Why are farms in India so small and fragmented, and why does that matter?

Land reforms after Independence aimed to break feudal concentration but instead produced extreme fragmentation. State-level ceiling laws, tenancy bans, and inheritance rules divided holdings across generations. Today, the average operational holding is 1.08 hectares, and 86 per cent of farms are smaller than 2 hectares. In contrast, the average farm exceeds 170 hectares in the United States and about 17 hectares in the European Union. Small plots make mechanisation costly, irrigation fragmented, and productivity low. They also weaken farmers’ bargaining power and restrict access to formal credit. Fragmentation also ties workers to low-return self-employment, even though non-farm jobs could raise incomes. India does not try to abolish small farms but to free them, so that size becomes a choice rather than a constraint.