A Bill to 'corporatise' farming -Sukhpal Singh

-Frontline.in

The draft Bill on land leasing in Punjab is aimed at promoting the interests of agribusiness corporations. It will have devastating consequences for peasants in the State.

THERE is no doubt that agricultural land leasing laws in India should be amended to make land leasing lawful and easier. The NITI Aayog Report (2016) proposed, on the grounds of efficiency and equity, a formal model law on leasing (Model Agricultural Land Leasing Act, 2016) and even a model land leasing agreement. The draft Punjab Land Leasing and Tenancy Bill, 2019, seeks to open up the land lease market in the State. The Bill, once enacted, will replace six laws, pertaining to tenancy, occupancy rights of tenant, security of tenure, and colonisation of government land, which were enacted during the 19th century and the 1950s.

Although prima facie one would have no issues with such a law, the context of Punjab and the nature of the Bill raise concerns. The Bill does not even, unlike NITI Aayog’s model land leasing Act, 2016, give the rationale for the drastic change of regulation from a ban on tenancy and ceiling on landholdings to a “free for all” land leasing system.

It is common knowledge that leasing happens on a large scale in Punjab, although illegally or informally. Punjab is also known for reverse tenancy where, unlike most of the rest of India, large and medium farmers lease in lands of marginal and small farmers, who then become landless labour. Reverse tenancy, according to a recent research by H.S. Shergill (2019), can be seen in the fact that the average size of tenant landholding, including one’s own land, was double (17 acres) that of the pure owner average landholding (8 acres). Further, on average 48 per cent of the tenant farm area was on leased land. Moreover, 82 per cent of the leased area was with those owning more than 10 acres each (those who are officially termed medium or large landholders in India); such holdings accounted for 55 per cent of the total operated area of the State. Small and marginal farmers leased in only 5 per cent of the total leased area. Significantly, 83 per cent of the lessee farmers had tractors, 78 per cent had electric tubewells and 56 per cent employed permanent labour.

Further, the overwhelming proportion of the tenancy in Punjab—95 per cent—was cash rent based. Punjab is one of the five States in India, along with Haryana, Tamil Nadu, Telangana and Andhra Pradesh, where cash rent tenancy accounts for more than half the number of all lease deals. This makes it even more significant to examine the provisions of the Bill.

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