The issue of land acquisition for the setting up of Special Economic Zones (SEZs) has focused national attention on the loss of agricultural land. Addressing a National Development Council meeting on December 23, 2006, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said: I agree that we must minimise the diversion of agricultural land and, given the choice, must opt for using wasteland for non-agricultural purposes. However, it must be kept in mind that industrialisation is a national necessity if we have to reduce the pressure on agriculture and provide gainful, productive employment to millions of our youth who see no future in agriculture.

It is obvious that the prime ministers statement was directed more at assuaging the violent opposition to the deprivation and displacement unleashed by land acquisition than at generating employment in off-farm activities for the rural youth. If this were not so, the government would have provided a figure on the threshold level for this diversion so that agricultural land is protected. In fact, the government itself does not know how much agricultural land has been diverted till date, as the Planning Commissions July 2006 report of the Working Group on Land Relations for the Eleventh Five-Year Plan made clear.

The reason for this lack of awareness is not difficult to figure out: both the government and the private sector have partnered in appropriating agricultural land to promote industry, real estate, infrastructure, highways, dams, etc. All this purportedly to benefit the public, which somehow does not include people engaged in agriculture. The fact is that diversion of agricultural land for non-agricultural use will not only continue but also enjoy official sanction. As always, it is the poor who will pay in terms of livelihood loss and food insecurity.

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