Now that many people are exploring alternatives to city life, there was a really good post recently on buying farm land and actually living there by an Indian author. There was also some good discussion around it on HN. The post : https://zenx.medium.com/so-you-want-to-buy-a-farm-c56af5d85a7e Discussion: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24979141

Buying farm land in India isn't straight forward.

That was my main concern too.

@flat-morning-91037 I have heard of the hassle too. But can't a person buy smaller non-agricultural plots but use them for planting trees/farms, obviously on a smaller scale (say an acre or less)?

Yes, NA plots can be purchased anywhere (I have one), but for farm land, you need to have someone in your bloodline be a farmer and have (or had) farm land in their lifetime. Only then you can make a purchase, that too can only happen in the jurisdiction where your ancestry had farm land (you can't buy farm land anywhere in India just because your father or grandfather was a farmer once).

Yes, I have heard of this.

Yes, NA plots can be purchased anywhere (I have one), but for farm land, you need to have someone in your bloodline be a farmer and have (or had) farm land in their lifetime. Only then you can make a purchase, that too can only happen in the jurisdiction where your ancestry had farm land (you can't buy farm land anywhere in India just because your father or grandfather was a farmer once).

I am not sure if this is accurate in all states eg. in Madhya Pradesh where I bought some agricultural land as a pure investment in ~2008 and had sold it in 2019. No one in my family has ever been a professional farmer and the person who bought it isn't a farmer either. During the years the land was with me I had given it on a lease to a local farmer for a meager sum (primarily fresh vegetables and wheat 🙂 ) My friend had similarly bought & sold agricultural land in Rajasthan without being a farmer himself. The primary restriction is that you can't use agricultural land for any other purpose. But if you are motivated enough you can get its "land use" converted to sem-residential for building hospitals, educational institutions etc.