Consolidation of land holdings
Also called: Chakbandi · Topic: Land Reforms, the Green Revolution and Farm Subsidies · NCERT: Beyond NCERT
Meaning
Consolidation of land holdings, or chakbandi, means merging a farmer's scattered plots into one or a few compact blocks by exchanging land with others. It fixes fragmentation, where inheritance splits land into tiny, separate plots. Scattered plots waste time on travel, lose land to boundaries and rule out tubewells and tractors. Consolidation worked in Punjab, Haryana and western UP. It was largely absent in the east and south, where land records were poor and holdings tiny.
Example
A Punjab farmer owns five small plots spread around the village. Under the East Punjab Holdings (Consolidation and Prevention of Fragmentation) Act 1948, these are swapped for one compact block of the same value. A single tubewell can now water the whole farm. This helped prepare the ground for the Green Revolution.
Don't confuse with
- Cooperative farming: here several farmers pool their land and farm it together. Consolidation keeps each farmer farming alone, just on a compact block.
Related concepts
- Land ceiling
- Operational land holding
- Marginal holding
- Small holding
- Semi-medium holding
- Medium holding
- Large holding
- Fragmentation of land holdings
- Cooperative farming