The Karnataka government has decided to open the land market by allowing non-agriculturists to purchase agricultural land, remove income restrictions imposed on the buyers’ non-agricultural income, and increase the maximum permissible size of holdings by an individual or family and by larger families.
Daily Current Affairs Quiz 2020
Key-Points
The government plans to amend the Karnataka Land Reform Act, 1961, in the next legislative session to reflect these changes.
It will push the agricultural land market in the state from a thin one to a thick one, and help farmers trapped in low- productivity agriculture exit.
Governments in most states prevented non-farmers from buying farm land, worried that businessmen would take advantage of a bad harvest and buy land from farmers at fire-sale prices.
Almost every state imposed a maximum land holding to break up the zamindari system.
State governments imposed income restrictions on buyers’ non-agricultural income to prevent rich zamindar families with diverse income sources from exploiting poor farmers rendered helpless by financial difficulty.
Karnataka’s reforms have the potential to unleash enormous gains from trade.
The reform will help farmers, otherwise trapped in low productivity and poverty, get the best possible prices for their largest asset holding.
