8.10          ndian    onom
                (b) It will prevent mass landlessness and   country, the process does not seem happening,
                     unemployment among the farmers;        politically).
                (c) Farmers will get a permanent source
                     of income (in the meantime, they       Agriculture holDings
                     might be imparted skills and provide   The average size of land holding in India is
                     better employment in industries);      continuously decreasing due to rapid and high
                     and                                    population growth. The continuous division
                (d) It will make land easily available for  and fragmentation of holdings has increased the
                     use of public and private purposes.    number of holdings, obviously of smaller size. As
           Meanwhile, the Model Land Leasing Law            per the latest (9th) Agriculture Census 2010–11:
     proposed by the NITI Aayog in 2016 is giving                (i) The total number of operational holdings
     encouraging results in the states.                               in the country has increased from
         (iv) In the wake of the process of globalisation,            129 million in 2005–06 to 138 million
                if the country intends to bring in benefits           2010–11 (an increase of 6.61 per cent).
                to agriculture sector it needs to enhance       (ii) There is a marginal increase in the
                its agriculture production to surplus                 operated area from 158.32 million
                levels—and for this India needs to                    hectare (ha) in 2005–06 to 159.18
                garner in the investment potential of the             million ha in 2010-11 (an increase of
                private sector. This cannot happen till the           0.54 per cent). The operated area has
                country is able to bring out effective land           primarily increased because the State of
                leasing and acquisition policies.                     Jharkhand participated for the first time
          (v) The recent emphasis on the promotion                    in the Agriculture Census 2010–11 (since
                of the ‘manufacturing sector’ and ‘smart              the state came into being in the year
                cities’ are hugely dependent on smoother              2000).
                and speedier process of land acquisition.      (iii) The average size of operational holding
                Without expanding the industrial sector               has declined to 1.16 ha in 2010–11 as
                to its optimum levels, the agriculture                compared to 1.23 in 2005–06.
                sector can emerge a remunerative               (iv) The percentage share of female operational
                profession—the country needs to migrate               holders has increased from 11.70 in
                the extra labour force of the agriculture             2005–06 to 12.79 in 2010–11, with the
                sector to industry, smoothly.                         corresponding operated area of 9.33 and
         (vi) The issue of land acquisition is to establish           10.36.
                a logical equation with ‘environmental          (v) The small and marginal holdings taken
                issue’, in order to make the process of               together (below 2.00 ha) constitute 84.97
                development sustainable (NITI Aayog                   per cent in 2010–11, as against 83.29
                gives a right call for it).                           in 2005–06, with a share of 44.31 per
           It should be noted that while the Government               cent in the operated area in the current
     of India has changed its orientation towards the                 Census, as against the corresponding
     issue of land reforms, the states in India are still             figure of 41.14 per cent in 2005–06.
     trying to accelerate and continue the process of          (vi) The large holdings (10.00 ha & above)
     land reforms of PHASE I (but due to enough                       were 0.73 per cent of the total number
     resistance from the land-owning section in the                   of holdings in 2010–11 with a share of