The acute pressure of population and the adverse effects of tenurial and tenancy systems have led to much uneconomic subdivision and fragmentation Of holdings. Many landlords have, besides, reduced their erstwhile tenants to the status of farm labourers in order to circumvent certain provisions of the land reform laws.
Realities of Rural Development H B Shivamaggi Studies in Indian Agriculture: The Art of the Possible by Gilbert Etienne; Oxford University Press, Bombay, 1968 ; pp 12 + 343 ; Rs 35.
Trade Goes with Finance H B Shivamaggi Agricultural Co-operative Credit in South-East Asia, International Co-operative Alliance; Asia Publishing House, Bombay, 1967; pp viii + 184; price Rs 20.
Transferability rights in land form the basis of medium- and long-term loans to agriculturists. Even for short-term loans for seasonable agricultural operations, in many States co-operative credit societies insist dn security of land. And now that commercial banks have also entered the field of agricultural finance, it is important to know which categories of cultivators possess the right to transfer their lands in favour of lending institutions and which do not.
Land reform was intended to bring about (a) sale of land by non-agriculturists to agriculturists; and (b) purchase of land by the smaller farmers from non-agriculturists and from the bigger agriculturists, thereby leading to more equitable distribution of land and enlargement of the small holdings.
