Homestead plots distribution to help ease poverty

one of the unfinished agendas of rural reform is land reform. up to now, land redistribution has achieved precious little to provide more to the landless, despite empirical experience of other asian countries like japan and korea, where reform led to diversification of crops, higher farm income and greater consumption. here, if each landless or land poor farmer is to be provided 2-3 acres of land, a total of 20m hectares of land would be needed, which is politically infeasible. one of the possible solutions to land poverty, which has been identified as the most reliable indicator of household poverty, is provision of homestead plots. this proposal has been made by the rural development institute, us after a survey of 104 rural households in karnataka, conducted along with the university of agricultural sciences, bangalore. â€œwe find that 4-10 cent (one-tenth of an acre) homestead plots go a long way in alleviating some of the distress that land poor farmers face,â€� says roy prosterman, president of rdi. â€œtypically, if a rural homestead plot reaches a threshold size of 2,500 square feet, it begins to generate returns for the household. they are able to grow some fruits and vegetables, tend some animals and as a result of having some capital base, are able to get credit more easily,â€� he adds. the research findings suggest that these benefits increase quite substantially in response to even small increases in the size of the homestead plot. also, there is a certain degree of enthusiasm with which households expend effort on the plot, raising its asset value. according to tim hanstaad, another lawyer member of the rdi team, there is a definite cost advantage of a housing scheme like this, as compared to housing schemes like indira awaas yojana. â€œwhile older schemes require anything between rs 30-35,000 per plot to acquire and construct, a typical 10-cent plot would require rs 6,000 to build up with some minimum infrastructure.â€� further, their findings suggest that existing schemes limit the size of home plots to about 2-3 cents, which are not only more expensive to build up, but also limit the possibilities of exploiting the space for its economic potential. the research findings point out one very important fact: that given the land, even poor farmers somehow manage to build a house, first a hut, then with subsequent additions over time. on the other hand, construction under government schemes almost always involves diversion of resources; anecdotal evidence tells of cases in bihar where farmers are handed a tenth of their construction loan free of cost, in return of signing a document that testifies to delivery of construction material, when of course none has been delivered. as compared to land re-distribution, 10-cent plots would require a third of 1 per cent of total cultivated land to cover the 17m landless families in rural india. now, that certainly looks a lot more workable than appropriating 20m acres and redistributing it. ruralmural@indiatimes.com

Homestead plots distribution to help ease poverty

Up to now, land redistribution has achieved precious little to provide more to the landless, despite empirical experience of other Asian countries like Japan and Korea, where reform led to diversification of crops, higher farm income and greater c...

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