NEED OF LAND
REFORMS IMPLEMENTED IN THE AGRICULTURE SECTOR.
At the time of independence, the land
tenure system was characterised by intermediaries variously called zamindars,
jagirdars etc. who merely collected rent from the actual tillers of the soil
without contributing towards improvements on the farm. The low productivity of
the agricultural sector forced India to import food from the United States of
America (U.S.A.). Equity in agriculture called for land reforms which primarily
refer to change in the ownership of landholdings. Just a year after
independence, steps were taken to abolish intermediaries and to make the
tillers the owners of land. The idea behind this move was that ownership of
land would give incentives to the
tillers to invest in making improvements provided sufficient capital was made
available to them.
