Is it better to earn a living as “proletariat” or is it better to starve as a sub-optimal land-holder? What is sub-optimal is of course a function of the kind of land and the use it is being put to. Having said that, 69.38 per cent of our land-holdings are marginal (less than 1 ha) and another 21.75 per cent are small (between 1 and 2 ha). Yes, there is uncultivated land, but the prospects of bringing more land under cultivation aren’t too bright, except in Rajasthan, Bihar, Gujarat and TN. Yes, land degradation can be reversed. Yes, surplus land can be redistributed better. But having done all that, we must recognise that people need to get out of farming unviable land-holdings, and that agricultural land will be put to non- agricultural use. In states like Punjab, Haryana, Maharashtra, West Bengal and Tamil Nadu, faster growth and urbanisation has led to tensions. But that reflects our obsession with land as a factor of production, to the exclusion of the other three — labour, capital and entrepreneurship. If poor people can exploit these other three better, land will become less of an obsession. And we will then accept that land markets need to be opened up and there is a long reform agenda there, too.

The writer is secretary-general, PHDCCI