Daily Answer Writing Challenge-23rd September

Q1. What is Land Reform? Explain its impact on agricultural and social issues.(150 words, 10 Marks) 

Approach: 

• Introduction: Define the Land Reforms. 
• Body:  

• • Explain land reforms’ impacts on agriculture. 
  • Highlight the land reforms’ impacts on society. 
• Conclusion: Conclude suitably. 

Answer: 

A wide range of specific programmes and actions are referred to as “land reforms” in order to  improve the governance and use of land for the benefit of the community at large. The major goals  of the land reforms are to boost agricultural productivity and eliminate the current disparities in  the landholding system. The Five-Year Plans sought to achieve equity and provide an opportunity  for all segments of rural society by removing barriers to increased agricultural productivity and by  eliminating social injustice and exploitation within the agrarian system.  

Need for Land Reforms: 

• Extreme debt among farmers as a result of high taxes. 
• The rise of a wealthy class mostly took advantage of the underclass of peasants.
• The continual threat of being evicted kept peasants on edge. 
• The farmer class was profoundly steeped in poverty. 

Impacts on Agriculture: 

• The abolition of forcible evictions and the security of tenure provided by tenancy laws allowed  farmers to better plan their farming seasons and improve harvest patterns throughout the  nation. Tenants also enjoyed equal rights on the land. 
• The country’s production increased significantly as a result of the reforms, which also happened  to coincide with the Green Revolution. 
• State-level land ceiling laws allowed for the redistribution of surplus land, allowing many  landless people to obtain property and engage in sustainable farming methods that raised land  productivity. 
• Zamindari’s elimination left the land in the hands of the tiller, whose improved understanding  of the land, inputs, and focus increased agricultural productivity. 
• Land consolidation put an end to land fragmentation, provided marginal farmers with access  to financing resources, facilitated mechanisation, and in many locations sparked cooperative  farming. 

Impacts on Society: 

• The land was redistributed as a result of land reforms from rich to poor. Land reforms have  facilitated social fairness in an agrarian economy like India with significant wealth and income disparities, severe shortages, and unequal land allocation. 
• Eliminating middlemen and tyrants and giving farmers access to land, helped to end rural  poverty. 
• A more equal society resulted from tenancy reforms and the destruction of the zamindari  system, which also put an end to the social oppression of the lower classes and raised the  status of former tenants. 

Land reform aims to assist the most vulnerable members of society and ensure fair land  allocation. Government land policies are put into place to alter holding conditions and impose  ceilings and grounds on holdings to enable the most cost-effective agriculture possible. This  allows for the most efficient use of the limited land resources.