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

Klaus Deininger, Daniel Monchuk, Hari K Nagarajan and Sudhir Singh

Journal of Development Studies, 2017, vol. 53, issue 1, 82-98

Abstract: 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 mechanisation. Higher inter-fragment distances increase costs for larger holdings, but by a much smaller magnitude. Implications as to when programmes to consolidate holdings may make sense and ways to ensure their sustainability are discussed.

Date: 2017
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Working Paper: Does land fragmentation increase the cost of cultivation ? evidence from India (2014)
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DOI: 10.1080/00220388.2016.1166210

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