Indian Agricultural: Growth, Generation, Policy & Problem Indian Agricultural | Page 21

Pg.no. 20
05. Land Reforms
Land reform (also agrarian reform, though that can have a broader meaning) involves the changing of
laws, regulations or customs regarding land ownership or Land Reform refers to efforts to reform the
ownership and regulation of land. Land reform may consist of a government-initiated or government-
backed property redistribution, generally of agricultural land. Land reform can, therefore, refer to
transfer of ownership from the more powerful to the less powerful, such as from a relatively small
number of wealthy (or noble) owners with extensive land holdings (e.g., plantations, large ranches, or
agribusiness plots) to individual ownership by those who work the land. Such transfers of ownership
may be with or without compensation; compensation may vary from token amounts to the full value of
the land.
Land reform may also entail the transfer of land from individual ownership—even peasant ownership
in smallholdings—to government-owned collective farms; it has also, in other times and places,
referred to the exact opposite: division of government-owned collective farms into smallholdings. The
common characteristic of all land reforms, however, is modification or replacement of existing
institutional arrangements governing possession and use of land. Thus, while land reform may be
radical in nature, such as through large-scale transfers of land from one group to another, it can also
be less dramatic, such as regulatory reforms aimed at improving land administration.
Nonetheless, any revision or reform of a country's land laws can still be an intensely political process,
as reforming land policies serves to change relationships within and between communities, as well as
between communities and the state. Thus, even small-scale land reforms and legal modifications may
be subject to intense debate or conflict.
Arguments in Favor of Land Reforms
Equity – now majority of land in India is enjoyed by a minority of landlords.
Inverse relationship between land size and efficiency – the smaller the land, better will be the
productivity and efficiency.
Ramesh Kumar P