Killing the fields

Farmers in Maharashtra’s four villages, Wagholi, Kesnand, Bakori and Lonikhand, have succeeded in getting the proposed Videocon Special Economic Zone (SEZ) scraped after a two-year struggle. The Maharashtra government's decision has, no doubt, been made with a hawk eye on the October Assembly elections. But if this decision helps salvage the agricultural landscape, election sop operas are pleasant music.
This is a triumph for the farmers who have been precariously facing the prospect of being deprived of their irrigational land to make way for a corporate entity. The politicians (read state chief ministers) have been flashing this SEZ card by doubling up as land sharks, sincerely usurping lush, agriculturally productive land to curry favour with big investors. In this race to “attract” investments, they have been constantly throttling farming as a means of livelihood.
Unfortunately for the landowners, the government has always been in a position to “wrest” land for development, as per the archaic land acquisition laws. The colonial power seized land in the name of development using the Bengal Regulation Act, 1824, whereby it could acquire land for constructing roads, canals and other public works, after paying compensation. In 1850, the ambit of this law was expanded to include acquisition for railways. Post-Independence, the Nehruvian era saw construction of dams, fondly called modern temples by our first Prime Minister, and other heavy engineering units, displacing farmers. This divorce of agriculture and industrialization has made India tread the lopsided development path. The number of people displaced by these projects between 1951 and 1995 is estimated at 50 million people (source: http://www.indiatogether.org/).
The Indian government’s latest muscle for land acquisition, the SEZ Act of 1995, allows the state machinery to broker a land deal between land owners (mostly farmers) and industrialists for setting up special economic zones. The act also enables the government to shower benevolence on the capitalist machinery with tax cuts and other obscene fiscal benefits.
This is at best a draconian measure. Why should the government twist the arms of the unwilling farmers? The states are queuing up with best land prices to lure investors in their respective states. So in what is a battle of money and muscle, a Narendra Modi effortlessly upstages a Buddhadev Bhattacharjee or a Naveen Patnaik at the SEZ auction ring.
Large tracts of cultivable land are being doled out for industrialisation. The real estate developers are completing the ugly circle. I am not against industrialisation. But there could be a workable ratio between cultivable and non-cultivable land, with the former strictly not being used for non-agricultural purposes. Otherwise, what will happen to our nation's food security? The monsoons have failed this year, ushering in a possible drought. The agriculture ministry has just stopped short of ringing the alarm bells. It claims last year’s surplus food grains will be tapped to fulfill this year’s crisis.
Shall we spare a thought for planning a sustained food production enterprise? Food is getting scarce because land used for that purpose is shrinking. It is high time the government machinery wakes up to the abuse of agricultural land. Already, we are leaving behind a planet in ruins for the next generation. By killing the rice and wheat fields using the "development" weapon, are we leaving behind an empty granary for our children?