Agrarian reforms In India after independence

Agrarian reforms In India after independence

1. Agrarian reforms In India after independence - The struggle

2. Agriculture at the time of Independence Indian agriculture during British rule went towards stagnation. Lack of supervision led to negligence in reforms, which were introduced to ensure development in productivity. Meanwhile, the British government continued in their trade deals, extracting more profit that inevitably led to the fall of India's agricultural sector. 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. The agricultural land resource of India was gradually impoverished because economic motivation tended towards exploitation rather than investment.

3. Causes for stagnation in the Indian agricultural Zamindari System - One of the primary reasons for the cause of stagnation in India's agricultural sector was the zamindari system. This agricultural system was mainly practiced in Bengal, which was the then capital of British India . As per this system, the majority of the profits went to landowners, i.e. zamindars instead of cultivators. As a result, the colonial bosses ultimately made the most income, while such farmers were not remunerated adequately . These zamindars, who were vassals of their colonial masters, did not help to improve the agriculture sector but only wanted to reap its benefits. Even though economic conditions were degrading gradually, zamindars did not issue any rebates on tariffs..Moreover , such tariffs had unethical rules and guidelines that did not favor cultivators. For example, if cultivators did not pay their rent on time, the colonial leaders would repeal all of their rights.

4. Forced Commercialization - Even though there was a shortage of resources, the British rule insisted on widespread commercialization to bring in more profits. Their objective was to make this industry evolve and undergo 'cultivation for sale' from the orthodox methods of "cultivation for self. That led to the production of crops only for sale. In India, where the majority of cultivated crops were used for self consumption were then sent to markets for sale. British also introduced the cultivation of commercial crops such as Indigo to enhance their profits. Even though Indigo is a favorable crop for a commercialized agriculture sector, it brought more harm to India as it damaged the fertility of soils in vast proportion.

5. Partition – India’s partition into Pakistan and Bangladesh brought in food crisis all over India as several crop cultivating lands were now divided . Various rice producing agricultural lands in Punjab , India then became a part of Pakistan . As a result of the partition, 84% of the net sown area came to India’s share while the remaining 16% went to Pakistan. Although Pakistan got slightly less than what her share of population would demand, but she more than made up by way of better irrigation facilities. Even before Independence, India was deficit in food-grains. This deficiency was now aggravated. With 82% of the population, she produced only 68% and 65% of the total preparation yield of rice and wheat crops respectively. On the other hand, the areas, which went to form Pakistan were normally surplus in food production to the extent of about one million tons. The partition was thus instrumental in causing a net loss of 7-8 lakh tons in the annual supply of the Indian union.

6. ABOLITION OF INTERMEDIARIES Intermediaries like Zamindars, Talukdars, Jagirs and Imams had dominated the agricultural sector in India by the time the country attained independence. Soon after independence, measures for the abolition of the Zamindari system 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. MIDDLEMEN Major Reforms ABOLITION OF INTERMEDIARIES

7. Security of Tenure 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 landlord 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.

8. Regulation of Rent 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.

9. Right of Ownership Under the 1949 Indian constitution, states were granted the powers to enact (and implement) land reforms. This autonomy ensures that there has been significant variation across states and time in terms of the number and types of land reforms that have been enacted . 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 .

10. Ceiling on Land Holding 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. The land ceiling acts define the size of land that an individual/family can own. In India, by 1961-62, all the state governments have passed the land ceiling acts. But the ceiling limits varied from state to state. To bring uniformity across states, a new land ceiling policy was evolved in 1971. In 1972, national guidelines were issued with ceiling limits as 10-18 acres for best land, 18-27 acres for second class land and for the rest with 27-54 acres with a slightly higher limit in the hill and desert areas

11. Impact of Land Reforms The general assessment on land reforms in the Indian context s 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 programs of land reforms 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.

12. National Land Reform policy 2003 In July 2003 , the ministry of rural development put forth the new National Land Reform policy , which had major 5 goals Distribute land to all rural landless poor Restore land unjustly taken from vulnerable communities such as  the Dalits (untouchables) and Tribal Protect the land of the Dalits and Tribal including the Commons that they depend on going forward Liberalize leasing laws Improve land rights of women

13. NATIONAL AGRICULTURAL INSURANCE SCHEME Keeping in view the demands of States for improving scope and contents of CCIS, a broad-based National Agricultural Insurance Scheme (NAIS) was 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.

14. CASE STUDY 1 (Green Revolution) In 1965, the government with the help of Indian geneticists M.S. Swaminathan, known as the father of Green Revolution, launched the Green Revolution This new 'agricultural strategy' was put into practice for the first time in India in the kharif season of 1966 and was termed High-Yielding Varieties Programme (HYVP). This programme was introduced in the form of a package since it depended crucially on regular and adequate irrigation, fertilizers, High-Yielding Varieties of seeds, pesticides and insecticides. Green Revolution helped the country to become self sufficient in terms of food grains

15. Positive Impact of Green Revolution Increase in Agricultural Production : Food grains in India saw a great rise in output. It was a remarkable increase. The biggest beneficiary of the plan was the Wheat Grain. The production of wheat increased to 55 million tones in 1990 from just 11 million tones in 1960. Increase in per Acre Yield:  Not only did the Green Revolution increase the total agricultural output, it also increased the per hectare yield. In case of wheat, the per hectare yield increased from 850 kg/hectare to an incredible 2281 kg/hectare by 1990. Less Dependence on Imports:  After the green revolution, India was finally on its way to self-sufficiency. There was now enough production for the population and to build a stock in case of emergencies. We did not need to import grains or depend on other countries for our food supply. In fact, India was able to start exporting its agricultural produce. Employment:  It was feared that commercial farming would leave a lot of the labor force jobless. But on the other hand, we saw a rise in rural employment. This is because the supporting industries created employment opportunities. Irrigation, transportation, food processing, marketing all created new jobs for the workforce. A Benefit to the Farmers:  The Green Revolution majorly benefited the farmers. Their income saw a significant raise. Not only were they surviving, they were prospering. It enabled them to shift to commercial farming from only sustenance farming.

16. Environmental damage Excessive and inappropriate use of fertilizers and pesticides polluted waterways and killed beneficial insects and wild life. It has caused over use of soil and rapidly depleted its nutrients. The rampant irrigation practices led to eventual  soil degradation . Groundwater practices have fallen dramatically. Further, heavy dependence on few major crops has led to loss of biodiversity of farmers. These problems were aggravated due to absence of training to use modern technology and vast illiteracy leading to excessive use of chemicals. Increased regional disparities The green revolution spread only in irrigated and high-potential rainfed areas. The villages or regions without the access of sufficient water were left out that widened the regional disparities between adopters and non-adopters. Since, the HYV seeds technically can be applied only in a land with assured water supply and availability of other inputs like chemicals, fertilizers etc. The application of the new technology in the dry-land areas is simply ruled out. The states like Punjab, Haryana, Western UP etc. having good irrigation and other infrastructure facilities were able to derive the benefits of the green revolution and achieve faster economic development while other states have recorded slow growth in agriculture production Negative impact of Green Revolution

17. Case Study 2 (Food corporation of India ) The Food Corporation of India was setup under the Food Corporation Act 1964, in order to fulfill following objectives of the Food Policy : Effective price support operations for safeguarding the interests of the farmers. Distribution of food grains throughout the country for public distribution system Maintaining satisfactory level  of operational  and buffer stocks of food grains to ensure National Food Security In its 50 years of service to the nation, FCI has played a significant role in India's success in transforming the crisis management oriented food security into a stable security system. FCI's Objectives are: To provide farmers remunerative prices To make food grains available at reasonable prices, particularly to vulnerable section of the society . To maintain buffer stocks as measure of Food Security To intervene in market for price stabilization

18. The FCI is one of the largest corporations in India and probably the largest supply chain management in Asia (Second in world ). It operates through five Zonal offices and 24 Regional offices. Each year, the Food Corporation of India purchases roughly 15 to 20 per cent of India's wheat output and 12 to 15 per cent of its rice output. The purchases are made from the farmers at the rates declared by the Govt. of India. This rate is called as MSP (Minimum Support Price). There is no limit for procurement in terms of volume, any quantity can be procured by the FCI provided the stock satisfies FAQ (Fair Average Quality) specifications with respect to the FCI. The FCI procures rice and wheat from farmers through many routes like paddy purchase centres /mill levy/custom milling and stores them in depots. FCI maintains many types of depots like food storage depots and buffer storage complexes and private equity godowns and also implemented latest storage methods of silo storage facilities which are located at Hapur in Uttar Pradesh and Elavur in Tamil Nadu.  The Economic Times : The Food Corporation of India (FCI) has moved a record 3.74 million tonnes (MT) food grains stocks using 1,335 train loads from the surplus states during the lockdown period at an average of 1.7 lakh tonnes per day. This is more than double its normal average movement of about 0.8 lakh tonnes per day.