Opening up the market for land

Soon, non-agriculturists whose income is less than Rs 25 lakh per annum will be able to buy farmlands in Karnataka, thanks to the government which is planning to amend the Karnataka Land Reforms Act. The Karnataka Land Reforms Act now does not allow non-agriculturists whose income is more than Rs 2 lakh per annum to buy farm land. Any person who does not own agricultural land in Karnataka is a non-agriculturist. - - - - However, farmer leaders have opposed the idea. “The farm sector is already reeling under crisis and farmers are selling their lands to realtors. By raising the income limit, there is more danger of cultivable land being sold away . This will eventually lead to food crisis.The government should frame rules to safeguard cultivable land from selling and buying,“ said C Mallesh, a farmer leader.

Suresh Hari, secretary , Credai, Bengaluru, said: “The real good thing is making agricultural land available for all without unnecessary governmental control. Of course, necessary protection needs to be in place so that the livelihood of marginal farmers is not affected and only the non-productive lands find end-user.“

For the full text of the report in the ToI, click here.

One wonders why it took so long for the government to correct this artificiality, and check the thriving black market associated with it, even as just across the state border (some 25 km down the Sarjapur road), one could buy any extent of land one wanted. And, now the question that arises is why this new and totally illogical artificiality of Rs 25 lakh income limit?

Contrary to what has been stated by the CREDAI representative, this is going to be a boon particularly to the marginal farmer, who has from long decided that there's no future in the way he has been carrying on, and is waiting to sell out, and move onto making a livelihood in some other vocation.

And, as to the question of food security, if we can adopt more scientific ways (I am not suggesting GM - check here), we can make our lands far more productive than we have been doing so far, and that'll take care of not only our needs, but even produce exportable surplus.

It's time we set aside all old shibboleths, and move on.

Muralidhar Rao