Question

Reforms in land leasing laws will improve agriculture productivity and help in doubling the farmer's income. In this context, discuss why India needs a legal framework on land leasing. What other steps can be taken by the central and state governments regarding land reforms for doubling farm income?

Answer 1

Approach:

1. Discuss about land reform legislations in post-Independence.
2. Discuss about the importance of legal land leasing framework.
3. Discuss about the government initiatives for land reforms.
4. Provide appropriate conclusion.

The land reform legislations in post-Independence India consisted of redistribution of surplus land from the rich to the poor, abolition of intermediaries, security of tenure to tenants (and tenancy regulations) and consolidation of landholdings. Even after so many land reform legislations in the country, large chunk of lands (as high as 25 million hectares, as per some estimates) remaining fallow in the country due to restrictive clause of land reform legislations. In such case, legal land leasing framework is desired to have security of tenure to tenants.

Requirement of legal land leasing framework:

1. Linkages between tenure security and income security: Ensuring land leasing through a legal framework incentivizes tenant cultivators to invest and conserve agricultural land resources, which, in turn, leads to increased land productivity and profitability.
2. Private sector investments in agriculture: legislating the model Agricultural Land Leasing Act will ensure private sector investments in agriculture as there will be security of tenure for private companies. Also, due to the presence of legal framework, there will be transparency in land leasing process. So it will ensure the confidence of private companies in investing in the agriculture sector.
3. Increase the credit flow to lessee farmers/sharecroppers/tenants: bottleneck of credit flow to lessee farmers/sharecroppers/tenants could be addressed by legalizing land leasing, as land is often used by lending financial institutions as collateral for farm loans.
4. The fear of agricultural lands falling into the hands of the sharecroppers after a specific period (due to restrictive clauses) has also led to large chunks of lands (as high as 25 million hectares, as per some estimates) remaining fallow in the country.
5. With rising levels of income, the prices of agricultural lands are going up and, therefore, landless agri-labourers and small/marginal farmers can’t afford to purchase new parcels of land. Land tenure security and collective farming are also in the interest of smallholder agriculture.
6. Consolidation of the operational land holdings What we need is reforms in the land leasing laws to give legal status to tenancy. This would give greater sense of security to the owner who wants to lease out land and it will also give greater certainty of tenure to the tenant, above all it will open doors for the consolidation of the operational land holdings. Increase in operational land holding increase the agriculture productivity.

Initiatives taken by Central and State government:

• The poor maintenance of land records and slow pace of digitization of land revenue administration is negatively impacting agriculture. In this direction, Digital India Land Records Modernization Programme (DILRMP) was launched by the central government.
• The main aims of DILRMP are to usher in a system of updated land records, automated and automatic mutation, integration between textual and spatial records, inter-connectivity between revenue and registration, to replace the present deeds registration and presumptive title system with that of conclusive titling with title guarantee.
• Land bank scheme was launched for land consolidation, land productivity and protecting the rights of landowners and tenants.
• Government has formulated Model Contract Farming Act, 2018 to protect the interest of farmers and tenants.

Ensuring poor people’s access to the land lease market could prove to be a game changer for enhancing farmers’ income. There should be center and state coordination for better implementation of Model Agricultural Land Leasing Act, 2016 and it will promote the spirit of Cooperative federalism.