‘LAND as GOLD’: Commodification of Agricultural Land and its Implications in Andhra Pradesh

Abstract

Agricultural-land sale prices in India exponentially increased during post-reforms period. This article studies operation of agricultural-land sale market and its implications in Andhra Pradesh during 2001–2017. It is based on primary data from six villages in three regions. The results show that sale prices of unit agricultural land have skyrocketed, and they are no way related to returns from land. The rich, non-cultivating households are increasingly buying agricultural land at higher prices for non-cultivating purposes and left fallow. They treat agricultural land as gold for store value, speculative trading, tax benefits, etc. The higher land sale prices along with depleting returns tempted distressed small farmers to sell their land. Consequently, cultivating small farmers are pushed to supply-side of land market as distressed sellers but not on the demand side of land market as buyers. Agricultural land is slowly but permanently going away from the hands of cultivator to noncultivators. Continuation of these trends has an adverse impact on equity and efficiency in agriculture land ownership in the state.