Agrarian Reforms And Institutional Changes In India

Monograph comprising a literature survey and bibliography of research studies of agrarian reform trends and perspectives in India - covers materials published from the period before independence and up to 1972.

Presenting Professor V. S. Vyas's approach to the major national and global challenges facing Indian agriculture, this book makes available his research and writing on how policy interventions, technological changes, and institutional developments are impacting the economy of those directly dependent on it for their livelihood.

The use of modern methods of production is conditioned by the institutional framework of a production sector. If the institutional set up is exploitative, it will discourage the adoption of efficient technology. Unfortunately, in India, the institutional settings of the farm/agriculture sector are not congenial for the use of modern agricultural techniques. Although the zamindari system - a system of landholding and revenue collection - was abolished soon after India's independence in 1947, it continues to exist in a different form. Land reform laws have proved ineffective and therefore many large landlords still rule the roost in rural areas. As a result of population growth, there is tremendous pressure on available land. This has led to overcrowding and, hence, the sub-division and fragmentation of holdings. Small-sized and scattered holdings imply wastage of time and labor, difficulties in the use of modern techniques, and quarrels and litigation among farmers. As well, the institution of money lending is the greatest curse for India's poor and illiterate rural citizens. The exploitative practices of the moneylenders are no secret. This book examines the institutional framework of Indian agriculture, and reforms thereof, pertaining to land management, land reforms, agricultural credit, marketing of agricultural produce, public procurement of agricultural produce, and related areas.

This study shows that the failure of successive Indian governments to effect meaningful agrarian reforms has led to a political economy in rural India that is shaped, as it was prior to independence, largely by the interests of an elite minority of landholders.

Comparative analyses across themes of particular relevance to rural development, such as land reforms, human and social development, public investment, agricultural research and development, irrigation and the water sector, domestic agricultural marketing, liberalization of agricultural trade, and rural and agricultural diversification, the rural nonfarm sector, and antipoverty programmes and safety nets. Covers the period 1950-2004.

This paper attempts to define and assess the various institutional and mechanical elements which constitute a land management system and which have a significant impact on the functioning of land markets. The assumption of this report is that the accumulation over time of different institutions and instruments, which have relfected different priorities and policies, has inhibited the efficient and equitalbe operation of land markets and that reforms of institutions and policies are now urgently needed. (Adapté du résumé des auteurs).