Fragmentation of landholdings

Topic: Land Use, Farming Systems and Cropping Seasons in India · NCERT: Class 7, Ch 1 "The Story of Indian Farming"; Class 12, Ch 3 "Land Resources and Agriculture"

Meaning

Fragmentation of landholdings happens when a farm keeps getting split into smaller plots, and one farmer's plots end up scattered in different places instead of lying in one block. It matters because these tiny, scattered plots are often uneconomic holdings (too small to give a decent income). They are hard to farm with machines and not worth investing in, so farm productivity stays low across much of India.

Explanation

How it forms: cause → process → result

• Population pressure: more and more people depend on the same farmland.
• Inheritance laws: land is divided equally among all heirs.
• Each heir takes a piece of every field, not one whole field.

• So the plots get smaller and also more scattered.

• Result: every new generation gets smaller and more scattered plots, and the process repeats.

• Colonial background: the Zamindari system (Permanent Settlement, 1793) left behind very unequal landholding. Under Zamindari, landlords collected rent from farmers and passed revenue to the state. A few landlords held large areas, while most farmers were tenants or held tiny plots.

Two parts of the problem

• Small size: each holding is too small to support a family well.
• Scattered location: one farmer's plots lie in different parts of the village, far from each other.

Why it is a problem

• Uneconomic holdings: the plot cannot give a decent income.
• Hard to mechanise: tractors and harvesters cannot work well on tiny plots.
• Wasted time and labour: the farmer loses time walking or carrying tools between plots.
• Wasted land: some land goes into boundaries (bunds) between plots.
• Low investment: irrigation does not pay off on a very small plot. For example, digging a tubewell is not worth it.

How big holdings are: the data

• Average size of operational holding: 1.08 ha in Agriculture Census 2015-16. An operational holding is the land one farmer actually farms as one unit, both owned land and leased-in land.
• About 86% of all holdings were small or marginal in 2015-16.
• Marginal holding: below 1 ha.

• Small holding: 1-2 ha.

• NCERT Class 7 gives the average holding as about three-fourths of a hectare (about 0.75 ha). This reflects Agriculture Census 2021-22, which shows holdings are still shrinking.

Where it occurs

• Smallest holdings: densely populated states such as Kerala, Bihar, West Bengal and Uttar Pradesh.
• Largest holdings: dry areas such as Rajasthan, where fewer people live on each unit of land.
• Where consolidation fixed it: Punjab, Haryana and western Uttar Pradesh.
• Consolidation (joining scattered plots into compact blocks) helped farmers here use tubewells and tractors.

• So these regions took up the Green Revolution (1960s) quickly.

• Where it lags: some states never carried out consolidation. Others need a second round, because inheritance has split the land again.

• Policy responses:
• Land reforms were the main focus of the First Five Year Plan (1951-56). Consolidation of holdings was one of their five parts.
• Model Agricultural Land Leasing Act, 2016: drafted for NITI Aayog by an expert committee chaired by Dr. T. Haque [2]. It is a model law that states may adapt into their own laws [3]. It lets small plots be pooled through legal leasing, without any change in ownership.
• 10,000 FPO scheme (2020): Farmer Producer Organisations (FPOs) are groups of farmers registered as a company or cooperative. Members buy inputs and sell produce together, which gives small farmers more bargaining power.

Don't confuse with

• Consolidation of holdings: this is the cure, not the problem. It regroups a farmer's scattered plots into one or two compact blocks of the same total value. Fragmentation is what consolidation tries to reverse.
• Ceiling on landholdings: a legal upper limit on how much land one family may own. Land above the limit goes to the landless. It deals with very large holdings, while fragmentation deals with very small ones.
• Operational holding vs ownership: an operational holding counts owned land plus leased-in land farmed as one unit. The 1.08 ha figure is for operational holdings, not for land owned.
• Land leasing / FPO pooling: these join small plots into working units without changing ownership. Consolidation changes which plots a farmer owns.

Prelims Hooks

• Causes of fragmentation: population pressure + equal inheritance among heirs. Each heir gets a piece of every field.
• Average operational holding = 1.08 ha (Agriculture Census 2015-16). About 86% of holdings are small or marginal (below 2 ha).
• Marginal holding = below 1 ha. Small holding = 1-2 ha.
• NCERT Class 7: average holding is about three-fourths of a hectare (about 0.75 ha), reflecting Agriculture Census 2021-22.
• Consolidation was most successful in Punjab, Haryana and western UP. This helped the Green Revolution spread fast there.
• Trap: holdings are largest in dry Rajasthan, not in fertile, crowded Kerala, Bihar, West Bengal and UP.

Mains Points

• Shrinking holdings → low productivity (GS-I / GS-III):
• Population growth plus equal inheritance brought the average holding down to 1.08 ha (2015-16), with about 86% small or marginal farms.
• The plots are uneconomic, hard to mechanise and get little investment, for example in tubewells.

• Regions that consolidated land early (Punjab, Haryana, western UP) led the Green Revolution. This shows that compact holdings raise output.

• Weak policy response:

• Consolidation was one of the five land reforms, but it lagged. Some states never did it. Others need a second round because inheritance has fragmented the land again.

• Weak political will also made land reform half-hearted overall.

• Pooling land without changing ownership (GS-III):

• The Model Agricultural Land Leasing Act 2016 makes leasing safe for owners: they get their land back when the lease ends [2]. It also gives tenants credit, insurance and disaster relief [3].
• FPOs (10,000 FPO scheme, 2020) give small farmers scale and bargaining power.
• Together these offer a practical answer to fragmentation, since a second round of land redistribution is not politically possible.

Related concepts

• Land revenue systems
• Land reforms
• Consolidation of landholdings
• Average size of operational holding
• Unique Land Parcel Identification Number

Read more

• Agrarian structure: revenue systems, land reforms and shrinking holdings