Land reforms ordinance: Previous experiences fuel farmers’ resistance

Over 50 lakh farming families run the risk of losing their land due to The Land Reforms (Amendment) Ordinance, 2020. This possibility, coupled with several other moves, like the amendment taking the ordinance route, the retrospective clearing of all pending cases of land-use violation, and easing of restrictions on both purchase of land and its quantity, have compelled the Karnataka Rajya Raitha Sangha and Hasiru Sene to take the legal route against the ordinance.

Senior counsel Prof Ravivarma Kumar, who settled the brief of the writ petition (PIL) filed at the Karnataka High Court, says that the ordinance nullifies all efforts over the past several decades to achieve an egalitarian society.

A few more PILs have been filed at the High Court of which two - filed by journalist-turned-farmer Nagaraj Hongal and advocate Geeta Misra - have come up for hearing.

Just after one month of the promulgation of the ordinance, Sachin D S, 26, a researcher-turned-farmer, has realised that the attractive ‘anyone can buy land’ slogan, which is the highlight of the ordinance, may remain elusive for a majority of the population, including the upper middle class. He lives in a village near Yediyur in Tumakuru district, 100 km away from Bengaluru. The price of land in his village has increased threefold in one month and is set to soar further; farming families are divided on selling land; the low-income families who were saving money to own a piece of land are losing hope.

In the midst of all this, Sachin gets calls regularly from his acquaintances in Bengaluru, and even land developers, asking him to help them in acquiring farmland for investment.

The sudden change to a landmark legislation without any legislative debate or consultation with farmers, has moved farmers organisations and civil society forums to resist the government decision.

Farmer and activist Anjaneya Reddy R of Chikkaballapur refutes the government’s claim that this move will help farmers as the land value will increase. “Is selling the land a solution for the problems we are facing? We need concrete support in terms of inputs and infrastructure, to sustain in the occupation, not the pseudo-benefits that we are said to gain,” he says. He has seen what happens to farmers after selling their land.

“Most of my fellow farmers who lost their land to projects or forced to sell land, have been reduced to daily-wage labourers. This ordinance will speed up corporatisation of farming at the cost of farmers,” Reddy says.

Reflecting this are 22 families in Koppal district who lost their land twice in a period of six decades. They lost their inherited land when the Tungabhadra Dam was constructed in the 1950s. They were given 114 acres in Kunikeri village under the rehabilitation programme. A decade ago, a company approached them for land. Some of them sold their land willingly while others were forced to sell. Within a couple of years, they lost whatever money they had got from the sale of land and had to turn to daily-wage labour and seasonal migration to make a living. Activist Mahantesh Kotabal who learnt that the land was acquired from these farmers illegally is fighting for their cause with the district administration and wants to ensure that this case won’t be cleared under the ordinance.

Similar experiences are shared by Patri Gowda in Tumakuru district, who has seen the plight of farmers who sold land for the development of a solar park and by Mahesh of Chamarajanagar district, whose fellow farmers were forced to sell their land after all their neighbouring fields got sold.

Farmers in the neighbouring districts of Bengaluru will feel the heat of the ordinance first, believes Reddy, as almost all the farmland in this region is rainfed and is therefore free of any restrictions on its sale. Moreover, these farmers are fragmented landholders.

It is a fact that the pandemic has intensified the agrarian crisis and farmers are desperate for financial support. Still, an independent telephonic survey led by agricultural economist Prof T N Prakash Kammardi shows that 60% of the farmers oppose the ordinance.

V Gayathri, who is convening Nammoora Bhoomi Namagirali, a civil society campaign against the ordinance, has observed that women and landless farmers are also voicing their resistance against selling the village land to an outsider. “They want to retain the village land amongst the villagers. The government should first cater to the land needs of the farmers who are landless and those who need more land,” she says.

Even as the ordinance has come into force, farmers in hundreds of villages across the state are actively participating in this campaign by sending out postcards to the chief minister and submitting applications to the tahsildars to not allow registration of land in their village for outsiders.

Justice H N Nagamohan Das, who is actively involved in the campaign against the ordinance, points out even before the ordinance came into force, a non-agriculturist could’ve bought land legally by giving an undertaking that he or she would take up agriculture full time. "The government is pushing farmers into this trap through its policies and there is absolutely no effort to create awareness. It is not just an economic issue but also a social issue. All they need is facilitation and support. If we don't address this, the entire society will suffer," he says.

Prakash Kammardi feels that the ordinance will affect the productivity of the land and employment generation. This ordinance has far-reaching consequences and will impact the state’s food security, he warns.

Jyothi Raj, who works with landless and women farmers says that they will be the worst sufferers of this 'reform'. Without skills and exposure they will be more vulnerable as farming gets mechanised and corporatised. They feel that the 22 lakh hectares of fallow land in the state can be put to use by at least leasing them out to the landless.

The campaigners acknowledge the fact that the farming and rural sector is in deep crisis and needs support to sustain. "This is the time to forge a larger movement to highlight the negative policies that have rendered rural Karnataka to experience economic deceleration, ecological devastation and social unrest. Members of the movement must understand the complexities of rural and agricultural issues and consider alternatives to address them. They must go beyond populist demands that may only postpone the negativities or add to the complexities. It must be one of the platforms to reclaim our democracy and the rights of all people," opines social anthropologist A R Vasavi.