Medium holding
Topic: Land Reforms, the Green Revolution and Farm Subsidies · NCERT: Beyond NCERT
Meaning
A medium holding is an operational land holding of 4 hectares or more but less than 10 hectares. It is the second-largest size class in India's Agriculture Census, which is held every five years. An operational holding means all the land one person farms as a single unit, owned or leased in. Medium holdings are big enough for tubewells and mechanisation, which is why such farmers adopted Green Revolution inputs early.
Example
A farmer in Haryana owns 5 ha and leases in another 2 ha. The operational holding is 7 ha, which falls in the medium class. The Agriculture Census classes size classes as: marginal (below 1 ha), small (1-2 ha), semi-medium (2-4 ha), medium (4-10 ha) and large (10 ha and above).
Don't confuse with
- Semi-medium holding (2-4 ha): this is the class just below. The boundary between the two is 4 ha.
- Ownership holding: size classes use land actually operated, not land owned.
Related concepts
- Land ceiling
- Operational land holding
- Marginal holding
- Small holding
- Semi-medium holding
- Large holding
- Fragmentation of land holdings
- Consolidation of land holdings
- Cooperative farming