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LAND TENURE IN INDIA Implications for Natural Resource Management

LAND TENURE IN INDIA Implications for Natural Resource Management. D Rajasekhar Professor and Head, Decentralisation and Development Unit, ISEC, Bangalore

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LAND TENURE IN INDIA Implications for Natural Resource Management

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  1. LAND TENURE IN INDIAImplications for Natural Resource Management D Rajasekhar Professor and Head, Decentralisation and Development Unit, ISEC, Bangalore Presentation at Natural Resource Management and Institutions: The Links between Property Rights, Collective Action and Natural Resource Management, Februray 7-11, 2005, ICRISAT, Patancheru, India

  2. INTRODUCTION • Land tenure implies rights in relation to land. • Two types of rights - ownership and cultivation. • Include different types of claims that people have to land and specify what one can and cannot do, and what benefits one is entitled to. • Determine long-term incentives to invest in, sustain and improve resources. • This, in turn, determines the collective or individual action around management of land. • Land tenure is shaped by the government policies in relation to land reforms and their impact.

  3. Land reforms in India • Advocated to bring in equitable agrarian structure and improve land productivity, thereby to increase food production. • Three components • Abolition of intermediaries b/w government and cultivator • Tenancy reforms • Principle of land to the tiller & create the class of owner-proprietors • If not possible, tenancy was to be controlled and rendered fair • Eradication of share-cropping, fair rents and secured tenure. • Fixation of ceiling on the size of landholdings and redistribution of surplus land.

  4. Tenancy reforms • The tenancy area declined from 23% in the early 1950s to 8% in the 1990s. • Some landless tenants obtained ownership rights; but, inter-regional variations exist • Greater impact on absentee landlords with little influence in village power structure. • Resulted in evictions, resumption of land for personal cultivation, concealed tenancy, reverse tenancy, reduced lease period (where it was formal). • Between 15-25% tenancies in the country are illegal; 80% of leased land is held by small and marginal farmers.

  5. Tenancy reforms (contd) • Landlords taking pro-active role (such as cost sharing, specification of crops, etc.) due to the fear of tenant occupancy. • The share of landlord in input costs increased due to technological changes. • Tenant cultivators production efficiency may have gone up as falling wage employment opportunities contributed to enhanced interest. • Gujarat experience shows that banning tenancy will not lead to desired results. • National Commission on Agriculture stated that given declining land-man ratio tenancy cannot be banned.

  6. Ceiling laws • Skewed distribution of land ownership in 1950s; 8% of large farmers owned 53% of land and 28% of marginal farmers owned 6% of area. • Inverse size-productivity relationship suggested economic gains to small peasants. • First phase (1960-72) of ceiling laws were not radical. A delayed and diluted legislation failed to have desired impact. In fact, provided scope for adjustments and for emergence of `benami holdings’ or paper partitionings. • Micro studies revealed land transfers in favour of the wealthy (due to tenancy reforms) and a rise in the concentration of land ownership.

  7. Ceiling laws (contd) • More radical reforms in 1972; yet, the performance was poor. • Land declared surplus was less than the estimated surplus land • Only 1.8 million ha (out of 3 million ha) of land was acquired. • 50% of land to be distributed was involved in litigation • Land distributed was only 1.5% of NSA. • Ceiling laws resulted in a change in land acquisitive ethos of rich peasants. • Rich peasants started to gradually withdraw from the land market and started to seek greener pastures in non-agricultural activities. • Noticeable decline in the concentration of land ownership

  8. Consolidation of landholdings • Attempt was made to consolidate holdings to reduce inefficiency in operation and cultivation. • But, received least attention; no legislation, only persuasion. • Between 1974 and 2004, %age of area consolidated to planned area ranged between 22% and 40%. • Ceiling laws resulted in a rapid rise in the %age of marginal holdings as the objective of these laws was equity rather than farm efficiency. • Higher rates of partitioning resulted in fragmented landholdings as the ownership of holdings with different quality is perceived to be risk preventing mechanism. • Yet, a rapid growth of marginal holdings (from 28% in 1950s to 61% in 1990s) was a concern to the policy makers as the current holding structure neither meets efficiency nor equity.

  9. Land surveys • The last survey of land was undertaken during the colonial period (1920). • The changes in the ownership (legal or illegal) that have taken place since then are enormous, and call for fresh survey. • Yet, no survey is undertaken due to the complex and sheer size of the task. • Implies that land records are in a bad shape, and any dispute would call for official intervention. • GIS technology however makes this feasible.

  10. Computerisation of land records • Recording (periodic updating) of land rights is recongnised as an essential pre-requisite. • Computerisation of land records is undertaken in a phased manner, and the task is complete in 177 districts. • Contributed to reduction in time for farmers in obtaining the required legal document. • Delays in funds transfer and development of appropriate software and inadequate training resulted in slow progress. • Involved entering the land records as they are without making any attempt to make them accurate. • In the absence of any land survey in recent years, the records tended to be inaccurate in several cases.

  11. The landed farmer in India typically is... • A tenant • Not having a formal contract • Cannot bargain with the landlord • Does not have incentive to participate in a programme such as watershed and share her immense knowledge on practices of soil conservation • who has to combine wage labour with occassional migration • And so on. • A marginal farmer • Owning tiny and unviable landholding • Not sure of exact size of the landholding • Cultivating infertile land distributed by the government • Small and scattered landholding coming in the way of participation in land development programmes

  12. The landed farmer in India typically is... • An encroacher • not sure of whether s/he will cultivate the land tomorrow • not having incentives to invest and sustain landed resources • But, paying sums to people who matter to keep cultivation rights • What is needed to facilitate collective action among small and marginal farmers? • A case study

  13. Fight to evict an encroacher of tank land - Bheemanatta • This village is located in Kolar district in Karnataka and has 64 households • Heterogeneous village with 44% households belonging to SC/ST, 45% to OBC and 11% to upper castes. • SC and OBC households were organized by local NGO, and the main intervention was micro-finance • Micro-finance only marginally stabilised household incomes (through reduced dependence on informal agencies and borrowing for short-term production) • Micro-finance, however, did not result in significant poverty reduction.

  14. Bheemanatta (contd) • The poor expressed the need to rehabilitate the tank on which many of them depended for their livelihood. • The command area of the tank included lands of many households • But, the tank was dysfunctional, and hence, needed rejuvenation. • The NGO, with donor funds, started community based rehabilitation scheme since 1994. • An important problem was encroachment of tank land by an upper caste and wealthy person, occupying political position in gram panchayat • Invested heavily on borewell and coconut plantation; hence, reluctant to vacate the land despite the pressure of people’s organisations.

  15. Case study (contd) • People’s organisations met the encroacher for negotiated settlement. • The encroacher refused; challenged them to go to officials. • People’s organisations met officials • Obtaining original land documents was difficult. • Getting the surveyor to the site was difficult both because of shortage of staff and political influence of the encroacher. • After continuous follow-up, surveyor demarcated the land • Getting the encroacher evicted required the use of police force. • The encroacher managed to implicate key representatives of people’s organisations in false cases

  16. A few lessons • Small and marginal farmers require solid backing of civil society organisations • The people could get the encroacher evicted due to their long association with each other in micro-finance groups and trust and confidence on each other. • The poor state of land records make it difficult for the people to believe that they can ever achieve success and leads to considerable hardship. • Collective action was costly to these farmers as this involved in many visits to officials, indifferent to their problem • Their interest to act collectively to rehabilitate the public good was sustained because of clarity on future benefits stream and wage employment that was possible.

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