2. 1. INTRODUCTION
1.1 AGRICULTURAL SECTOR IN INDIA
• Overall growth of the economy.
• Provides employment and food security to majority of the population in the
country.
• Employs 60% of India’s population.
• Accounts for 8.56% of India’s exports.
• Contributes around 13.9 percent to the GDP.
• About 43% of India's geographical area is used for agricultural activity
Decline of its share in the GDP.
• Monsoons play a critical role in agriculture.
3. 2. HISTORY OF INDIAN AGRICULTURE
• By 6th millennium BC, Wheat and some legumes were found in Indus
valley.
• By 4000 BC, wheat, peas, and mangoes.
• By 3500 BC, cotton and cotton textiles were found in the valley.
• By 3000 BC, rice and sugar cane had started.
• By 2500 BC, rice was an important component of the staple diet in
Mohenjodaro .
• By 2000 BC, tea, bananas and apples were being cultivated.
4. 3. AGRICULTURE AT THE TIME OF INDEPENDENCE
At the time of
Independence,
India inherited a
semi-feudal
agrarian
structure with
onerous tenure
arrangements.
The ownership
and control of
land was highly
concentrated in
a few landlords
and
intermediaries.
Thus, the
agricultural land
resource of India
was gradually
impoverished
because
economic
motivation
tended towards
exploitation
rather than
investment.
5. 3. CAUSES FOR INTRODUCTION OF NEW
REFORMS IN AGRICULTURE
• Agriculture has been practised in India for thousands of years.
• Continued uses of land without well-matched techno-institutional reforms
lead to slow down in the pace of agricultural development.
• In spite of development in irrigation most of the farmers in large parts of
the country still depend upon monsoon and natural fertility of soil.
• Our population grew at fast rate than agriculture production.
• A lot of injustice done with farmers with the current prices for their
production.
• Famines, droughts and other disasters ruined the entire crop produced
putting farmers in dilemma.
7. 4. ABOLITION OF INTERMEDIARIES
• Intermediaries like Zamindars, Talukdars, Jagirs and Inams had
dominated the agricultural sector in India by the time the country attained
independence.
• Soon after independence, measures for the abolition of the Zamindari
system were adopted in different states. The first Act to abolish intermediaries
was passed in Madras in 1948.
• As a result of the abolition of intermediaries, about 2 crore tenants are
estimated to have come into direct contact with the State making them owners
of land.
• The abolition of intermediaries has led to the end of a parasite class. More
lands have been brought to government possession for distribution to landless
farmers.
9. 4.1 SECURITY OF TENURE
To protect tenants from eviction and to grant them permanent rights on lands,
laws have been enacted in most of the states. They have three essential features.
(a) Tenants cannot be evicted without any reason. They can be evicted only in
accordance with the laws.
(b) Land can be resumed by the landlord only on the ground of personal
cultivation. But the land-lord can resume the land only up to a maximum limit.
(c) The landlord should leave some area to the tenant for his own cultivation.
The tenant in no case should be made landless.
10. 4.2 REGULATION OF RENT
• In Pre-Independent India rents were high for obvious reasons. Fifty per cent of the
total produce was paid as rent.
• In addition to such high rent, the tenant had to provide certain free services to
landlords.
• So at the beginning of the First Plan, the Central Government insisted on the
regulation of high rent by State Governments.
• It was laid down that the rent to be paid to the landlord should not be more
than 20 to 25 per cent. The main objective of such Acts was to make the rent fair and
reasonable.
11. 4.3 RIGHT OF OWNERSHIP
• So far as right of ownership is concerned, tenants have
been declared as the owners of the land they cultivate. They
have to pay compensation to the owners. The amount of
compensation should not exceed the level of fair rent.
• As a result of these measures about 40 lakh tenants have
already acquired ownership rights over 37 lakh hectares of land.
They have become better-off economically and socially.
12. Ceiling on land holdings implies the fixing of the maximum
amount of land that an individual or family can possess.
Economic Rationality of Land Ceiling:
According to some economists small farms are more efficient than
large farms. They require less capital compared to the large farms.
Social Rationality of Land Ceiling:
In a poor country like India the supply of land is limited and number
of claimants is large. Hence it is socially unjust to allow small
number of people to hold large part of land.
5. CEILING ON LAND HOLDINGS
13. 6. CONSOLIDATION OF HOLDINGS
Consolidation of Holdings means bringing together the various small plots of
land of a farmer scattered all over the village as one compact block, either through
purchase or exchange of land with others.
In Orissa, the Consolidation Act was passed in 1972. The work of consolidation
has been completed fully in Punjab and Haryana. So far, about one- third of the
total cultivated land has been consolidated.
There are various obstacles to the speedy implementation of the consolidation
programme. These are poor response from cultivators, wide variation in the
quality of land, complicated process of land consolidation, lack of enforcing
machinery, lack of political will etc.
14. 7. NATIONALAGRICULTURAL INSURANCE
SCHEME
Keeping in view the demands of States for improving scope and contents of
CCIS, a broad-based National Agricultural Insurance Scheme (NAIS) has
been introduced in the country with the following objectives:
a. To provide insurance coverage and financial support to the farmers
in the event of failure of any of the notified crop as a result of natural
calamities, pests and diseases.
b. To encourage the farmers to adopt progressive farming practices,
high value inputs and higher technology in Agriculture.
c. To help stabilize farm incomes, particularly in disaster years.
15. Scope of the
scheme
The scheme was
available to all states
and union territories
on optional basis.
Currently the scheme
has been
implemented in 23
states and two union
territories.
Farmers
covered
All farmers including
sharecroppers and
tenant farmers
growing notified crops
in notified areas are
eligible for coverage
under the scheme.
However, it is
compulsory for
farmers availing
crop loans from
financial institutions.
Risks covered
The scheme provides
comprehensive risk
insurance against yield
losses due to natural fire
and lightening, storm,
hailstorm, cyclone,
typhoon, tempest,
hurricane, tornado
flood, inundation and
landslide, drought,
dry spells, and pests /
diseases etc. However
losses arising out of war
and nuclear risks,
malicious damage and
other preventable risks
shall be excluded.
16. Crops covered
The scheme besides food and oilseed crops also covered annual commercial and
horticultural crops. The crops covered in various states fall under the
following groups:
Food crops (cereals, millets and pulses): Wheat, Paddy, Jowar, Bajra, Maize, Ragi, etc.
Oilseeds: Groundnut, Sunflower, Soya bean, Safflower, Sesame, Niger, Caster.
Annual commercial/horticultural crops: Sugarcane, Cotton, Potato, Onion,Chilly,
Turmeric, Ginger, Coriander, Cumin, Fennel, Fenugreek, Isabgol, Jute, Tapioca, Banana,
Pineapple, etc. However mangoes, apples, grapes and oranges are not yet covered.
Benefits Expected from the Scheme
The scheme is expected to:
1)be a critical instrument of development in the field of crop production, providing
financial support to the farmers in the event of crop failure,
2) encourage farmers to adopt progressive farming practices and better technology in
agriculture,
3) help in maintaining flow of credit.
17. 8. KISAN CREDIT CARD
Kisan Credit Card (KCC) scheme introduced in 1998-99 was a step towards
facilitating the access to Short Term (ST) credit for the borrowers from the
financial institutions. The scheme was conceived as a unique credit delivery
mechanism, which aimed at provision of adequate and timely supply of ST
credit to the farmers to meet their crop production requirements.
Under the earlier system, disbursal of short-term credit to agriculture was
mostly through demand loans and cash credit, the facilities were, however, given
for the period of one year or less, which necessitated execution of fresh
documents each season.
18. Some of the advantages are as under:
i. the card can be used like an ordinary credit card, thus giving a feeling to
the farmers that there is an underlying guarantee of getting loan from the
bank as long as the earlier loan is repaid
ii. the facility is given for three to five years instead of one year, thus
reducing the procedural delays
iii. there is flexibility in operation of the facility in terms of number of
withdrawals and in repayment of loan
iv. the system on its own allows the borrowers to get their loans rescheduled
in case of natural calamities, etc. and
v. certain new features, such as, personal insurance for all the card hoders
ranging from Rs 25,000 to Rs 50,000 against permanent disability or
accidental death, an effective measure for risk mitigation, were also
incorporated in the scheme.