How Much Land Does a Man Need?
This article is addressed to these people. It deals with the reality of the situation, past experiences and what can and cannot be done, what ought to be done and so on. In the past many people tried it with mixed results. Many could not do it. Farming is a skill and requires hard work and learning. In the initial years it cannot be mixed with other preoccupations. Many ended up with orchards which gave them steady income. Many who had ancestral land and who went back to it also ended up with orchards or other cash crops. Few succeeded in producing grains, dals and oilseeds, the essential triad of the food basket.
In this article, in the first part we will explore what farming and organic farming ought to be and then in part two we will explore what these young people can do including non farming options. The reference ecological region will be Deccan.
Part I
Organic Farming
To most people organic farming means farming without chemical fertilizers and pesticides. Some better informed people will include rain water harvesting through contour bunding, mixed crops, crop rotation etc. While all this is correct it does not adequately cover the contemporary sensibilities of which organic farming is a part.
Contemporary Sensibilities
The core statement of this can be stated as:
1. Equality
2. Scaling down the use of resources
3. Ecological Restoration
Equality
The demand for equality is as old as the class society, that is several thousand years. In the modern era this has been articulated forcefully since the French Revolution of 1879
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and has been part of the progressive movement ever since through out the world. With the birth of Marxism around 1848, it is increasingly being realised that equality can be achieved only through the organization of the working people – the people who have been deprived of equality and have been oppressed and exploited. In the field of agriculture, which is the basis of survival of all human societies, the demand for land reform, the demand for ownership of the land by the farmers, the slogan ‘land to the tiller’ has been around for more than a century and is still valid for India.
How much land a tiller should own? This has been worked out by the peasant movement, political parties representing them and various expert committees for different regions of the country depending upon the productivity of the land. No one should own more land this. For Deccan region it will be less than 3 acres depending upon the kind of land and irrigation facilities.
Scaling down the use of Resources
Due to the logic of capitalism, there is a tendency for consumerism, of increased use of resources. This has led to a catastrophic environmental degradation and can, if not checked immediately, lead to the destruction of most life form on earth and water including human beings.
A big chunk of this pressure of consumerism has fallen on agriculture and on land. To day agriculture not only produces food for the farmers and other villagers, it has to feed an increasing urban population and produce raw material for industry. Some of the products of these raw materials are either harmful (narcotics, tobacco) or useless (floriculture for export and for political functions) or are in excessive amounts (sugar and alcohol). The need of contemporary sensibilities is that agriculture should produce mainly food – say not less than two thirds of the produce should be food and in food also basic food – grains, pulses and oilseeds – again let us say two thirds of the total produce and the remaining should be fruits and vegetables. Again as a thumb rule the marketable surplus should not be greater than one third. These figures are indicative of the spirit behind these proposals, the actual figures may vary around these figures. The point is that today agriculture is being used for purposes other than food and the rural people, the producers; themselves are starving and some of them are committing suicide.
Ecological Restoration
Mankind has over exploited natural resources and in the process the human population has exploded in the 20th century. There is a need to restore ecology and stabilize human population. For that agriculture should not only be organic, it should also be more efficient, so that we can produce same or more food from less land. The science of agro ecology has to be developed to its full potential. The aims could be:
1. Return one third of the agriculture land back to nature – to forests, wet lands, grass lands etc.
2. Restore forest and water bodies back to their health.
3. Specific conservation projects for critically endangered flora and fauna of the region.
To summarise, in terms of contemporary sensibilities on the land and agriculture question, our conclusions are:
1. Support demand for land reforms.
2. No one should own more land than prescribed by land reforms for the region.
3. Two thirds of all agriculture land should produce basic food, vegetables and fruits. Within that again two third should be basic food – food grains, pulses and oilseeds.
4. Of the total produce two third should be for consumption for the farmer's family and only one third surplus - to be supplied to non farming communities and industry. This also limits the amount of land a family can own.
5. A third of the present agricultural land should be restored back to the nature.
6. The forest and water bodies of the region should be restored back to their natural health.
7. Specific conservation projects should be undertaken to restore degraded agricultural land back to forest, restore forest and water bodies back to health and monitor conservation of specific critically endangered flora and fauna.
Part II
Acquiring Land? How much?
In the light of above, if land reforms are carried out or if we believe in land reforms, actually there is hardly any land available. The excess land is owned by rich people and they should be deprived of it without compensation and the land should be given to landless peasants. Or there is distress sale by poor farmers due to loans etc. and we should help them to restore their economic situation and not take advantage of distress and make them landless. Finally if somehow we do acquire land, say 3 to 5 acres, what chances are there that we can succeed as farmers? Most of us do not have the skills and acquiring it at a later age is difficult. The common dream of making a commune of a few urban close friends has, as a rule failed. The reason is that there is varying degrees of motivation and readiness to adapt to the rural situation and the group breaks down.
So what can we do?
Once again, this is addressed to a specific urban group. Evidently, overnight they will not become socialists/communists and work for land reforms. If some of them do well and good and they won't need this article.
Majority are attracted to the idea of shifting to a low consumer base, to a simpler life. This is indeed a good thing and should be encouraged. In fact they should move to rural areas or to small towns (taluk/block towns) on an experimental basis and get to know the rural areas and experience it.
One should try to be clear about objectives. If one eventually acquires some land, one should be prepared to be a farmer himself. Otherwise one can still stay in rural areas, do some basic kitchen garden and be a useful citizen in rural areas using one's strengths – teaching, running library, organising meetings, running a shop etc.
Now there are several options and many of them can be tried concurrently. First to meet as many people in the area who have a similar background to yours and tried out similar ideas. One can learn much from them, both in terms of successes and mistakes committed. One can even stay with them and work for a longer time if they have been 'successful'. Some go for a tour around the country to meet famous organic farmers.
But a more important thing to do is to understand farmers and agriculture. This one can do only by meeting ordinary farmers. One could take a house -rent/buy/build in about 5 to 10 cents of land and start the basic kitchen garden. Many components of organic farming can be learnt this way. Composting, nursery, planting, irrigation, harvesting, seed collection and preservation etc. Since the scale is small, it will take less time and energy and mistakes will not be expensive.
Concurrently one can make friends with the local farmers and other villagers. Village society is complex and it will take time to figure out what is happening. Only then one should plan and decide what one is going to do.
In case of choosing agriculture, probably the best way is to collaborate with a poor farmer who is in distress and with whom you have developed a good personal relationship over a period. Then one can enter some kind of agreement – you pay of his/her loans and lease in land and carry on agriculture in partnership etc. This way one can learn and even teach the farmer from what one has learnt from the books and over the years develop a good relationship.
But as has been said above, agriculture is not the only thing that happens in rural society. One can have one's kitchen garden and be still a useful person/family in the rural areas and lead a low consumption life and do something useful.
Appendix
Let me illustrate this with a fictional account.
Somewhere in North Karnataka there is this taluk town called Bilgram. The town has an environmental group called Prakruti. Prakruti does several things. In the town they have an anti plastic bag campaign, a project for urban waste management through separation at source, home composting and kitchen gardens. They also have roof top rain water harvesting programme.
They have good links with the surrounding villages. They have adopted a few villages which have been involved in organic farming through some old Gandhians. The rural programme of these Gandhians also had some tank restoration programmes, planting trees etc.
Prakruti buys all the surplus of the adopted villages and and it is distributed among the members of the group and friends. Apart from grains etc. Prakruti also buys value added products like Ragi malt, chutneys and pickles which a village group produces.
In this situation in walks Alka from Pune. She has done B. Sc. in environmental sciences and an M. Sc. in sustainable agriculture. She has visited various farms and wants to do organic farming herself. The problem is that there is no land available which she can afford to buy. Around Pune it is Rs. 10 to 30 lakhs an acre. She has come to Bilgram hoping to buy cheap land.
She meets every one in the group, visits all the adopted villages and talks to several villagers. No one wants to sell land. But she likes the town and decides to give herself a fair trial. Then one of the villages comes with an offer. They said 'We will sell you 10 cents of land for Rs. 10,000/- and help you to build a house. You do some vegetable garden, some fruit trees etc. and teach us all that you know in organic farming that you have learnt.' She agreed because she was prepared to spend a few lakhs and here she was getting a deal to start her rural dream in a few thousands only.
After about a year she was well settled in the village and knew every body in the surrounding villages. There was one family where the man in the family had died . There were old parents, the widow and two children. Also they had a loan of some Rs. 60,000.
After meeting them several times, Alka came up with a proposal. She will pay up the loan and in return she will lease their land of 3 acres for three years. She will give them one third of the produce and also pay wages of Rs. 100/- per day to the lady whenever she works for her, which will not be less than 100 days a year. That is she will pay her Rs. 10,000/- per year for wages. These figures were arrived on the basis of NREGA experience.
At present Alka has had the agreement for one year and she has had good experience. The children are very happy with her because she helps them with their studies and gives gifts of story books. She hopes that this arrangement can become permanent.
