Emerging issues in landholding structure: A State-level Analysis

Abstract

The land available for agricultural purposes has been declining all over the world. This trend has been witnessed for India and Odisha as well along with other States. A major challenge that Indian agriculture facing is that the shrinking of average farm holding size. It has been estimated that the average farm-land which was 2.28 hectares in 1970-71 available has declined to 1.15 hectares in 2010-11. The tribal and rural based States like Odisha where the agricultural land is important as a primary source of livelihood, income and employment for major proportion of population. The total area operated has reduced both in number of hectare and percentage change in quinquennial year over the time as information on land available till the recent agricultural census data 2010-11. However, evidence shows that he farmers are not considering agriculture to be a remunerative activity and force to involve with other non- and off-farm sector finding no other alternative. In this backdrop, with the few existed drawbacks seen in public schemes and work provision like MGNREGA, PDS provision of food security, subsidies allocation and MSP has leading a number of farmer suicides.