RATIONALE FOR SECOND PHASE OF LAND REFORMS IN KERALA
Tuesday, October 18, 2011
7:54 PM
Posted by
Indira
The concept of land reform implies the modification or replacement of existing institutional arrangements governing possession and use of land Kerala has enacted and some of the most progressive land reform legislations far outpacing rest of the states in India. The legislative process to initiate land reforms in Kerala began in 1957 by the first Kerala legislative Assembly. The Kerala Land Reforms Act,1961 was the first unified legislation . It was carried forward by subsequent Legislative Assemblies. Important amendments were introduced in 1961,1963,1968 and 1970.The land reform legislations in Kerala was not confined to tenant relations, but extended to the entire gamut of the state’s socio economic and political scenario. By 1970 it had ended statutory landlordism and jenmi system, provided security of tenure to tenants and ownership of occupants of homestead ( kudikidappu) lands. It has also imposed ceiling on land ownership and distributed surplus land to the landless. It offered tenants protection from eviction, provided sites for construction of houses to many land less families and was instrumental in raising rural wages and introducing minimum wages and social security schemes for agricultural workers. It brought down to a great extent the economic class and caste inequity in Kerala. The land reforms are considered as one of the outstanding achievements of Kerala development experience
The Kerala Land Reforms Act aimed at creating an equal society with growing agricultural production by placing land in the hands of tillers and ensuring houses for all.Though land reforms were implemented in a wide ranging manner, yet the change that should have accompanied the reforms failed to materialize in the state. The long delay in the implementation of reforms gave many landlords ample time to sell their lands or devise strategies to circumvent the provisions of the law. The land reforms as implemented in Kerala had another drawback, an important one being the exemption on land ceiling granted to certain type of plantations. Thus land reform law had excluded from its purview a major chunk of the land in the state.
Land reforms did not increase agricultural production or rural employment in the state. It has not solved the food problem in the state. After fifty years Kerala depend on the neighbouring states for food. Technological change, high yielding varieties of seeds, irrigation ,credit and marketing facilities and a system that ensures fair price to the farmers which ought have followed land reform did not take place in an effective manner. In fact one of the visible results of the implementations land reforms was extreme fragmentation of land, which made agriculture a low profit venture in the state. Many landlords realized that they could not make a living out of agricultural land, turned to less labour intensive crops or to other avenues that could generate additional income or tended to leave their land fallow, resulting in a sharp fall in agricultural employment and rise in farm wages disproportionate to yield. The most discernable trend in the past few decades has been the marked shift in cropping pattern towards less labour intensive crops. The increasing trend towards less labour intensive crops, the area under paddy, the major food crop fell drastically to ---- A major share of the land went out of paddy cultivation continued to be used for agriculture, but the preference was to grow coconut, rubber, arecnut or crops such as banana, tapioca and vegetables.
Since joint families are coming apart, thus fragmenting households and land, farming has often become unviable. The high cost of cultivation and lack of farm labour as an indirect result of the higher education have also contributed to rice fields being converted to the cultivation of other crops or real estate. The improvement in the educational levels of agricultural labourers especially the youth seems to have bred an aversion towards the work in the paddy fields.The widespread implementation of various rural employment programmes like IRDP,DWRCA,JRY,NREGS in the state have provided substantial employment opportunities to the rural poor especially women. There is coexistence of higher wages and high levels of unemployment in agriculture. Thus the period following land reforms, Kerala became a net importer of agro products and heavily depended on nearby states for food supply. Now farmers are turning to horticulture and quick profit cultivation of exotic varieties such as vanilla and medicinal plants which are of high demand in the international market.Of late they are doing this by taking land on lease or contract farming. Workers too migrated to non agricultural sectors, especially to the construction sector where they are able to get higher wages
After the gulf boom ,land prices became so high that selling of agricultural land for real estate development became an attractive option in agriculture Land is not treated as a means of production in Kerala, but is often regarded as a speculative asset. Therefore many speculative investors without genuine interest in farming have entered into the land market as buyers. Again land as a safe asset, a considerable proportion of foreign remittances coming to the state every year are used for the purchase of land .With growing preasure of population and the break down of joint family system and the development of secondary and tertiory sectors, agricultural land throughout the state is converted for the residential houses, multistoried flats, commercial establishments, shopping complexes, roads ,hospitals and educational institutions, which in turn reduced the area under cultivation.
Thus the issue of concern were abnormal rise in the price of land in Kerala which has pushed it far beyond the means of common people, the concentration of land in the hands of few individuals, the blooming land mafia in the state, and the exclusion of the large section of the poor from the prospect of ever owning a piece of land.
Land reforms in Kerala did not really end capitalistic landlordism or transfer agrarian power to agricultural labourers and poor peasants. E.M.S Namboodiripad ,under whose leadership the reform process was launched in the fifties remarked “the old jenmi system was replaced by “landlordism of another type” of tenants who have no direct dependence on land and who got their land cultivated through wage labour.
The labourers who really worked on land for a living did not benefit much from the reforms.They got very little cultivable land. A number of them got only hutment dwelling rights.There was also gradual shift in land ownership from households that have a livelihood interest in cultivation to those who have no major interest in cultivation. Many new owners see the value of land as much important to them than any additional income they may get from farm production.
A recent study estimates that over 33% of the people in Kerala have no land of their own, They include the poorest of the poor
fishing ,tribal and dalit communities. There is an abnormal concentration of land in the hands of the richest 8.8% of the population. Thus land reforms have failed to satisfy the basic needs of the lowest castes and communities.A study by the Kerala Sahithya Parishad indicates a definite trend away from the post independence ideal of equitable distribution of land. Nearly one tenth of the surplus land identified for redistribution has actually been redistributed to the landless.
Even though land reforms Act prohibit tenancy, the simultaneous increase of two categories of people, those who have land, but are unwilling to cultivate, and those who have the labour and skills, but no land or not enough land of their own to cultivate has led to the emergence of informal or concealed tenancy in a big way. Acute unemployment and land hunger of agricultural workers who were kept out of the purview of land reforms necessitated them to look for possible strategies of survival. This has led to the emergence of lease land farming in many parts of Kerala.
Thus although Kerala Land reforms AmendmentAcct1969 which came into force from January 1970,had brought about radical changes in the agrarian structure of Kerala, the trends that have been emerging in agriculture in recent years, presents a somewhat different picture. The tendencies like less intensive cropping, leaving paddy lands fallow, conversion of paddy lands to the cultivation of cash crops like coconut and rubber, widespread use of paddy land for non agricultural purposes, widening food deficit, emergence of informal tenancies abnormal rise in the price of land and the concentration of land in the hands of few individuals, emergence and growth of land mafia in the state necessitate a relook at land reforms for promoting agriculture.
The Kerala Land Reforms Act aimed at creating an equal society with growing agricultural production by placing land in the hands of tillers and ensuring houses for all.Though land reforms were implemented in a wide ranging manner, yet the change that should have accompanied the reforms failed to materialize in the state. The long delay in the implementation of reforms gave many landlords ample time to sell their lands or devise strategies to circumvent the provisions of the law. The land reforms as implemented in Kerala had another drawback, an important one being the exemption on land ceiling granted to certain type of plantations. Thus land reform law had excluded from its purview a major chunk of the land in the state.
Land reforms did not increase agricultural production or rural employment in the state. It has not solved the food problem in the state. After fifty years Kerala depend on the neighbouring states for food. Technological change, high yielding varieties of seeds, irrigation ,credit and marketing facilities and a system that ensures fair price to the farmers which ought have followed land reform did not take place in an effective manner. In fact one of the visible results of the implementations land reforms was extreme fragmentation of land, which made agriculture a low profit venture in the state. Many landlords realized that they could not make a living out of agricultural land, turned to less labour intensive crops or to other avenues that could generate additional income or tended to leave their land fallow, resulting in a sharp fall in agricultural employment and rise in farm wages disproportionate to yield. The most discernable trend in the past few decades has been the marked shift in cropping pattern towards less labour intensive crops. The increasing trend towards less labour intensive crops, the area under paddy, the major food crop fell drastically to ---- A major share of the land went out of paddy cultivation continued to be used for agriculture, but the preference was to grow coconut, rubber, arecnut or crops such as banana, tapioca and vegetables.
Since joint families are coming apart, thus fragmenting households and land, farming has often become unviable. The high cost of cultivation and lack of farm labour as an indirect result of the higher education have also contributed to rice fields being converted to the cultivation of other crops or real estate. The improvement in the educational levels of agricultural labourers especially the youth seems to have bred an aversion towards the work in the paddy fields.The widespread implementation of various rural employment programmes like IRDP,DWRCA,JRY,NREGS in the state have provided substantial employment opportunities to the rural poor especially women. There is coexistence of higher wages and high levels of unemployment in agriculture. Thus the period following land reforms, Kerala became a net importer of agro products and heavily depended on nearby states for food supply. Now farmers are turning to horticulture and quick profit cultivation of exotic varieties such as vanilla and medicinal plants which are of high demand in the international market.Of late they are doing this by taking land on lease or contract farming. Workers too migrated to non agricultural sectors, especially to the construction sector where they are able to get higher wages
After the gulf boom ,land prices became so high that selling of agricultural land for real estate development became an attractive option in agriculture Land is not treated as a means of production in Kerala, but is often regarded as a speculative asset. Therefore many speculative investors without genuine interest in farming have entered into the land market as buyers. Again land as a safe asset, a considerable proportion of foreign remittances coming to the state every year are used for the purchase of land .With growing preasure of population and the break down of joint family system and the development of secondary and tertiory sectors, agricultural land throughout the state is converted for the residential houses, multistoried flats, commercial establishments, shopping complexes, roads ,hospitals and educational institutions, which in turn reduced the area under cultivation.
Thus the issue of concern were abnormal rise in the price of land in Kerala which has pushed it far beyond the means of common people, the concentration of land in the hands of few individuals, the blooming land mafia in the state, and the exclusion of the large section of the poor from the prospect of ever owning a piece of land.
Land reforms in Kerala did not really end capitalistic landlordism or transfer agrarian power to agricultural labourers and poor peasants. E.M.S Namboodiripad ,under whose leadership the reform process was launched in the fifties remarked “the old jenmi system was replaced by “landlordism of another type” of tenants who have no direct dependence on land and who got their land cultivated through wage labour.
The labourers who really worked on land for a living did not benefit much from the reforms.They got very little cultivable land. A number of them got only hutment dwelling rights.There was also gradual shift in land ownership from households that have a livelihood interest in cultivation to those who have no major interest in cultivation. Many new owners see the value of land as much important to them than any additional income they may get from farm production.
A recent study estimates that over 33% of the people in Kerala have no land of their own, They include the poorest of the poor
fishing ,tribal and dalit communities. There is an abnormal concentration of land in the hands of the richest 8.8% of the population. Thus land reforms have failed to satisfy the basic needs of the lowest castes and communities.A study by the Kerala Sahithya Parishad indicates a definite trend away from the post independence ideal of equitable distribution of land. Nearly one tenth of the surplus land identified for redistribution has actually been redistributed to the landless.
Even though land reforms Act prohibit tenancy, the simultaneous increase of two categories of people, those who have land, but are unwilling to cultivate, and those who have the labour and skills, but no land or not enough land of their own to cultivate has led to the emergence of informal or concealed tenancy in a big way. Acute unemployment and land hunger of agricultural workers who were kept out of the purview of land reforms necessitated them to look for possible strategies of survival. This has led to the emergence of lease land farming in many parts of Kerala.
Thus although Kerala Land reforms AmendmentAcct1969 which came into force from January 1970,had brought about radical changes in the agrarian structure of Kerala, the trends that have been emerging in agriculture in recent years, presents a somewhat different picture. The tendencies like less intensive cropping, leaving paddy lands fallow, conversion of paddy lands to the cultivation of cash crops like coconut and rubber, widespread use of paddy land for non agricultural purposes, widening food deficit, emergence of informal tenancies abnormal rise in the price of land and the concentration of land in the hands of few individuals, emergence and growth of land mafia in the state necessitate a relook at land reforms for promoting agriculture.
Kerala is 100% failure due to land reforms. The productivity is very bad. Kerala imports all its food requirements. This is all that is big outcome of land reform.