The assessee, engaged in the business of producing and marketing hybrid seeds through agreements with farmers, claimed exemption under section 10(1). The Assessing Officer denied the claim on the ground that the assessee neither owned nor leased the agricultural land and merely supervised the activities. The Tribunal held that ownership or possession of land is not a pre-condition for claiming agricultural income. The agreements with the farmers, coupled with their statements, established that the assessee actively participated in all stages of cultivation, including sowing, germination, detasseling and harvesting, and compensated the farmers based on production. As the facts were identical to earlier years in which the assessee’s claim had been accepted by the Tribunal and the High Court, the exemption under section 10(1) was held to be allowable. (AY. 2009-10, 2012-13).