Answer:

Land reforms in India have been undertaken with the objective of achieving social equity in access to land and improving farm productivity to make agriculture economically more viable. Both the targets have met with only little success. One of the many reasons for their failure has been a compartmentalised approach to land reforms adopted in the country. The overall target of robust agricultural growth can only be achieved when land reforms are increased in scope from a mere redistribution exercise to an activity to improve inherent productivity and farming capability. Provision of infrastructure in form of electricity and water supply would be crucial for this.

Indian agriculture is now characterised by low viability and high vulnerability. High input costs and lesser realisation of final costs make agriculture less viable. Smaller size of landholdings, about 63 percent with less than 1 hectare, constrains the use of mechanised farm inputs to increase production. Also, in cases where land distribution has taken place, the land is often of poor quality, making economic viability even more challenging. Vagaries of monsoon, with about 2/3rd of total area dependent on rainfall for agriculture, lend high vulnerability to agriculture. Apart from it, exposure to volatile markets also increases vulnerability.

To address these issues, comprehensive agricultural reforms are required. Structural reforms include development of irrigation infrastructure and access to continuous power; institutional reforms include making available modern scientific inputs and data, along with modernisation of agricultural marketing methods and provision of insurance cover.

Following reforms in irrigation and energy sector can be considered for national rural development:

♤ Rationalizing water charges, improving collection rates and reforms in irrigation financing in order to make state irrigation departments financially self-sufficient.

♤ Improvements in irrigation systems by organizing farmers to take up operation and management responsibilities.

♤ Flood irrigation systems, which are wasteful as well increase salinity and water logging should be replaced by more efficient drip and sprinkler irrigation with government support.

♤ Institution of a system of water rights and modernization of irrigation agencies to make them more autonomous and accountable.

♤ Rationalisation of energy pricing – flat rate system should be disbanded to disincentivise over extraction from ground.

♤ Jyotigram scheme of Gujarat, where electricity to farm tube wells is provided only for certain part of the day, which achieved considerable success, should be tailored to all India level after incorporating local agricultural requirements.

♤ To address theft, High Voltage Distribution Systems (HVDS), which use Direct Current for transmission can be installed (as is being done in Punjab and Andhra Pradesh). These require initial high investment, but are efficient and will almost eliminate theft through technical barriers to tapping of power lines.

The movement from agriculture to other economic activities in past has been because of push from agriculture rather than a pull from the other activity. To make agriculture sustainable, it must continue to grow at least at 4 percent when national growth is 6-7 percent. It must be made economically attractive as well as sustainable to pursue as an occupation in order to sustain food security of the nation. Widening the scope of land reforms to energy and water sector would help meet these requirements.