CHAPTER 3

The Green Revolution and Land

Reforms

Instructor: Muhammad Fahad Malik

 LAND REFORMS
• Pakistan has had a long and varied history of
land reform.

• Most attempts have been just that: attempts

without any serious purpose.

• From 1945 onwards there was talk of reform in

the nature of tenancy and in the structure of
landholding, but little came of it.
 LAND REFORMS

• In the Central Council of the Muslim League

in 1947 there was a large representation from
the (very) large landlords of the provinces of
the Punjab and Sindh.

• These comprised 50 per cent of councilmen

from Punjab and 60 per cent from Sindh.
 LAND REFORMS
• Furthermore, with quite exploitative conditions
in rural areas in the 1940s, involving complete
domination and control by landlords.

• It was a little unrealistic to assume that they

themselves would be willing to put a dent in
their source of power.
 LAND REFORMS
• From the time of independence, all Chief
Ministers of the Punjab, Sindh and NWFP
were big landlords.

• If the power of landlords prior to 1947 was

substantial, the creation of Pakistan increased
their power even further.
 LAND REFORMS
• The 1949 Muslim League Agrarian Committee
proposed some measures that could have
addressed the issues related to land, its
distribution, and its use.
• The report was shelved soon after being finalized.
• The hold of large landlords on political power.
Provincial elections held in the Punjab in 1951,
where they won 80 per cent of the seats, while in
the provincial election in Sindh in 1953 large
landowners won 90 per cent of seats.
 FIRST LAND REFORMS
• The first land reforms in Pakistan were
undertaken by a military regime that was
perceived to be modern and progressive.

• The Ayub Khan regime did not owe its

allegiance to, and nor was it dependent on, the
influence of the agrarian landed class, and thus
it was in a position to undertake some sort of
reform.
 FIRST LAND REFORMS
• However, although the reforms set out to break
the power of the large landholding class and to
make tenancy more humane, their impact was
severely limited.

• What they did was to distribute power away

from some landlords and include the civil and
military elite in their strategy.
 THE SALIENT FEATURES OF THE
AYUB KHAN LAND REFORMS
• The reforms were meant to put ceilings on
landholdings and were supposed to be an
attempt to change tenancy regulations.

• Before the land reforms of 1959 the

distribution of land ownership was highly
skewed in favor of a few large landlords who
controlled large tracts of land.
 THE SALIENT FEATURES OF THE
AYUB KHAN LAND REFORMS
• Approximately 6,000 owners owned more than the ceiling
of 500 acres permitted in 1959.

• They constituted 0.1 per cent of the owners, but owned 7.5
million acres or 15.4 per cent of the total land.

• There were only 5,064 declarants, of which only 15 per cent

or 763 were affected by the ceilings on individual holdings.

• The area of land owned by the affected declarants was 5.5

million acres, of which only 1.9 million (35 per cent) was
resumed.
 THE SALIENT FEATURES OF THE
AYUB KHAN LAND REFORMS
• The main portion of their land was retained by
the landlords due to numerous provisions made
in the law, such as for the transfer of land to
dependents and other members of their
families.
• Not only was a small amount of land handed
over, but of that land, more than half (57 per
cent) was uncultivated.
 THE SALIENT FEATURES OF THE
AYUB KHAN LAND REFORMS
• A central feature of the 1959 land reforms was
that owners were to be paid compensation for
their lands, many benefited by handing over poor-
quality lands to the government.
• Compensation was paid at rates of Rs. 1-5 per
Produce Index Unit (PIU) and in 'fifty half-yearly
equated installments in transferable but non-
negotiable bonds bearing 4 per cent per annum
interest on unpaid balance.
• PIU = Aggregate average production per acre.
 THE SALIENT FEATURES OF THE
AYUB KHAN LAND REFORMS
• Another feature of the 1959 reforms was that
resumed land was to be sold to landless
tenants.

• By 1967, only 50 per cent of the resumed land

had been sold, with only 20 per cent of the
resumed land sold to landless tenants. The
remainder was auctioned to rich farmers and
civil and military officials.
 THE SALIENT FEATURES OF THE
AYUB KHAN LAND REFORMS

• According to one estimate, only 67,000

landless tenants benefited.

• The land was sold at the rate of Rs. 8 per PIU,

payable in fifty half-yearly installments with a
4 per cent annual interest rate on the
outstanding balance.
 THE SALIENT FEATURES OF THE
AYUB KHAN LAND REFORMS
• The land reforms allowed farmers to have their
lands valued in PIUs, up to a maximum of 36,000
PIUs.
• The PIU is 'estimated as a measure of the gross
value per acre of land by type of soil and was,
therefore, seen as a measure of land productivity'.
• However, the measurement of the PIUs was based
on pre-partition revenue settlements, which
substantially under-reported the true value of the
land.
 THE SALIENT FEATURES OF THE
AYUB KHAN LAND REFORMS
• Thus, even if we take the 1959 PIU as the correct
measure of productivity, the 36,000 limit was far
greater than the allotted ceiling of 500 acres of
irrigated land.
• For example, it has been calculated that in the
irrigated areas of Sindh the PIU per acre would
have been about 20.
• This meant that each individual could own at
least 1,800 acres according to the Law which
limited holding to 500 acres.
 The Bhutto Reforms of 1972
• The 1972 reforms were different from those of 1959 in
many respects.
• Firstly, the philosophy behind the Bhutto reforms was
based on the social democratic leanings of the Pakistan
People's Party.
• In March 1972, Bhutto gave speech in which he said
that his land reforms would
I. Effectively break up the iniquitous concentrations of
landed wealth.
II. Reduce income disparities.
III. Increase production.
 The Bhutto Reforms of 1972
IV. Reduce unemployment.

V. Streamline the administration of land.

VI. Revenue and agricultural taxation.

VII. Truly lay down the foundations of a

relationship of honor and mutual benefit
between the landowner and tenant.
DISTINGUISHING FEATURES OF
1972 REFORMS
• A few features distinguished the 1972 reforms from the
earlier ones.
• Ceilings had been further lowered in 1972.
• 150 acres for irrigated land and 300 acres for un-irrigated
land.
• Land resumed from landowners would not receive any
compensation.
• The resumed land was to be distributed free to landless
tenants.
• In addition, all those peasants who had acquired land under
the 1959 reforms and had dues outstanding, had their dues
written off and were not required to make any further
payments.
IMPOSITION OF 1972 REFORMS
• Of the land declared to be above the ceiling by
the landowners, only 42 per cent was resumed
in the Punjab, while the figure in the Sindh
was 59 per cent.

• In all, 0.6 million acres were resumed, far less

than the 1959 figure and constituting only
0.001 per cent of the total farm area in the
country.
IMPOSITION OF 1972 REFORMS
• The problem of the evaluation of the Produce
Index Units arose once again.

• The ceiling of the land was defined both in area

and PIUs, and the landowner could retain the
larger.

• The result was that with 12,000 PIUs one could

get away with 400 acres in the Punjab and 480 in
Sindh.
IMPOSITION OF 1972 REFORMS

• A family could have retained up to 932

irrigated acres in the Punjab and 1,120 in
Sindh.
• The resumed land was far less than in 1959,
only 50,548 persons benefited from the
redistribution of 308,390 acres during 1972-8.
• Only 1 per cent of the landless tenants and
small owners benefited by these measures.
IMPOSITION OF 1972 REFORMS

• 39 per cent of the area resumed under the 1972

reforms was still held by the government
despite the presence of a large number of
landless cultivators.
 SUMMARY
• The Green Revolution in the mid-1960s was
focused on the more well-to-do farmers in the
more prosperous regions.

• A supposedly simple technological

intervention let loose many economic and
social processes.
 SUMMARY
• The economic and social processes can be
listed as
• Migration.
• Labor displacement.
• The formation of small towns.
• Skilled labor power.
• A host of other political outcomes.
 SUMMARY
• The 1959 and 1972 land reforms failed to
make substantial changes in the landowning
structure of the country.

• The huge loopholes that existed in the 1959

reforms to make intra-family and intra-
household transfers meant that the landowning
structure remained largely unaltered.