The Modi government’s move to provide direct income support to small and marginal farmers could possibly spur further fragmentation of land holdings and accelerate the trend witnessed over the past several decades.

Also, the Centre may face challenges in ensuring the income support reaches the targeted farmers within the shortest possible time as the updation and digitisation of land records is yet to be completed in many states.

There are over 12.56 crore small and marginal land holdings in the country per the 2015-16 Agriculture Census, and their numbers have close to trebled over the past four decades on growing fragmentation within families.

Also the average land holding size has more than halved to 1.08 hectares in 2015-16, as against 2.28 hectares in 1970-71

While the number of large land holdings has come down, the number of small and marginal land holdings is on the rise. Small and marginal land holdings accounted for 86.21 per cent of the total land holdings in the country and had a share of 47.34 per cent in the total operated area of 15.71 crore hectares. Kerala topped the list of small and marginal land holdings with an estimated 99.40 per cent of the land held by farmers in the State less than 2 hectares.

With the Modi Government fixing the direct income support of ₹6,000 per year for families owing lands of less than 2 hectares, it could result in further division in land holdings of families owning higher areas to avail the assistance. “There’s certainly a strong possibility that this could lead to further fragmentation in land holdings,” said Prakash Kammaradi, chairman of Karnataka Agriculture Prices Commission.

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Land record challenge

Further, the updated land records and their linkage to bank accounts of the owners are crucial in the transfer of income support or any other financial assistance. This is to ensure that the proposed assistance goes to the correct owner. While the JanDhan scheme has expanded the reach of banking among the farmers, the linkage of land details to their accounts is not complete.

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Based on the experience of Telangana, the first State to provide such direct income support to farmers through its Rythu Bandhu scheme, the updation and digitisation of land records is the key to ensuring timely payment, officials said.

Before implementing the Rythu Bandhu scheme, Telangna, in fact, carried out a 100-day campaign to merely update and digitise the land records.

Various States have been carrying out digitisation of land records since August 2008, under the Centrally funded Digital India Land Records Modernisation Programme.

While several States are in advanced stages of completion of the computerisation of land records, progress has been slow in some States, especially Bihar and Kerala, while the exercise is yet to start in many of the North Eastern States (see table).

Also, among those states that have fairly advanced the modernisation process, only 10 states have integrated the digitised records with banks, according to data from the Ministry of Rural Development. Before implementing the PM Kisan Samman Nidhi, the States will have to focus on updating the land records.

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