Does Land Fragmentation Increase the Cost of Cultivation? : Evidence from India

Deininger, Klaus ; Monchuk, Daniel ; Nagarajan, Hari K. ; Singh, Sudhir K.

Taylor and Francis

关键词: fragmentation;    inheritance;    land ownership;    agricultural productivity;    scale economies;   

DOI  :  10.1080/00220388.2016.1166210
RP-ID  :  105354

学科分类：社会科学、人文和艺术（综合）

来源: World Bank Open Knowledge Repository

【 摘 要 】

To appreciate overall impacts of fragmentation, underlying channels, and potential heterogeneity by holding size, we distinguish average fragment size and mean inter-fragment distance as two aspects of this phenomenon. Estimating a cost function with associated input demand equations on a large nationally representative Indian survey, robust to endogeneity, suggests that fragmentation’s main impact is to reduce mean plot size below the threshold for mechanization. Higher inter-fragment distances increase costs for larger holdings, but by a much smaller magnitude. Implications as to when programs to consolidate holdings may make sense and ways to ensure their sustainability are discussed.