National Agricultural Insurance Scheme (NAIS) has been introduced in the country with the following objectives:

a. To provide insurance coverage and financial support to the farmers in the event of failure of any of the notified crop as a result of natural calamities, pests and diseases.

b. To encourage the farmers to adopt progressive farming practices, high value inputs and higher technology in Agriculture.

c. To help stabilize farm incomes, particularly in disaster years.

Scope of the scheme

The scheme was available to all states and union territories on optional basis. Currently the scheme has been implemented in 23 states and two union territories.

Farmers covered

All farmers including sharecroppers and tenant farmers growing notified crops in notified areas are eligible for coverage under the scheme. However, it is compulsory for farmers availing crop loans from financial institutions.

Risks coveredThe scheme provides comprehensive risk insurance against yield losses due to natural fire and lightening, storm, hailstorm, cyclone, typhoon, tempest, hurricane, tornado flood, inundation and landslide, drought, dry spells, and pests / diseases etc. However losses arising out of war and nuclear risks, malicious damage and other preventable risks shall be excluded.

Crops coveredThe scheme besides food and oilseed crops also covered annual commercial and

horticultural crops. The crops covered in various states fall under the

following groups:

Food crops (cereals, millets and pulses): Wheat, Paddy, Jowar, Bajra, Maize, Ragi, etc.

Oilseeds: Groundnut, Sunflower, Soya bean, Safflower, Sesame, Niger, Caster.

Annual commercial/horticultural crops: Sugarcane, Cotton, Potato, Onion,Chilly,

Turmeric, Ginger, Coriander, Cumin, Fennel, Fenugreek, Isabgol, Jute, Tapioca, Banana,

Pineapple, etc. However mangoes, apples, grapes and oranges are not yet covered.

Benefits Expected from the Scheme The scheme is expected to:

1)be a critical instrument of development in the field of crop production, providing

financial support to the farmers in the event of crop failure,

2) encourage farmers to adopt progressive farming practices and better technology in

agriculture,

3) help in maintaining flow of credit.

Though India has the largest irrigated area in the world, the coverage of irrigation is only about 40 percent of the gross cropped area as of today. One of the main reasons for the low coverage of irrigation is the predominant use of flood (conventional) method of irrigation, where water use efficiency is very low

Micro-irrigation, which includes drip and sprinkler irrigation method, has been introduced to save water and increase the water use efficiency in agriculture. While drip method supplies water directly to the root zone of the crop through a network of pipes with the help of emitters, sprinkler irrigation method (SIM) sprinkles water similar to rainfall into the air through nozzles which subsequently break into small water drops and fall on the field surface.

DIM supplies water directly to the root zone of the crop, instead of land, and therefore, the water losses occurring through evaporation and distribution are completely absent. Apart from reducing water consumption, drip method of irrigation also helps reducing cost of cultivation and improving productivity of crops as compared to the same crops cultivated under flood method of irrigation.

Drip method of irrigation was initially introduced in the early seventies by the

agricultural universities and other research institutions in India with the aim to

increase the water use efficiency in crop cultivation. The development of drip

irrigation was very slow in the initial years and significant development has been

achieved especially since 1990s.

Due to various promotional schemes introduced by the Government of India and

states like Maharashtra, area under drip method of irrigation increased from 1500

hectares in 1985 to about 4.50 lakh hectares in 2000. Maharashtra accounts for

nearly 50 percent of the India’s total drip irrigated area followed by Karnataka,

Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh.

Sprinkler irrigation method is relatively old for Indian farmers as compared to

drip irrigation method. Sprinkler system was introduced in India during the mid-

fifties for plantation crops like coffee and tea. State-wise area under sprinkler

irrigation shows that it is mainly concentrated in Central and northern part of the

country. During the year 2004-05, states like Haryana, Rajasthan, West Bengal

and Maharashtra together accounted for about 70 percent of India’s total drip

irrigated area.

Kisan Credit Card (KCC) scheme introduced in 1998-99 was a step towards

facilitating the access to Short Term (ST) credit for the borrowers from the

financial institutions. The scheme was conceived as a unique credit delivery

mechanism, which aimed at provision of adequate and timely supply of ST

credit to the farmers to meet their crop production requirements.

Under the earlier system, disbursal of short-term credit to agriculture was

mostly through demand loans and cash credit, the facilities were, however, given

for the period of one year or less, which necessitated execution of fresh

documents each season.

Some of the advantages are as under:

i. the card can be used like an ordinary credit card, thus giving a feeling to

the farmers that there is an underlying guarantee of getting loan from the

bank as long as the earlier loan is repaid

ii. the facility is given for three to five years instead of one year, thus

reducing the procedural delays

iii. there is flexibility in operation of the facility in terms of number of

withdrawals and in repayment of loan

iv. the system on its own allows the borrowers to get their loans rescheduled

in case of natural calamities, etc. and

v. certain new features, such as, personal insurance for all the card hoders

ranging from Rs 25,000 to Rs 50,000 against permanent disability or

accidental death, an effective measure for risk mitigation, were also

incorporated in the scheme.