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RETHINKING LEASING RESTRICTIONS UNDER THE KERALA LAND REFORMS FRAMEWORK

Sreelakshmi Harilal and D Dhanuraj at
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The Kerala Land Reforms Act, 1963 (KLR Act) is widely regarded as one of India’s most progressive redistributive land reform legislations, having dismantled intermediary tenures and conferred ownership rights on cultivating tenants. While its equity objectives were historically transformative, the continued statutory prohibition on agricultural leasing has generated structural rigidities in Kerala’s agrarian economy. This paper examines the restrictive provisions governing land leasing under the KLR Act and evaluates their contemporary relevance in light of changing agricultural and economic conditions. Through a detailed analysis of the Act, complemented by a comparative review of land leasing frameworks in selected Indian states, the study highlights how alternative regulatory models reconcile tenant protection with ownership security while facilitating formal lease markets. 

Drawing on agricultural census data, state economic surveys, field interviews, and secondary empirical evidence, the paper demonstrates that progressive land fragmentation, rising fallow land, stagnating productivity, high cultivation costs, and the persistence of informal tenancy arrangements are closely linked to constraints in land mobility and operational consolidation. State-led initiatives such as collective farming under Kudumbashree and NAWO-DHAN are assessed as partial responses operating within, rather than resolving, the existing legal architecture. The paper argues for a calibrated re-examination of leasing restrictions that balances the redistributive foundations of land reform with the imperatives of agricultural efficiency, land utilisation, and long-term sustainability.

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Dr D Dhanuraj is the Founder-Chairman, and Sreelakshmi Harilal is an Associate – Research & Projects (Chairman’s Office) at Centre for Public Policy Research (CPPR).

Views expressed by the authors are personal and need not reflect or represent the views of the Centre for Public Policy Research.

 

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Sreelakshmi holds an MSc in International Development from the University of Birmingham and BA Honors Economics from Lady Shri Ram College for Women, University of Delhi. She has worked as Academic Coordinator at a Cambridge International School.

Chairman at Centre for Public Policy Research |  + posts

Dr Dhanuraj is the Chairman of CPPR. His core areas of expertise are in international relations, urbanisation, urban transport & infrastructure, education, health, livelihood, law, and election analysis. He can be contacted by email at [email protected] or on Twitter @dhanuraj.

Sreelakshmi Harilal and D Dhanuraj
Sreelakshmi Harilal and D Dhanuraj
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