Presentation on land allocation and livelihoods convergence at CYSD, Bhubaneswar on 22 Nov 2011

1. 22 Nov 2011
Land for the Landless and Livelihoods
Convergence
Sibabrata Choudhury
IDENTIFYING STRATEGIES AND APPROACH FOR
SELECTED DEVELOPMENT SECTORS IN THE 12TH FIVE
YEAR PLAN OF ODISHA

2. Content
• Strong correlation between landlessness, poverty and
food security
• 11th & 12th FYPs : reference to land tenure, housing and
habitat development, tribal land rights
• State Initiatives:
– Land allocation under Vasundhara Scheme – Distribution of
house-sites for the homesteadless
– Rural housing – IAY and Mo Kudia
• Suggested provisions in 12th FYP to address
landlessness and livelihoods convergence
2

3. Land rights and poverty relations
Footer Text 3

4. Strong co-relation between landlessness and poverty
“Secure access to land and other natural resources is a direct factor
in the alleviation of hunger and rural poverty. Rural landlessness is
often the best predictor of poverty and hunger: the poorest are
usually landless or land-poor. Inadequate rights of access to land and
other natural resources, and insecure tenure of those rights, often
result in extreme poverty and hunger.”
(http://www.fao.org/nr/tenure/lt-home/en/)
“Millions of poor rural people depend on farming for their livelihoods,
but they control very little land…redistributing land to small scale
farmers can do much to reduce their poverty…land security can
mean food security”
(http://www.ifad.org/media/pack/land.htm)
Footer Text 4

5. Secure land rights fundamental for development
Secure, long-term rights to land are fundamental for rural
development
• Secure land rights allow mid- to long-term improvements on the
land (multi-year investment horizon)
• Inequitable land distribution and land rights environment
precursor to social unrest and political instability
For small holder farmers and near-landless groups, homestead plots
can be effective for:
• Access to diversified high-value outputs (e.g., vegetables, fruit
trees, animal husbandry)
• Improving family nutrition (including child nutrition)
• Production/income controlled by women to meet basic needs
Footer Text 5

6. Secure land rights lead to several benefits…
• Secured rights over Social and political
land triggers number recognition
of benefits Household food
– Increased access to security and economic
gains
government services
Homestead
– Access to credit development
– Home-based food Government
extension services
production
– Improved family Social security
nutrition
– Definite economic Land
allocation
and social benefits
6

7. Land allocation and livelihoods convergence: Investment vs.
returns
• Land allocation – homesteads and farm land Investments
• Capacity building on organic gardening, vermi-compost, irrigation etc.
• Vegetable mini-kit, seedlings, etc. for home garden and agriculture
development
• Financial assistance for housing
• Linkage with MGNREGS – village road, farm pond, land development, etc.
Returns Increased
investments on
Improved homesteads
household
Savings on account nutrition leading to
of money that improved
would have been attendance in
Vegetable schools
production and spent on
consumption vegetables and
health expenses
7

8. Land tenure, housing, habitat development:
Planning Commission
Five Year Plans
Initiatives in Odisha
Footer Text 8

9. Land rights, housing and habitat development in FYP
Working group on land relations (11th FYP)
– 10-15 cents of land each for all landless families with no homestead land
Working group on rural housing (11th FYP)
– ‘Shelter for all’ to be achieved through ensuring homestead land
availability for all within the 11th Plan in a phased manner
– Rural housing and habitat policy
Mid term appraisal of 11th FYP (2010)
– Quality of housing - inadequate unit cost
– Technical inputs and support
– Habitat development approach
AP to 12th FYP – for faster, more inclusive and sustainable growth and targeting
GDP growth of 9 to 9.5%
– Special focus on vulnerable groups and backward regions
– Tenancy reforms and land rights for tribals
Footer Text 9

10. Landlessness & interventions in Odisha
• 2.49 lakh homesteadless and 4.45 lakh landless households
identified in an enumeration in 2004-05
• Vasundhara scheme launched in 2005-06 to provide homestead
land upto 4 cents (now 10) to homesteadless families
• 2.75 lakh families allotted homestead land between 2005-06 and
2010-11 (Revenue and Disaster Management Deptt.)
• Implementation challenges (assessment study done by RDI in 88
villages across 10 districts during 2009-10)
– Patta without identification, demarcation and possession
– Allotted land far from habitation
– About 40% of households did not have secured rights over
homestead land
– Capacity gaps at different levels
10

11. Rural Housing Programme in Odisha
• IAY & Mo Kudia (special IAY & MK: Targets for the year
programme for genuinely poor) 350000
• Unfulfilled targets vs. unfulfilled
300000
demands
• IAY without land and land 250000
without IAY 200000
• Technical assistance 150000
• 1 or 2 allotments per village in a
100000
year is not proving efficient
• “A very large population (80%) in 50000
rural Odisha is without pucca 0
2007-08
2008-09
2009-10
2010-11
2011-12
houses.” (Review of implementation of
flagship schemes and programmes in Odisha,
Planning Commission, Oct 2009)
IAY MK
11

12. Tenancy reforms and agriculture impacts
• Prevalence of concealed tenancy
• Tenancy reforms (recognition of tenancy)
– Protect share croppers rights (small and marginal farmers)
– Sufficient protection to land owners so as to avoid mass
eviction
• Impacts and possibilities
– Access to institutional credit
– Insurance against crop damage and govt. support
– Reduction in fallow period and increase in agriculture
productivity
– Effects on distress migration
12

13. Key areas of intervention in 12FYP:
Land allocation to the homesteadless and landless
Agriculture development and Livelihoods Convergence
Footer Text 13

14. Local capacity model for allocating land to the landless
• Local capacity model to
provide additional capacity to
field level revenue officials
• Being adopted in over 1000
villages in 7 districts
• Key components of local
capacity model
– Local facilitation through
Community Resource Persons
– Capacity building and
facilitation
– Identification of the landless
including vulnerable women
– Time-bound process (land
allocation takes 6-8 months)
14

15. Local capacity model for land allocation
• CRPs are being employed to identify agriculture
landlessness and forestland
• CRPs can also be employed in pending land surveys
• CRPs can also be used for post land allocation –
livelihoods convergence
• Government need to focus on tenancy reforms through
protection of sharecroppers’ rights
• Amendment of relevant laws (OGLS)
• Government may consider extension of the provisions of
FRA to revenue land – settling current occupations –
legal reforms for objectionable land
Footer Text 15

16. Government provisions under current context
• Allocation of land to the landless
– Circulars on enumeration of homesteadlessness (3rd May) and
landlessness (13th June)
• Homestead scheme (Govt. of India) since Aug. 2009
– Housesite allocation through regularization, allotment of govt. land,
purchase or acquisition
– Additional funds under IAY to the extent households are allotted
house-sites
• Backyard planation and homestead garden
– Seedling distributed for backyard plantation
– Vegetable seed mini kit
– Plantation
– Vermicomposting unit
16

17. Agriculture development and livelihoods convergence
• Different programs for the poor are implemented in
isolation by different departments resulting in
dispersed targeting and diffused impacts
• Convergence of government schemes for landless poor
– Leveraging and dovetailing of existing programs (backyard
plantation, vegetable mini-kit, IAY, etc.) for beneficiaries of
land allocation…harmonisation of eligibility criteria
• Land allocation as an entry point activity in all
livelihoods and poverty alleviation programmes
– Focus on watershed projects/livelihoods programmes
17

18. Thanks for your kind attention…
Footer Text 18