Notes on Land, Long Run Food Security and the Agrarian Crisis in India Sheila Bhalla

These Notes are organised in three main parts. Part I looks at examples of three approaches to land use and land acquisition issues. Two are from international organisations – the FAO and IFPRI – and concerned primarily with the acquisition of large tracts of farm land in developing countries by foreign investors, including Indian investors, and one is exemplified by a recent Indian Supreme Court judgment. Part II seeks to come to grips with the specific features of India’s agricultural and agrarian crises, and to make a distinction between the two. Part III deals with long term trends in land use in India, outcomes in terms of average area owned, the size distribution of land holdings, and declining land/man ratios. Part IV looks at the corresponding long term trends in agricultural worker productivity and the impact of declining land/man ratios on agricultural worker productivity.

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