When dealing with the issue of land in Kerala, the need of the hour is to look at it in the context of partially-implemented land reforms. For example, the inclusion of land under plantations, which had earlier been exempted from being distributed among landless tenants during the 1970’s land reforms. This was the point most of the speakers stressed upon during the inaugural session of the two-day seminar on ‘Land Question in Kerala: Socio-economic and Environmental Perspectives’ organised by the Department of Political Science, Kerala University campus, Kariavattom.
The social, economic and environmental perspectives of land are more important than ever in today’s age, said C P Narayanan MP delivering the inaugural address. While the number of landless families is very small in Kerala compared to other states, there is still much poverty of land in the state, he added quoting the 2003 National Sample Survey Organisation survey which put the figure at quarter hectare of land per family.
“The drastic decrease, as much as nine lakh hectares, of land under paddy cultivation is not reflected when one looks at the total land under agriculture,” he said. K N Ganesh, History professor at Calicut University, spoke along the same lines as he delivered the keynote address. He further added that the concept of viewing land as a commodity should be revisited.
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