I’ll oppose farm lands being used for realty: Agriculture Minister B C Patil

Karnataka Agriculture Minister B C Patil sounded cautiously optimistic on the government’s decision to free up agricultural land holdings by allowing even non-agriculturalists to own farm lands.

The Karnataka Cabinet on Thursday decided to amend the Karnataka Land Reforms Act to remove restrictions on purchasing or owning agricultural land. The Cabinet also decided to tweak the law to increase the cap on how much agricultural land a person can own.

“My department gave its concurrence to this decision saying the land so purchased should be used for activities that support agriculture,” Patil told reporters Friday. “But if the land ends up getting used for real estate, then I’m opposed to it.”

Patil was responding to questions on the decision to remove restrictions on farm land purchase having evoked mixed responses, with some expressing concern that it favoured the realty sector more than farmers.

“It was discussed in the Cabinet that some conditions have to be there. The revenue department will come out with guidelines soon,” Patil said.

The minister pointed out that Karnataka was the only Indian state that had restrictions on purchasing agricultural land. “We should also think about progress,” he said. “I expect agro-based industries to come up on these lands. The reason we suffered so much during COVID-19 pandemic was because we didn’t have enough food processing units and cold storages,” he said.

“I don’t think anybody will take up real estate in villages,” Patil said, allaying such fears. “There are agricultural graduates and youngsters who are interested in agriculture, but they couldn’t pursue this because they couldn’t buy land,” he said, adding that the government’s decision will benefit some 4,000 students who graduate from the state’s agricultural universities every year. “We can’t give all of them jobs. They can take up agriculture.”